Haverhill High School

History

Early Foundations

Haverhill's first public high school was established after the town took over the building of the pre-existing private Haverhill Academy on Winter Street. The building, later known as the Whittier Building, was notable as the place where poet John Greenleaf Whittier had received his advanced schooling. This facility served as the city's high school until population growth rendered it inadequate.

Crescent Place and Main Street Era (1874–1963)

The late 19th and early 20th centuries were a period of significant prosperity for Haverhill, necessitating the construction of progressively larger high schools. This era was marked by architectural ambition, a devastating fire, and the school's emergence as a pop culture touchstone.

To accommodate the growing student body, a new Haverhill High School was built, opening in September 1874. The three-story building was located on Crescent Place, across from G.A.R. Park. The original site of the school is now a commercial parking lot on what is today Winter Street, following urban renewal projects in the 1970s that realigned local streets.

By the turn of the 20th century, the Crescent Place building was severely overcrowded, leading the city to construct a grand new high school at 139 Main Street. The imposing brick structure was designed by C. Willis Damon, Haverhill's first college-trained architect and a graduate of MIT's architecture program. Construction began in 1908, and the school opened in September 1910. The project cost $350,000 and was designed for 800 students, lauded at the time as one of the region's most well-equipped educational facilities.

With the opening of the Main Street school, the 1874 Crescent Place building was repurposed as the "Haverhill High School Annex" to house the freshman class. The Annex's service ended abruptly in the early morning of Sunday, June 28, 1959, when it was completely destroyed by a five-alarm fire. The blaze, which fire officials suspected was arson, was the first five-alarm fire in the city's modern history and required 250 firefighters from 14 communities to control. The loss of the building, estimated at $250,000, created a severe space crisis and forced the city to expedite plans for a new high school.

In response to the fire, the Haverhill School Committee voted on July 2, 1959, to implement a two-session system. Under this "two-platoon" arrangement, juniors and seniors attended classes in the morning, while freshmen and sophomores attended in the afternoon until 5 p.m. This stopgap measure remained in place for four years.

During its tenure, the Main Street school became a part of American pop culture history. Bob Montana, a student from 1936 to 1939, used the school, its faculty, and its students as the real-world inspiration for Riverdale High and the characters in his world-famous Archie Comics.

Monument Street Campus (1963–Present)

The combination of the post-war baby boom and the 1959 fire crisis prompted the city to build a modern, suburban campus, moving away from its traditional downtown school model.

Haverhill High School opened at its current Monument Street location in September 1963, ending the four-year period of two-session days. After the high school's relocation, the 1910 Main Street building temporarily housed students from Amesbury High School and later served as a campus for Northern Essex Community College. In 1973, it was renovated to become the new Haverhill City Hall, a role it continues to serve.

In the 2000s, Haverhill High School restructured its academic programs into smaller "learning communities" or "academies" to create focused pathways for students. A key development was the founding of the Classical Academy in 2007 by a group of faculty members, including Paul White and Deborah Sasso-Flanagan, to provide a public school alternative to private schools that were attracting many of the district's top students. The academy's curriculum was modeled after programs at Boston Latin School and Lowell High School's Latin Lyceum. Other specialized programs were also developed, including a Business and Career Exploration Academy, a Humanities Academy, a Fine Arts Academy, a STEM Academy, and several Career Technical Education (CTE) programs.

By the 2010s, the Monument Street campus was over fifty years old. A 2015 district review report from the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education noted that strategies for student engagement were being implemented less consistently at the high school compared to the district's other schools. In December 2019, the Haverhill School Committee reviewed a recent report from the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC). While the report commended the school's culture, parent involvement, and its 1:1 student device initiative, it also identified areas for improvement, including the need for "deeper learning, increased differentiation and instruction, and measuring outcomes."

During the COVID-19 pandemic in April 2021, Haverhill Public Schools experienced a large ransomware attack that disrupted the district's computer systems, rendering remote learning impossible. The district technology department had decided to shut down the network to prevent widespread corruption. As a result, school was closed, with the district continuing to investigate the breach over the next few days, creating a major disturbance in the continued education of Haverhill students.

Athletics

Haverhill High School competes in the Merrimack Valley Conference and is a member of the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA).

Notable alumni

Wayne Chang (Class of '01), serial entrepreneur, founded Crashlytics, Digits, i2hub and many others. Also involved with Napster, Dropbox, and the Facebook / Winklevoss battle.

Jordan Harris (born 2000), NHL hockey player for the Boston Bruins

Bob Montana, comic strip artist — creator of Archie Comics which its high school, known as Riverdale High School, is based on this school when it was in its previous location

Rob Zombie, musician and filmmaker, co-founder of the heavy metal band White Zombie.

Tom Bergeron

Carlos Peña

Seth Romatelli

Charles Silvia, Springfield College swimmer, Olympic coach and swimming coach for Springfield College from 1937 through 1978.