By Peter F. Stevens

On December 10, 1852, an event a quarter-century in the making unfolded at the corner of Gibson Street and Dorchester Avenue. The doors to Dorchester High School opened, and William J. Rolfe, the headmaster and, for the moment, the only teacher, greeted 26 boys and 23 girls hailing [William Dana Orcutt's history Good Old Dorchester puts the student body at "59 pupils of both sexes"] from Savin Hill and Neponset to every other local neighborhood. Though a proud moment in the educational annals of the town, Dot High's path to that December day had proven some 25 years in the making.

From its beginnings, Dorchester has been a community that placed a high value on education, the early settlers setting up the 13 Colonies' first publicly funded school through the use of taxes. The primary focus of public education in Dorchester's early days was targeted in large measure toward young and "intermediate" boys and girls. In 1827, however, the need for a public school for older teens came up in a meeting of the school committee, where several members advised their colleagues that it was "expedient to establish a high school; otherwise the town exposes itself to heavy penalties."

Apparently, the thought of those "penalties" did not sway the majority of the committee. Orcutt writes: "This report showed that those best acquainted with the educational needs of the town felt that the time had come to offer better advantages [to high-school-age boys and girls] than could be found in the district schools; but unfortunately the wise men were in the minority, and the report was not accepted."

Over the next quarter of a century, the debate over whether to allocate funds for a public high school in Dorchester came up, but never made it out of the various committees. Then, in 1850, came a turning point, Orcutt noting that "the subject of a high school was again agitated &emdash; this time with more success." Public pressure was the key, as 186 of the town's taxpayers affixed their signatures to a petition that was presented to the school committee. In firm language, they urged the officials "to recommend to the town," Orcutt notes, "the immediate establishment of a high school."

The committee pondered and debated the request &emdash; and once again dragged its collective heels for two more years. Finally, in 1852, the news spread throughout Dorchester that a site on the School Pasture had been selected for the school, and the rings of masons' hammers and the rasps of carpenters' saws pealed above the tract. At a cost of $6,000, Dorchester High stood ready for students in December 1852.

According to one local historian, the young men and young women who entered through doors hailed from "the Everett, Mather, Adams, Gibson, Winthrop, Norfolk, and private schools." Principal William J. Rolfe, an expert in the works of Shakespeare, served the school for its first four years. Two other teachers, Miss Gray and Miss Colburn, would join him there.

The school was less than a decade old when the Civil War erupted, in April 1861, and as a later plaque would testify, 12 "Members of this school...fell in defense of their country, in the war of the rebellion."

In 1870, the year when the town was annexed to Boston and Dorchester's schools became part of the city's educational system, a new high school, an inpressive brick edifice, was erected at the corner of Center Street and Dorchester Avenue. Elbridge Smith served as first headmaster of the new school, which furnished students three years of study, as well as a fourth year for college-bound boys.

Smith would leave a profound impact upon the local educational landscape, as Orcutt admiringly points out: "Elbridge Smith, the third master [since1852], was in charge of the school for twenty-four years, during which time he established a reputation which was second to that of no other Dorchester teacher."

Within the town, people reflected upon whether Dorchester High and the other neighborhood schools had been better off under local control or that of the Boston school system. Orcutt relays: "...in proportion to the number of pupils in the schools before annexation, as compared with the present number, the appropriations made by the city have been no more generous than those of the town. Many Dorchester residents, indeed, feel that the union benefitted the Boston schools quite as much as their own, and are proud to know that the excellent advantages now offered to the youth are due to the past efforts of the town itself no less than to the system which has made Boston 'the Athens of America.'"

The year 1901 brought a striking, yellow-brick, state-of-the-art Dorchester High. At the new school, which rose in Codman Square, Headmaster Charles Lincoln greeted some 800 pupils, the number of students confirming not only the expansion of the town, but also its commitment to education.

The latest incarnation of Dorchester High School on Peacevale Road opened to boys only in 1925, while the Talbot Ave. building in Codman Square remained as the Dorchester High School for Girls. The two remained separate entities until 1953, when Dorchester High School was consolidated into a co-ed school once again at the new location.

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