Morris High School (Bronx)
Morris High School (Bronx)
Morris High School was a high school in Melrose, in the South Bronx section of the Bronx, New York City.[1] The direct predecessor of Morris was built in 1897 and established as the Mixed High School, situated in a small brick building on 157th Street and 3rd Avenue, about six blocks south of where the new building would be built.[2] It was the first high school built in the Bronx.[1] Originally named Peter Cooper High School, the name was changed to Morris High School to commemorate a famous Bronx landowner, Gouverneur Morris,[1] one of the signers of the United States Constitution and credited as author of its Preamble. Morris High School was one of the original New York City Public High Schools created by the New York City school reform act of 1896.[3] On December 22, 1899, the Mixed High School was a founding member of the College Entrance Examination Board (CEEB), now known as the College Board. In 1983, the school and surrounding area was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Morris High School Historic District.[4]
In 2002, as part of an overall restructuring and downsizing of New York City's high schools, Morris High School was closed. The building was renamed the Morris Campus. It now houses four small specialty high schools: High School for Violin and Dance, Bronx International High School, the School for Excellence, and the Morris Academy for Collaborative Study.[5][6]
Notable alumni
Sydney Beck, musicologist
Milton Berle, comedian
Bernard Botein (1900–1974), lawyer and presiding justice of the New York State Supreme Court, Appellate Division, First Department, and president of the New York City Bar Association.
Jack Coffey, Major League Baseball player
Judith Crist, film critic
Jules Dassin, film director
Anthony J. DePace, architect, known for his design of many Roman Catholic churches throughout the Northeast
Christian Filostrat, diplomat and novelist
Judith Josephine Grossman (1923–1997), who took the pen-name Judith Merril about 1945, science fiction writer, editor and political activist
Armand Hammer, industrialist
Vincent Harding, historian
Frieda B. Hennock, the first female commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission
Julia Harrison, NY State Assemblywoman, 22nd A.D., and first female member of the NY City Council from the Borough of Queens
Peter Karter, inventor
Allan Kwartler (1917–1998), sabre and foil fencer, Pan American Games and Maccabiah Games champion
Maxim Lieber (1897–1993), literary agent
Helen Marshall, Queens Borough President
Kay Medford, actress
Hermann Joseph Muller, 1946 Nobel Prize in Medicine
Arthur Murray, dancer
Frank A. Oliver, U.S. Representative
Bernard Opper (1915–2000), All-American basketball player for the Kentucky Wildcats and professional player
Alex Faickney Osborn, advertising executive
Gabe Pressman, television journalist
Mae Questel, actress
John Herman Randall Jr. (1899–1980), philosopher, New Thought author, and educator
Benito Romano, attorney
Robert Scheer, journalist
Val Ramos, flamenco guitarist
Romeo Santos, Bachata singer