People, Locations, Episodes

Charles Sumner High School (St. Louis), Opens

Charles Sumner H.S. class

This date celebrates the opening of Charles Sumner High School in 1875. The school was named after politician and abolitionist Charles Sumner.

Founded in St. Louis, Missouri, it was the first such institution for Black students west of the Mississippi. Established at Eleventh and Spruce Streets, it relocated to Fifteenth and Walnut Streets in 1895 and to its present location at 4248 Cottage Avenue in 1910. It was the only Black secondary school in St. Louis until 1927 when Vashon High was opened.

Educational demands required the construction of frame classroom buildings at Sumner in 1911, and in 1914, nine portable classrooms were set up near its last location at Cottage and Pendleton. These were known as the Cottage Avenue School, a training school for student teachers at Sumner Normal. Additions were built at Sumner High in 1922, 1955, and 1968.  In 1933,  Lincoln University at Stowe College operated a junior college under a WPA program.