Beaumont High School (St. Louis)
| Beaumont High School | |
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Entrance to Beaumont High School
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| Location | |
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3836 Natural Bridge Avenue St. Louis, MO 63107-2003 United States |
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| Coordinates | 38°39′45″N 90°13′19″W / 38.6626°N 90.2219°WCoordinates: 38°39′45″N 90°13′19″W / 38.6626°N 90.2219°W |
| Information | |
| Type | Comprehensive Public High School |
| Opened | 1926 |
| Closed | 2014 |
| School district | St. Louis Public Schools |
| Superintendent | Kelvin Adams |
| Principal | Michael Brown |
| Faculty | 48.7 (on full-time equivalent (FTE) basis) |
| Grades | 10–12 |
| Enrollment | 782 (as of 2009–10) |
| Campus type | Urban |
| Color(s) | Blue and Gold |
| Mascot | The Bluejackets |
| Newspaper | Beaumont Speaks |
| Yearbook | Caduceus |
| Website | School web site |
Beaumont High School was a public high school in St. Louis, Missouri that was part of the St. Louis Public Schools that closed after the final graduating class on May 14, 2014. After Beaumont was founded in 1926, it became noted for producing several Major League Baseball players in the 1940s and 1950s. During the Civil Rights Movement, the high school's integration was featured in a documentary film that was nominated for an Academy Award. After the closure of Little Rock Central High School after its integration crisis, three members of the Little Rock Nine completed coursework at Beaumont. After the 1970s, however, the school re-segregated as an all-black school, and from the 1970s through the 1990s, the school suffered deteriorating physical conditions, security, and academics.
After a renovation in the early 1990s, the school's physical condition improved, but gang violence at the school led to several incidents, including a classroom invasion by a group of armed youth in 1994. The school continues to struggle with a high dropout rate and low standardized test scores. As of 2010, the school offers its nearly 800 students a variety of athletics and activities, including football, basketball, cross country and track, Future Business Leaders of America, Health Occupation Students of America, and job shadowing programs. It also has several notable alumni, including more than a dozen Major League Baseball or NFL players, and a variety of political and education leaders. For the 2011–2012 school year, Beaumont will be converted into a 10th through 12th grade technical high school, and it will not accept 9th grade students.
Due to the limited space at Yeatman High School, the city's only high school for whites on the north side, the St. Louis Public Schools ordered the construction of Beaumont High School in 1925. The cost of land acquisition for the school was $200,000, which purchased Robison Field, the home of the St. Louis Cardinals from 1893 to 1920. Designed by R.M. Milligan, the school was built at a cost of more than $1.5 million and opened in January 1926 with a capacity of 3,500 students. The school was named for the early St. Louis surgeon, William Beaumont, after a petition from the St. Louis Medical Society in December 1922. Prior to its renovation in the 1990s, the original building had five levels including the basement and attic level, 96 classrooms, a rifle range in the attic, three tennis courts, and a three-story 2,250-seat auditorium. Its yearbook, the Caduceus, and its original newspaper, The Digest, were tributes to the medical background of the school's namesake.
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