Port Perry High School

Story

Port Perry High School is located in Port Perry, Ontario within the administrative responsibilities of the Durham District School Board. Port Perry High School is the oldest High School in Durham Region being first established in 1871. The school has a population of roughly 1250 students coming from many of the surrounding areas. The school is located on Rosa Street just up the road from historic downtown Port Perry. PPHS is home to the Port Perry Rebels their very successful athletic teams.HistorySome accounts suggest the intent to establish a high school in Port Perry dates to January, 1868, when James R. Youmans corresponded with the Chief Superintendent of Education for Upper Canada, Edgerton Ryerson, regarding the appropriate textbooks required to conduct instruction of grammar school students. In September, 1868, Port Perry Grammar School opened in the second-floor room of the Common School located on Ottawa Street in Port Perry, with an enrollment of 24 boys and 2 girls. Between 1868 and 1873, enrollment fluctuated between 23 and 64 students, with a maximum of 6 girls during that period.In 1871, as a result of "An Act to Improve the Common and Grammar Schools of Ontario", the name of the Grammar School was changed to Port Perry High School. In 1873, construction began on the Port Perry Union School, a facility that would house the Public and the High School in a single location. When the new building opened at the corner of Queen and Rosa Streets, 64 students were enrolled in the Classical and the English programs offered at the High School.From 1874 to 1926, the population of the High School varied substantially, with a high of 127 students in 1880. Several Port Perry High School students fought in the Great War of 1914-18; ten students died in action during the war. A plaque was erected to honour them by the staff and students of PPHS in June, 1919. It was recently restored and is located at the south parking lot entrance of the school, outside the Library-Resource Centre. In April, 1926, a massive fired destroyed the 50-year-old structure. Lost in the flames were the entire archives of school records dating to the opening of the Grammar School in 1868 and the Common School of 1858. As well, generations of school photographs were not only lost, but probably stoked the fire that completely engulfed the school. The site of the building is commemorated by a plaque located on High School Hill, the park located at the corner of Queen and Rosa streets in Port Perry.