Staples High School is a public high school in Westport, Connecticut, United States. It is named after Horace Staples, who founded the school on April 26, 1884.[3][4] Westport is one of eight school districts in District Reference Group A (along with Darien, Easton, New Canaan, Redding, Ridgefield, Weston, and Wilton).[5]
Campus
The school was first located at Riverside Avenue in a three-level red brick building.[6] In 1958 Staples High School moved to its current location on a 9-acre (3.6 ha) campus at 70 North Avenue.[7] As of 2020, the neighborhood around the high school is known as the Staplescensus-designated place.
History
Seeing the "town's lack of progress in education," Horace Staples, a wealthy businessman with interests in shipping, hardware sales, and banking, founded Staples High School.[6] Initially Staples intended to fund the school via an interest left in his will; however, that interest became known while he was still alive, and led to the school's foundation being laid in 1884.[8] On April 24, 1884, businesses closed early in Westport to celebrate the dedication of Staples High School.[6] Connecticut Governor Thomas M. Waller attended the opening.[6]
Front of Staples High School
In the first year of operation, commencing in the fall of 1884, Staples High School had 60 of the 807 students attending schools in Westport.[8]
On June 24, 1887, Staples High School conferred its first high school diplomas to six female students who comprised its first graduating class.[6]
In 1909, the town of Westport accepted control of Staples High School from the Horace Staples estate.[6] From 1966 to 1969, Staples attracted some of the biggest names in music to perform in concert. The Animals, Cream, the Yardbirds, the Young Rascals, Sly and the Family Stone and Louis Armstrong to name a few. A short documentary was produced in 2017.
Activities
Inklings
The school newspaper, Inklings, has won the Columbia Scholastic Press Association gold medal every year since 2000 (in addition to a silver medal in 1999).[9] The paper has also received the rank of First Place with "Special Honors" from the American Scholastic Press Association since 2001 and has been dubbed "the best school paper in the state" by the Hartford Courant.[citation needed]
Notable alumni
This article's list of alumni may not follow Wikipedia's verifiability policy. Please improve this article by removing names that do not have independent reliable sources showing they merit inclusion in this article AND are alumni, or by incorporating the relevant publications into the body of the article through appropriate citations.(August 2022)
^"WCGMF-Discovery | Communities: By DRG". Archived from the original on 2007-02-24. Retrieved 2007-03-06. Web page titled "Find a Community: By Educational Reference Group (DRG)" at the "Discovery 2007 / An initiative of the William Caspar Graustein Fund" Web site. Retrieved March 25, 2007.
