Eastern High School is a public high school in Washington, D.C. As of the 2021–2022 school year, it educates 735 students in grades 9 through 12. The school is located in the Kingman Park neighborhood, at the intersection of 17th Street and East Capital Street Northeast. Eastern was a part of the District of Columbia Public Schools restructuring project, reopening in 2011 to incoming first-year students and growing by a grade level each year. It graduated its first class in 2015. In addition, Eastern was designated an International Baccalaureate school in 2013 and awarded its first IB diploma in 2015.
Eastern is part of the District of Columbia Public Schools. It was founded in 1890 as the Capitol Hill High School and was later relocated and rebuilt in the collegiate gothic style and renamed Eastern Senior High School. It is one of the oldest continuously operating high schools in the District of Columbia. The school building was added to the District Of Columbia Inventory Of Historic Sites on August 3, 2023
History
Established in 1890 as the Capitol Hill High School, the school was first housed in what is now known as the Peabody Elementary School at 5th and C Streets N.E.. In its first year, the school had an enrollment of 170 students, a staff of seven teachers, and a principal. In the second year, the school's enrollment increased to 260 students, and four additional teachers were added.
In 1892, the school moved to a new location at 7th and C Streets S.E. and was renamed Eastern High School. Enrollment continued to increase, and in 1909 citizens organizations in the city's eastern section began to lobby for a new school building. The land where the current school now stands was selected between 1914 and 1915, but World War I delayed construction.
Snowden Ashford, a municipal architect, was selected to design the new school. The Eastern Alumni Association urged Ashford to design the new school in a style quite different from the Elizabethan and Collegiate Gothic style that was his preference. The association lobbied for the more popular Colonial Revival style, but his view prevailed. His designs for the school were prepared in 1921, and shortly after, he resigned from his position as Municipal Architect.
The new Eastern High School building, at 17th and East Capitol Streets N.E., was built in 1923 by Charles H. Tompkins Company Incorporated. A memorial flagstaff was dedicated, in front of the building, to alumni who died during the Spanish-American War and World War I. When the school moved into its new building, its student enrollment increased to over 1,000. The old Eastern High School building at 7th and C Streets S.E. was demolished to make way for Hine Jr. High School.
Admissions
Demographics
Attendance Boundaries
In 2021, DC's redistricting of Wards moved Eastern from Ward 6 to Ward 7; however, the school's boundaries and feeder patterns have remained the same. Neighborhoods within Eastern's boundaries include Barney Circle, Capitol Hill, Carver Langston, Hill East, Kingman Park, Navy Yard, and Southwest Waterfront.
Feeder patterns
The following elementary schools feed into Eastern: Amidon-Bowen Brent J.O. Wilson Ludlow-Taylor Maury Miner Payne Peabody (Capitol Hill Cluster School) Thompson Tyler Van Ness Watkins (Capitol Hill Cluster School)
The following middle schools feed into Eastern: Eliot-Hine Jefferson Stuart-Hobson (Capitol Hill Cluster School)
The following K-8 schools feed into Eastern: Browne Education Campus Capitol Hill Montessori
Athletics
Notable alumni
Academia
Maude E. Aiton, educator
Calvin Beale (1941), demographer whose work led to the development of the Beale code Alvin C. Graves (1927), nuclear physicist Gilbert Hunt (1934), mathematician Franklin McCain (1959), civil rights activist and member of the Greensboro Four Mary Eleanor Spear, data visualization specialist who pioneered the development of the bar chart and box plot Ibrahim K. Sundiata (1962), American scholar of West African and African-American history
Arts and entertainment
Gayle Adams (1970), disco music artist
Monta Bell, film director, producer, screenwriter
Dave Chappelle (attended, did not graduate), actor, comedian
The Choice Four (1969), all-male soul vocal group
Y'Anna Crawley (1995), contemporary gospel music artist and musician; winner on BET's Sunday Best Pat Flaherty (attended, did not graduate), actor, Major League Baseball pitcher for five teams, punter for the Chicago Bears Kevin LeVar (1995), singer, songwriter Bert Sadler, photographer Frank Wright (1950), painter