Alexander Hamilton High School (Los Angeles)


Alexander Hamilton High School is a public high school in the Castle Heights neighborhood within the Westside of Los Angeles, California, United States. It is in the Los Angeles Unified School District. It was established in 1931.

History

Alexander Hamilton High School opened in Fall 1931, with Thomas Hughes Elson as the principal. It was designed by architects John C. Austin and Frederick C. Ashley. The three-story administration building held the administration, library, and science departments and 24 classrooms. Other buildings were a manual training building, another for physical training, and a fourth for the cafeteria and "domestic science." The capacity would be 1000, with plans permitting increasing to 2500. Building costs were $125,000 for the land, $400,000 for the structure, and $200,000 for equipment. Built in the Northern Italian Renaissance style, multicolored and patterned brickwork, elaborate cast stone decoration, and a bell tower clad in verdigris copper distinguish the building.
In May 1931, while Hamilton was under construction, architects Austin and Ashley were selected to design Griffith Observatory. Individually, each had designed a Carnegie library: Austin conceived the , and Ashley drew up Los Angeles' . Together, they had designed Monrovia High School. Austin designed Los Angeles High School's and the Shrine Auditorium, and he was one of three designers of Los Angeles City Hall.
The school's builders were Sarver & Zoss. Three post offices they later built are on the National Register of Historic Places: the Beverly Hills Main Post Office ; the San Pedro Post Office, and Los Angeles' Terminal Annex.
Austin & Ashley later designed Hamilton's $100,000, six-room, auditorium, Waidelich Hall which opened on April 20, 1937. Arthur George Waidelich was the second principal and died at the school. On February 21, 1989, the auditorium was renamed Norman J. Pattiz Concert Hall. A brass plaque made by the industrial arts department to commemorate the 1937 dedication was removed during renovation.
Early photographs from the school's archives show the campus in its pre-World War II state, with only the main building completed. The photos show dozens of 1920s and 30s cars parked along Robertson Boulevard in front of the school. The bell tower still exists today, but no longer houses a working bell.
Today, there exist Brown Hall, a cafeteria, two gym buildings, and a workshop building. On the west part of the campus is Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and , a continuation school. The athletic fields include Al Michaels Field and a community garden, the Hami Garden. The Hami Garden was a joint project funded by the South Robertson Neighborhood Council and the Hami High Environmental Club in 2009. It is maintained by community members and Hamilton High School students.
In 1932, its attendance boundaries extended as far north as Mulholland Highway.
In fall 2007, some neighborhoods zoned to Hamilton were rezoned to Venice High School.

Demographics

As of 2011–2012:
Hamilton High is divided into six "small learning communities," or SLCs," which coordinate their own curricula and staff. They are:
During the 2008/2009 school year, the L & M was eliminated and the students were placed in the four remaining non-magnet SLCs.

Academy of Music and Performing Arts

The Music Academy gained national attention in June of 2002 when the Disney Channel premiered the reality TV show Totally in Tune, which chronicled members of the Academy's Symphony Orchestra.
The Music Academy is a Grammy-recognized school.

Co-curricular activities

Hamilton's school newspaper is called The Federalist, a reference to and the original name of The Federalist Papers initiated and largely written by Alexander Hamilton. The Federalist has been by the .
The Humanities Magnet operates an editorial called "Die WeltanshauunG".

Neighborhoods zoned to Hamilton

Keystone-Mentone complex, a student family housing facility of the University of California Los Angeles, is zoned to Hamilton. Rose Avenue Apartments was previously zoned to Hamilton, but was rezoned to Venice High School in 2007.

Feeder schools

Palms Middle School, Webster Middle School and Marina Del Rey Middle School feed into Hamilton. Louis Pasteur JHS, fed some of its graduates to Hamilton.

Notable alumni

The school has been used for several movies, television shows, music videos.
TV Shows
Movies
Music Videos'