Shortridge High School

Shortridge High School is a public high school located in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. Shortridge is the home of the International Baccalaureate and arts and humanities programs of the Indianapolis Public Schools district.(IPS). Originally known as Indianapolis High School, it opened in 1864 and is Indiana's oldest free public high school. New Albany High School (1853) was Indiana's first public high school, but was not initially free. Author Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Shortridge class of 1940, said that Shortridge was: History 19th century Indianapolis High School (renamed Shortridge High School in 1896) opened in 1864 as the state of Indiana's first free public high school. Its original location (1864-1867) was in the former Ward 1 Elementary School at Vermont and New Jersey Streets. The second location (1867-1872) was in Circle Hall on the northwest quadrant of Monument Circle. The third location (1872-1885) was the former Baptist Female Seminary at Michigan and Pennsylvania Streets. This building was deemed unsafe and torn down to make way for a fourth building (1885-1928) on the same site. (Classes met in area churches while the new building was under construction.) Due to population shifts in Indianapolis in the 1920s, Indianapolis Public Schools decided to build a fifth building at the northeast corner of 34th and Meridian Streets. Construction began in 1927, and the school opened in 1928. This fifth iteration is the school's current building.