Henley School

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Henley School
Henley School postcard.jpg
Active 1883
School type Public
District Birmingham City Schools
Grades 1-7
Colors
Mascot
Location 1700 6th Avenue North, (map)
Birmingham

The Henley School was a Birmingham city school located at 1700–1704 6th Avenue North, at the intersection of 17th Street North, the southwest corner of Block 36, catty-corner from West End Park, on the present site of the Alabama Power Company parking deck.

The school was founded in November 1883 as the West End School or West End Grammar School. It was renamed later that decade in honor of Birmingham's first Mayor, Robert Henley.

After the Barker School burned in 1941, Parent-Teacher Association president Harry Singler labelled Powell and Henley Schools as "firetraps" and suggested that the board tear them down and replace all three with a single, modern combined school in a central location, presumably downtown near the existing Powell School site, but eventually the insurance settlement was used to expand the Seventeenth Avenue School instead.

On Palm Sunday, April 7, 1963 a group of 2,000 marchers were stopped near the school and ministers John Porter, Nelson Smith and A. D. King immediately knelt in prayer. Twenty-six of the marchers were arrested as onlookers were dispersed with police dogs.

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