William Penn High School was a public high school serving grades 9-12, located at 1333 N Broad St, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was a part of the School District of Philadelphia (SDP).HistoryThe school opened in 1973.In 2009 Penn had 633 students. That year, the school district proposed closing Penn, because its declining enrollment was far below the building capacity and because the building was in poor condition. The district proposed rezoning Penn zone residents who were also in the Clymer School zone to Simon Gratz High School, and it proposed rezoning Penn zoned residents who were also in the zones of Dunbar, Ferguson, Harrison, and Hartranft to Benjamin Franklin High School.Some individuals opposed to the closing argued that if Penn was closed and its students were moved to Franklin, students would engage in "turf warfare" and the abandoned school building would become a haven for criminal activity. The closing was approved.In 2014 Temple University paid $15 million to acquire the Penn site. In February 2015 the Philadelphia City Planning Commission approved the demolition of the school. Demolition began in December 2015, with demolition of the campus's east side scheduled to end in February of the following year, and with the west side demolished by the summer of 2016. Temple planned to install an athletic center on the east side. Athletic activities were scheduled to begin on the former Penn site in October 2016.
