Reverend John Eliot of Roxbury in 1689 gave 75 acres of land to the town "for the maintenance, support, and encouragement of a school and schoolmaster at...Jamaica or Pond Plain" in order to prevent "the inconveniences of ignorance".

In 1855, the newly independent town of West Roxbury took control of the school and the girls’ department was moved to Village Hall on Thomas Street.

In the spring of 1974, US Federal Judge W. Arthur Garrity Jr. ordered a desegregation plan of Boston public schools with a goal of achieving racial balance throughout the system.

This caused overcrowding at JP High, forcing an annex for ninth grade students to open at the Charles Bulfinch School on Parker Street in Roxbury.

[5] The $12.3 million facility was designed by Walter S. Pierce and opened for the fall 1979–80 term, retaining the JP High name.