Lowell High School began in 1856 as the Union Grammar School. In 1853, Colonel Thomas J. Nevins, San Francisco's first superintendent of schools, had broached the idea of a free high school for boys and a seminary for girls. It took three years for Nevins to persuade the Board of Education that a high school was necessary, and a resolution was passed on July 10, 1856 to establish the San Francisco High School and Ladies' Seminary. Six days later, however, the resolution was rescinded on the grounds that a high school could not legally be part of the San Francisco Common Schools; opponents in the City saw no need for an education beyond the eighth grade funded on public budgets. A simple name change from the proposed San Francisco High School and Ladies' Seminary to the Union Grammar School appeased those who had opposed the creation of the school. Thus was San Francisco's first public school that provided a secondary education established.