Chandler High School | |
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Address | |
350 North Arizona Avenue Chandler, Arizona United States |
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Information | |
Type | Public |
Established | 1914 |
School district | Chandler Unified School District |
Principal | Larry "Buzz" Rother |
Grades | 9–12 |
Enrollment | 3,167 (October 1, 2012) |
Color(s) | Royal Blue, White, and Black |
Mascot | Wolves |
Newspaper | Wolf Howl |
Yearbook | El Lobo |
Website | [4] |
The "Old Main" buildings at the Chandler HS campus |
Chandler High School
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Location | 350 N. Arizona Ave. Chandler, Arizona |
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Coordinates | 33°18′32″N 111°50′31″W / 33.30889°N 111.84194°WCoordinates: 33°18′32″N 111°50′31″W / 33.30889°N 111.84194°W |
Built | 1921–22 |
Architect | Allison & Allison; Bell, Orville A., |
Architectural style | Classical Revival, Mission/Spanish Revival |
NRHP Reference # | 07000836 |
Added to NRHP | November 20, 2007 |
Chandler High School is a high school located in Chandler, Arizona, United States. One of the oldest high schools in Arizona, it was founded in 1914, two years after the city was founded.
The high school has an active athletic program and has many rivalries with other local teams; the most prominent is the football rivalry with Hamilton High School.
In 1914, Chandler became eligible to host a high school. A separate high school district, featuring the same boundaries and executives as the elementary school district, formed at that time. The first high school subjects were taught that fall, with four teachers and nineteen freshmen using space at the Chandler Grammar School. Other classrooms were used after the 1914–15 school year, including local churches and businesses. The first students graduated in 1918, with a graduating class of three.
In 1919, the first of two bond issues passed to allow for the construction of a permanent home for the high school. The two bond issues (in 1919 and 1921) provided $291,800, and a site at Arizona Avenue and Detroit Street, adjacent to the grammar school, was selected.
The Los Angeles architectural firm of Allison & Allison designed the original plans, featuring a two-story Classical Revival structure (a departure from the Mission Revival of former buildings), a central auditorium, and two U-shaped classroom wings. Construction on the first phase, classroom space to open for the 1921–22 school year, began in the spring of 1921, at first performed by local contractor J.W. Tucker. After the 1921 bond, Kansas City-based Collins Brothers was the general contractor for the second phase. The entire project was completed on May 1, 1922.
The new building featured state-of-the-art amenities like a physics lab, a domestic science room with kitchen, an auditorium with seating capacity for 1,000, and one "ultramodern" feature for its time: an electric clock and bell system. All classrooms were connected by telephone to a central switchboard at the front office. The exterior was made of cement plaster coated in fireproof stucco, with a tile roof and terra cotta trimmings. A formal dedication of the new building took place on May 10, 1922.
Enrollment at the high school in the 1920s and 1930s followed trends. In 1928, 32 students graduated; as the Great Depression took hold, only 15 did so in 1930. Numbers began to rise again in the late 1930s with about 34 students per class.
In 1939, the first new building in 17 years appeared on campus, a brand-new gymnasium. It was built for $70,000 ($27,000 of the funding came from a WPA grant) and featured a cafeteria in the rear. The original gymnasium was refinished on the exterior and remodeled into woodworking and agricultural shops.