West High School is a public

high school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., ...

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City, often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC, is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. It is the county seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in the state. The city is the core of the Salt Lake Ci ...

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

. A part of the

Salt Lake City School District The Salt Lake City School District (SLCSD) is the oldest public school district in Utah. Boundaries for the district are identical to the city limits for Salt Lake City. Employing about 1,300 teachers who instruct about 25,000 students K-12, the ...

, the school serves students in the western part of the city. Founded in 1890 as Salt Lake High School, it is among one of the oldest public high schools in Utah. As of 2024, the school is housed in its historic 1922 building on Salt Lake City's Union Square, although a new building is expected to be constructed in the near future. With an enrollment over 2,500 students, its athletic teams compete in the Utah High School Activities Association's region six of the 5A classification. The school's colors are red and black, with a black panther as the mascot.

History

West High School traces its history back to 1890, when two public high schools were established in Salt Lake City. The East Side High School opened in rooms at a local Lutheran Church on September 22, 1890. The Fourteenth District building, which housed classes for the West Side High School, did not open until December 10 (on account of its construction going longer than anticipated). The two high schools were then combined into Salt Lake City High School during January 1891, which held its classes in the Fourteenth District building. The high school outgrew its space in the Fourteenth District building and was moved to the Clayton building on South Temple street in 1892. In 1898, the high school moved again, this time into a newly constructed building that was part of the Oregon Shortline Railroad Company complex on Pierpont Avenue. The school remained in this location, until a large fire on September 10, 1901 destroyed several buildings and damaged the structure used by the high school. Immediately after the fire, arrangements were made to the move the high school to Union Square. Here it would occupy the recently vacated

University of Utah The University of Utah (the U, U of U, or simply Utah) is a public university, public research university in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. It was established in 1850 as the University of Deseret (Book of Mormon), Deseret by the General A ...

main building, along with making use of the nearby Deseret Museum building (originally built for the Church University). Beginning in fall 1902, the high school was once again split between the West Side High School and the East Side High School. The west high school remained on Union Square, while the new high school opened in the Bryant School building, just east of downtown. However, the split was short lived, and the schools were combined in summer 1905. In May 1914, the East High School building was opened, officially splitting Salt Lake High School between east and west. The old University of Utah main building was demolished in 1921 and a new, three-story high school building opened in 1922. As of 2024, the high school is still housed in the 1922 building, but is expected to move to a new structure after funding was approved in the 2024 local election.

Manual and technical training

Beginning with the 1902–1903 school year, the local board of education established manual training. This training was meant to offer practical skills and vocational training, as opposed to the strictly academic training offered by the school system up to that time. On the west side of the city, these classes were held in the Union School building, also located on Union Square. The growth of these programs would result in the construction of the Technical High School from 1910 to 1912. There is some indication that after the opening of East High School, the West High School was meant to be strictly a technical school.

Athletics

West High has had multiple state sports championships, most prominently twenty-one for football (1898, 1899, 1900, 1901, 1902, 1903, 1904, 1905, 1908, 1909, 1911, 1912, 1913, 1915, 1925, 1927, 1973, 1975, 1980, 1984 and 1992); nine for boys' track (1912, 1922, 1929, 1932, 1933, 1951, 1953, 1954 and 1957); and four for boys' tennis (1992, 1996, 1997 and 2002). The school maintains a

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for prominent athletes.

Notable alumni

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, Professional golfer * Helen Foster Snow, American journalist *

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* Tom C. Korologos, US Ambassador *

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* Dick Nemelka, Professional basketball player in the

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'' magazine *

George Von Elm George "Gix" Von Elm (March 20, 1901 – May 1, 1961) was an American professional golfer most noted for his amateur career. He was selected by ''Golf Digest'' as Utah's greatest amateur golfer, and in the early 1960s was named Utah Golfer of the ...

, Professional golfer * D. Frank Wilkins, Utah Supreme Court Justice * Mark H. Willes, CEO of the ''

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'' and

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* Dan Wells, author

Notes

References

External links

West High School
official website
West High Alumni Association
{{authority control Public high schools in Utah Educational institutions established in 1890 Schools in Salt Lake City International Baccalaureate schools in Utah 1890 establishments in Utah Territory