SDHS Celebrates 1st Project in Rebuilding Program
- Rachel Cobb
- Apr 1
- 2 min read
By Roger Showley
San Diego High School’s Building 100 got an official ribbon cutting March 9 as the first building completed in the $74 million Phase 1 modernization of the campus, originally developed in 1882.
After the confetti floated to the ground, students, families, district officials and civic leaders got a look at the inside of the thoroughly reconstructed Administration Building. Natural light filled the offices and artifacts sprinkled from the high school’s past drew attention.
They include two oak doors salvaged from the 1907 “old gray castle” when granite gave way to concrete in a 1970s replacement. The school retained its mascot, the Caver, so-called because students likened the 1907 building interior to a cave.
SDHS is the oldest California high school to exist in its original condition, and one of the artifacts on display was a portrait of Joseph Russ. He donated the lumber for the Victorian-style building that rose in an undeveloped corner of Balboa Park and that carried his name.
Other artifacts included granite blocks from the 1907 building, a 1902 wall clock and a variety of trophies.
Speakers alluded to generations of San Diegans who have passed through SDHS halls and connections the school has to surrounding neighborhoods — themes that the Balboa Park Committee of 100 highlighted in its Balboa Park-San DIego High School Connections report accepted by the City Council in September.
“When I transferred on arrival on campus back in January 2024,” said graduating senior Nathan Williams, “I couldn’t help notice the ongoing construction that was happening on different parts of the campus.”
He researched the school’s history, studied the construction drawings and was one of the first students to get a look at the finished product.
“(Future students) are also part of the history,” he said, “not just today but tomorrow and through the next 10, 20, 50, 100 more years in the future.”
Alumni representatives also expressed appreciation for the school’s rebuilding, since many of them campaigned in 2016 for a voter-approved bond issue that is funding this and other San Diego Unified School District projects, as school board president Richard Barrera reminded the gathering.
As the festivities closed down, bulldozers were busy a few hundred yards away clearing the ground for an expansive quad and food service building expected to open later this year. Future phases will see new athletic and performing arts spaces. A complementary set of new projects also is underway at neighboring San Diego City College.
A new upgrade is under consideration for Balboa Stadium that opened in 1915 and the city and school districts are discussing public improvements along Park and Russ boulevards to tie the two school closer to Balboa Park and downtown.
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