A black and white photo postcard showing Bisbee High School and Subway from above Main Street, circa 1940. The postcard is unused, and the publisher is unknown. Al Ring Collection.

Before Bisbee’s high school students had their own dedicated school they were educated at Central School. The first to graduate were four girls in 1906. Bisbee’s new high school was dedicated with a ceremony on February 22, 1914. The building was built with four stories including the basement and the new furnishings were moved in August 1914. The school opened for its first semester on August 31, 1914. They started out with a library, five recitation rooms, two science laboratories a study room, and a drawing room. The building suffered a fire in 1919 that badly burned the interior. The school was rebuilt, refurnished, and reopened again in 1920. Bisbee High School remained in operation until 1959 when a newer state-of-the-art facility was built near Warren. The building was used as office space for Cochise County. Due the the sloping nature of Bisbee’s hills, the school has a ground entrance on every floor which earned it a spot on Ripley’s Believe It or Not!

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