A black and white photo postcard of High Road, Clawson Hill and Brewery Gulch. Note the High school in the viewer's left corner of the card. The front caption reads: “High School and Castle Rock District Bisbee, Arizona F-6” The postcard is unused and was published by L.L. Cook. Marilyn Brames collection.

Bisbee’s first residences were simple miners shacks assembled from the trees in the surrounding area. They sprang up around potential mining claims. As investment from the east poured in after viable ore bodies were found, the copper camp’s population rose dramatically leading to overcrowded wooden residences. These dwellings were vulnerable to flood and fire, especially those build lower in the canyon. The great October Fire of 1908 demolished most of these structures along Main Street in Bisbee. In the aftermath, many structures were rebuilt of brick and concrete. Many of Bisbee’s homes and boarding houses were built with porches that decades later were remodeled into sun rooms or mud rooms. After Phelps Dodge ended copper mining in Bisbee the population collapsed and houses went for cheap bringing in artists, hippies, and real estate speculators that permanently altered culture of the town. Today, many of the houses and other buildings in old Bisbee have been transformed into rentals, apartments, or otherwise including the former YMCA and more recently the Bisbee High School. - 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!

2010.24.5