San José High School opened in 1863 in a room above Orbon's flour store at 210 South 1st Street. On January 1, 1868, it moved to a purpose-built $20,000 building at Santa Clara and 7th Streets that also housed Horace Mann Elementary. In 1898 San José High School was relocated to One Washington Square, on San Fernando Street between 6th and 7th Streets, where it remained until 1952. This location was on the San Jose State College campus. The 1898 building was three stories, of brick and stone, and cost $75,000; it was destroyed in the 1906 earthquake and after the school shared facilities for two years with Lincoln High School, it moved back to a replacement building on the same site, which was used from 1908 to 1951. This high school campus was designed by Pasadena architect F. S. Allen in Mission Revival style and cost $175,000; it housed different subjects in separate buildings connected by arcades forming courtyards. In 1951, intending to expand the college, the State of California rescinded its permission for the high school to be located on the San José State campus, and the school moved in 1952 to its present location at the corner of 24th and Julian Streets. The original $2,500,000 building, by Ernest J. Kump, was chosen that year by the Museum of Modern Art as one of 43 outstanding examples of modern architecture. It has since been greatly expanded, including a swimming pool in 1959, two new wings and a full theatrical stage in 1961, and a new science building and a new career technology engineering building in the first decade of the 21st century. In 1985, the school was renamed San Jose Academy and later San Jose High Academy as part of the federal magnet schools concept, but on March 25, 2010, it returned to its original name, San Jose High School. In the 21st century the school's enrollment increased to 1200, the largest population since the late 1980s. The principal is Gloria Marchant, a naturalized Canadian who became a U.S. citizen in a ceremony at the school in May 2018.
Academics
The school has offered the International Baccalaureate program since 1985, and since 1999 has offered the IB Middle Years Program along with its major feeder middle school, Burnett Middle School. It was recognized as a California Distinguished High School in 1990. In Newsweek magazine's 2005 ranking of United States high schools, San Jose High Academy was ranked 220th.
Athletics
The following sports are offered at San José High School:
The football teams of San José High School and Lincoln High School face off at San Jose City College each Thanksgiving in the Big Bone Game. This rivalry game has been held since 1943; it gets its name from a San José High School student who found a large steer leg in his father's butcher shop in 1945 and declared it the trophy for the winning school. The Junior Varsity football teams from both schools hold a Little Bone Game the Thursday prior to the Big Bone Game.
Notable alumni
Jack Z. Anderson, class of 1923, former U.S. congressman.
Don Edwards, class of 1932, former FBI agent and U.S. congressman.
