West High School was a high school that formed part of the

Phoenix Union High School District The Phoenix Union High School District is a High school (North America), high school-only school district in Phoenix, Arizona, United States. It is one of five high school-only districts in the Phoenix area. Overview The school district serv ...

Phoenix, Arizona Phoenix ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Arizona#List of cities and towns, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona. With over 1.6 million residents at the 2020 census, it is the ...

History

West High School was one of five Phoenix Union high schools that were built between 1949 and 1957, the others being Camelback,

Carl Hayden Carl Trumbull Hayden (October 2, 1877 – January 25, 1972) was an American politician. Representing Arizona in the United States Senate from 1927 to 1969, he was the first U.S. Senator to serve seven terms. Serving as the state's first Represe ...

, Central, and South Mountain. The campus was designed by a group of local architects consisting of

Lescher & Mahoney Lescher & Mahoney was an American architectural firm from Phoenix, Arizona. History The firm was established in 1910 by Royal W. Lescher (1882–1957). Lescher practiced alone until 1912, when he took John R. Kibbey (1883–1963) as a ...

Edward L. Varney Edward Leighton Varney Jr. (1914–1998) was an American Modernism, Modernist architect working in Phoenix, Arizona from 1937 until his retirement in 1985. He designed the Hotel Valley Ho in Scottsdale, Arizona, Scottsdale, and Sun Devil Stadium ...

, H. H. Green and Edwin Dwight Chenault. Declining enrollment during the 1980s resulted in the closure of West, along with

North High School North High School may refer to: * North High School (Phoenix, Arizona) * North Pulaski High School, Jacksonville, Arkansas * North High School (Bakersfield, California) * John W. North High School, Riverside, California * North High School (Torran ...

Phoenix Union High School Phoenix Union High School (PUHS) was a high school that was part of the Phoenix Union High School District in downtown Phoenix, Arizona, one of five high school-only school districts in the Phoenix area. Founded in 1895 and closed in 1982, th ...

, and East High School. Metro Tech High School, then named Metro Tech Vocational Institute of Phoenix, was opened on the grounds of West High in 1985.

Campus

The campus used to have an Olympic-sized swimming pool, but was later filled in. The site of the pool later became the school's cafeteria. The school also had a

Foucault pendulum The Foucault pendulum or Foucault's pendulum is a simple device named after French physicist Léon Foucault, conceived as an experiment to demonstrate the Earth's rotation. If a long and heavy pendulum suspended from the high roof above a circu ...

that was dedicated in 1959.

References

{{authority control Former high schools in Arizona Educational institutions established in 1949 1949 establishments in Arizona High schools in Phoenix, Arizona