BHS-History-4

A History of Bothell High School

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Bothell Junior High School with the High School to the right, students from both schools, 1937

The “white school on the hill” housed grades 1-8 until the opening of Bothell Junior High in 1931 (under principal Wilbur A. Anderson) and Ricketts Elementary in 1949. Then it became an overflow facility until its demolition in 1957. Hillcrest Primary School later occupied the site, and those buildings became the district's instructional materials center until being razed when developers bought the property. Since 2007, the long-time school site has been the Village Walk development.

Looking east in 1939, from the football field to the back of the high school on the left and the junior high school on the right, toward (in the upper left) the white school on the hill, for grades 1-6.

1961 front entrance The front of Bothell High School in 1961

In 1953, a new high school went up on West Hill, its location to the present day.

A new gymnasium was added in 1956 at a cost of $463,525.


The BHS front entrance as we knew it	Aerial view of Bothell High School on West Hill in the late 1950s

After we left, a rain shelter covered the front entrance

The district grew quickly in mid-century. In 1959 the Northshore School District was formed by the consolidation of the Bothell and Woodinville School Districts. In 1965, Inglemoor opened as the second high school and graduated its first class in 1966. Woodinville became the third high school in 1983, graduating its first class in 1985.

In the first decade of the 21st Century, extensive remodeling made many changes in the building that we knew as Bothell High School. From 2002-2008 old buildings were renovated in phases and an entirely new high school is now in place. The main entrance is now on NE 180th Street, not on 92nd Avenue N.E. as it was when we were students.

Bothell High School principals include Henry Simonds, W.D. Bay, E.J. McNamara, Martin Baker, Nelson Lloyd, Drayton Marsh, S. Lyman “Buck” Hilby, Arne Strand, Larry Peterson, Al Cohen, Dick Sorenson, Jim Bagby, Al Haynes, and Heather Miller, co-principal for a time with the current principal, Bob Stewart.

This year's class of 2011 will be the 100th graduating class at Bothell High School, 99 years after 1912's first group and 50 years after the 50th graduation of our Golden Class of 1961.

Northshore is the tenth-largest school district in Washington State. It has close to 20,000 students and approximately 2,300 full and part-time employees. The district covers 60 square miles (two-thirds in King County, one-third in Snohomish County). The Northshore district population is approximately 117,500 people.

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