Old Western High School was a school like no other. Plans for it were to be one of largest and most modern schools in New Mexico. Plans for this school started in 1937 by E.M. Kolben and the school was built in 1939. It was built to accommodate 800 students. All of this was happening in the little town of Silver City.
In 1939, Western High School was known as the New Mexico State Teacher's College High School. Ten years later they renamed it Western High School. The school was doing great. Western High School was one of the best schools in the state.
In 1966, things started to go down for Western High School. A new high school was built on Silver Street known as Silver High School. The old building was vacated and everybody was moved to Silver. Neil Parrish and Larry Phifer bought the old building to turn it into apartments. However, they discovered significant water damage and couldn't use the building. Then plans for demolition began. The building was built too great for them to tear down the building. So, it remained half torn down for many years.
In 1983, Western New Mexico University bought the old building and completed demolition. Today the old stone steps can still be seen on West 10th Street. Dormitories now stand where this old school used to stand. It is still remembered today as one of the greatest schools in New Mexico. One of the school's old banners can be seen hanging in the Silver High gym and old yearbooks can be found in the school's library.
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