History Corner

Woodrow Wilson High School is the place we come to get our education. Have you ever wondered what the school was like when it was first built and what has changed? And what has stayed the same? Woodrow Wilson high school was named after, as you guessed it, Woodrow Wilson, the 28th president of the United States of America. This high school was founded and established in 1937 but not at the location it is today. Wilson’s original campus was located where El Sereno Middle school is now.

Construction began on today's campus in 1968 and opened to Woodrow Wilson’s Mighty Mules in 1970. It has been said the school was so beautiful when it opened, they called it “Beverly Hills East”. Paul R. William, the famous Los Angeles architect, also designed the LAX theme building and many other notable Southern California structures. Williams is known for being the first African-American architect west of the Mississippi.

Once a mule farm, Wilson was one the first high schools in the country to include elevators and escalators, and the first school on the West Coast to have a five floor tower. Notoriety came in the 1970’s when Coach Vic Cuccia made the school famous with his great sportsmanship, remembered even to this day! Another point of notoriety is the fact that Woodrow Wilson’s campus has appeared in the AMC TV series Fear the Walking Dead.

If you are now asked from where the idea for Seymore, the Mighty Mule, derive, you can answer with confidence: the land on where Wilson now sits was once a mule farm.