Built in 1939; Opened in 1940; College High Became BHS in 1982

College High was constructed in 1939. Its official name was Bartlesville Senior High School and Junior College, and it originally served 585 students in grades 11-14. On January 8, 1940 those students, who had been attending Bartlesville's Central High School, moved 3/4 mile south to the impressive new building with its Streamline Art Deco styling.

Paul C. Norvell was the first Col-Hi principal. Some old traditions were maintained, such as the Nautilus yearbook and the Peppers girls' pep club. New traditions were also started, such as the "Deliberative Committee" which would serve as the student government for the next four decades. Maurice W. Taylor and G. M. Roberts were principals in the middle of the decade, with Carl A. Ransbarger occupying the post from 1947 until 1954.

Students in these and subsequent years participated in long-lasting clubs such as Hi-Y, Y-Teens, Service Club, Trade & Industrial Club, and the B Club for lettered athletes. The B club sold Wildcat stadium seats and ran the concession stands at games, using the proceeds for an annual scholarship. New clubs in the late forties and early fifties included the United Nation Youth, Future Homemakers of America, United World Federalists, and Junior Red Cross. Foreign language clubs thrived, including the Latin Club & Senate (which later became the Junior Classical League), and the Spanish and French Clubs (sometimes grouped as the Modern Languages Club). Driver's education was first offered as an elective in 1949. Students participated in such annual traditions as the homecoming parade and bonfire and Sadie Hawkins Day.

Sophomores began attending classes at Col-Hi in the fall of 1950, and the junior college closed.

The fifties brought such clubs as the Future Teachers of America, Fashion Board, Future Nurses of America, Key Club, Boys and Girls State, and various Science Clubs. Bartlesville hosted the state Student Council convention in the early 1950s, an honor that would not be repeated for forty years.

The late fifties and early sixties brought the Canteen, a popular hang-out on Price Road for local youth. It was built and operated by the Service League for over 50 years, and members taught card games and hosted tournaments. The facility offered dances with live bands and was in active use up until the mid-2010s when it became the new home for the MUTUAL Girls Club.

In the sixties, Col-Hi organizations included the Indian Club, International Relations Club and American Field Service, Youth Court, Medical Careers Club, Art Club, Math Club, Drafting Club, and several business organizations such as Distributive Education Clubs of America, Future Business Leaders of America, and the replacement of the old T&I Club with Vocational Industrial Clubs of America. 

The baby boom made for cramped conditions, with 1,985 students on campus by 1964-65. Accommodating so many students required the use of four portable buildings, and there were three different day schedules starting at 7:30, 8:30, and 9:30 am. That led to the building of Sooner High across town, and began the long-time rivalry between the Col-Hi Wildcats and the Sooner Spartans. Each school would burn the other's mascot during pep rallies the night before their annual football game.

The seventies brought clubs focused on students' personal interests and issues, such as Contemporary Music, Photography, Rodeo, Interracial Relations, and Afro-Americans. Other additions were the Secretarial Club and the John Baird Society; Baird's 1974 Calculus course was the first Advanced Placement course at Col-Hi. The character of the school was changing to keep up with the times. The traditional pep club disbanded in 1971, and the "Wild Bunch", consisting of boys and girls, was formed. Mr. Haley retired in 1973 and Jim Morrel was principal for a couple of years, followed by Col-Hi's final principal, Dennis Pannell.

Reportedly no proms were held in 1975 or 1976 due to protests over a rule regarding who could attend and also supposedly after a raucous assembly over changing a prom date to match a band's schedule. The Alternative High School Program, which was located at various sites, began in 1977. In the late 1990s, it would share the former Col-Hi campus with the regular high school.

Advanced Placement course offerings expanded throughout the 1980s and 1990s, but there was also a decrease in elective offerings as core course requirements increased. In 1994, Bartlesville hosted the Oklahoma Student Council state convention for the first time in forty years. In the 1990s Ben West was succeeded as principal in turn by Bill Denton, then Jim Sisney, and finally Dr. Debi Boyles in 1998.

The twenty-first century opened with the most significant changes to this facility since it was constructed. The community supported a ten-year bond issue, Building on Excellence, that would spend over $23 million to build a new fine arts center, field house, and science wing. It would also transform the 1939 auditorium and part of the middle level of the annex into a new home for the library, which had long outgrown its upstairs space, spreading across the hall into the 1939 cafeteria area.

The first new principal for the twenty-first century was Jane Sears in 2002. Chuck McCauley assumed the post in 2005 and was succeeded by Teri Brant in 2008. The school continued to rack up numerous awards of academic excellence, but the number of clubs was diminishing as the new generations of students were preoccupied with opportunities outside of school.

LaDonna Chancellor became principal in 2012.

The next decade started off with improvements to Custer Stadium's seating, access, lights, sound, and exterior concessions. There were large-scale HVAC system updates to the main building, annex, and stadium. The Bruin Activity Center indoor practice facility was expanded and event parking added.

In September 2013 voters approved another bond issue to expand the school to accommodate freshmen and sophomores by adding science rooms for sophomores on the north, other sophomore classrooms, and a large cafeteria and commons area east of the Phillips Field House (in place of a connecting link from the previous decade). A Freshman Academy area was built to the north and east of the Bruin Field House.

Late in the decade the tennis courts were rebuilt, the bottom level of the stadium was renovated into additional locker rooms, and the indoor practice facility was refashioned to provide an athletics weight room and cheerleading practice area. The Phillips Field House had extensive renovations to provide improved locker rooms and an additional instrumental music room.

The 65-year-old pressbox was replaced with a much larger and more functional structure, and an agriculture building was constructed near the indoor practice facility. In 2022, Doornbos Track was rebuilt along with the visitor bleachers across Lyon Field from Custer Stadium.

In 2024, a new Bartlesville Agricultural Center opened at 1800 S. Shawnee Avenue south of the floodplain practice fields. The site was built up eight feet above the floodplain and included an enclosed arena, classroom, lab, store, kennel, two animal science labs, and a huge greenhouse.

Map & Table

• Early Schools

• District Beginnings

• Garfield

• Horace Mann (ESC)

• Washington

• Highland Park

• Jefferson

• Original High School

• Douglass

• Lincoln

• Central

• McCaleb / Roosevelt

• McKinley

• Carnegie

• Doenges Stadium

• Shawnee Field (Transportation & Maintenance)

• Limestone

• Bartlesville High School (College High)

• Buck Creek

• Jane Phillips

• Southview

• Will Rogers

• Oak Park

• Ranch Heights

• Wilson

• Original Madison

• Hoover

• Wayside

• Madison (Mid-High; Sooner High)

• Richard Kane