It was at the Alameda Board of Education meeting held on March 6, 1874, that the suggestion to open a ‘Preparatory Department of a High School' was first presented. On April 17, 1874, C. Y. Johns was elected the first principal. Classes began with 52 students, in July 1874, in a rented room over a drugstore on Park Street known as "Boehmer's Hall". The building still exists today as the China House restaurant.Boehmer's Hall was only temporary. Already a new building was being built on a site on Santa Clara at Chestnut, completed and occupied in 1875. The high school shared space with the Grammar Department in what became known as ‘Haight School', a site still occupied by this school today. The class of 1878, totalling nine students, was the first to graduate from Alameda High School.It wasn't long before the number of students enrolled in the high school outgrew the space available at Haight. Temporary quarters were located at the Porter school, located on Alameda Avenue, by 1900. A campaign was started for a new separate high school building.