The Fire
Posted July 8, 2001, by thswarriors.com
The original high school (above) opened in 1930 as a result of funding acquired through a successful ballot measure.
It was the first week of February 1944, the three Tehachapi High School basketball teams
(known then as the A's, B's, and C's) and their faithful fans hit the road for some out-of-town
games. It was a tough night as all three teams lost ... it was even a tougher night
when the teams arrived in Tehachapi to depart home from the school grounds.
The school they represented was nearly all gone --- burned to the ground in a horrific fire.
As written in the 1944-45 Tomahawk Yearbook by Phillip Davis, "On the night of Friday, February 4th,
a fire of an unknown source destroyed most of Tehachapi High School. The great majority
of the townspeople witnessed the futile efforts of the firemen to subdue the flames that relentlessly
devoured the gymnasium, stage, classrooms, cafeteria, library, and administrative offices. This appears to be a great
loss --- as indeed it was. Yet buildings will be replaced eventually; while the old setting
of memories that we and the classes before us have had here at Tehachapi High,
he pictures of graduates dating back many years, student records, and the well earned athletic
trophies are what we miss. For they are of value that can never be replaced by any sum of money."
The effort to rebuild the old high school was complicated by the pending war. It took
several years, and several phases of construction, to restore many of the school facilities lost
in the great fire of 1944. The old high school (above) became Jacobsen Junior High School
when the new high school opened its doors on Anita Drive in 1965.
