[3][4] The suggestion to open a "Preparatory Department of a High School" was first presented at an Alameda Board of Education meeting held on March 6, 1874.

Classes began with 52 students, in July 1874, in a rented room over a drugstore on Park Street known as "Boehmer's Hall".

The new school, dedicated in 1926, comprised three connected buildings, including the original 1903 structure which was refurbished to blend with the architectural style of the other two.

The architecture, designed by local architect Carl Werner, is early twentieth-century Neo-Classical Revival in nature, evoking images of ancient Greek temples with Ionic columns in front of the Kofman Auditorium, a facility known throughout the Bay Area as one of the best of the local playhouses.

A dedicated group of alumni and citizens saved the venerable buildings, and the planned new construction was scaled back to what exists today.

[7] AHS is part of the West Alameda County Conference (WACC) of the North Coast Section (NCS) of the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF).