Ranchers and settlers developed homesteads in the rural area northwest of the city along the banks of the Rillito River.

According to Amphitheater High School graduate and historical writer for the Arizona Daily Star newspaper, David Leighton, the founding board members were rancher and assayer Edward L. Wetmore (the Wetmore family is the namesake of Wetmore Road in North Tucson), homesteader and carpenter Levi Marston Prince (namesake of Prince Road in North Tucson), and rancher Joseph D. Andrews.

In 1904, the district opened a permanent school building on the southeast corner of East Prince Road and North First Avenue in Tucson.

Using a combination of state and federal (Works Progress Administration) funding, Amphitheater High School was completed in 1939 on East Prince Road under the direction of E.C.

The Amphi district experienced gradual population growth, ultimately being dubbed Tucson's first suburb in the 1930s by the Arizona Daily Star newspaper.

As residential and commercial growth progressed northward along the Oracle Road corridor, additional school sites were developed.

Donaldson brought innovation in educational programs that received national recognition and also championed the construction of new schools in a community with a very limited tax base.

The construction of Walker School in 1963 north of the Rillito River brought the "open classroom" and educational innovations to the district under the leadership of Evelyn Carswell as principal.

These innovations brought national attention to the Amphitheater District, but eventually these changes were perceived as too radical and a return to more traditional educational structure was the final outcome.

[8] Note: The Wetmore family and L. M. Prince were both featured in David Leighton's popular weekly column, Street Smarts, Sept. 18, 2012, and August 20, 2013, in the Arizona Daily Star newspaper.