In 2004, a Pennsylvania state historical marker was placed at the school's athletic field to honor Johnny Unitas, who played there for the semi-professional Bloomfield Rams prior to his Hall of Fame career in the National Football League.

[5] The land on which the school was built was part of the Allegheny Arsenal, which manufactured munitions for the U.S. military during the American Civil War and was the site of a deadly explosion in 1862.

[7] In order to achieve this, the school board negotiated a land swap whereby the federal government received a parcel on Forbes Avenue (which became the U.S. Bureau of Mines Central Experiment Station) in exchange for the former USGS property.

[10] Excavation work for the new school began in January, 1931,[11] and the cornerstone was laid on June 11, 1931.

In 1954, it was the site of the first large-scale testing of Jonas Salk's experimental polio vaccine, with shots administered to 135 first, second, and third-grade students.

[21] The Arsenal School is a C-shaped building organized around a central athletic field.

However, the elementary wing was planned from the beginning and Steen's section closely matches the existing architecture.

The main entrance on 40th Street has a double-height arched entryway decorated with geometric patterns, a keystone with a sculpted face, and ornamental urns.