The present BCHS building incorporates a curved steel roof and is clad with three shades of brick.

Large expanses of glass wrap the massive L-shaped concourse that connect the three wings, academic, arts, and athletics.

The facility also has large band, choral, and jazz rehearsal spaces and a two-story career tech wing.

[4] That structure is largely a single-story building made of brick and steel and typical of late 1960s style school architecture.

The second "Bessemer High School" was built in 1923 and still exists although the facility no longer belongs to the Board of Education.

For many years after it ceased to be a school, it served as a Jehovah's Witnesses Christian Church facility until it was again sold in February 2019 to another religious organization, Fountain of Life Ministries.

The first facility named "Bessemer High School" was located on the southeast corner of Arlington Avenue and 19th Street.

After that building ceased to be the city high school in 1923, it was re-named Arlington Elementary and served in that capacity for many years.

Today only remnants of a stone retaining wall that run parallel to the sidewalk along the property edge are visible remains.

It was located at 2715 6th Avenue and named after Paul Laurence Dunbar, an African-American poet, novelist, and playwright of the late 19th and early 20th century.

The old downtown campus school on 2nd Avenue was declared state football champions four times in an era in which no playoff existed with Bessemer receiving "mythical titles" in 1940, 1951, 1952, and 1954.

[11] The Jess Lanier Tigers played their final football game at the old stadium on November 13, 2009, in a tough loss to Hoover High School in the 2nd round of the playoffs.

Bessemer's longest traditional football rival are the Hueytown High School Golden Gophers, whom they have played 75 times through 2019.

The Tigers and the Gophers first played in 1922, the last year the original campus on Arlington Avenue served as the school.

[10] The current head football coach as Bessemer City High School is Antonio Nelson.

[10] The Bessemer High School Tigers are the winningest football program in Jefferson County history.