Formed in 2007 as Hollyrood-Fernwood School,[1] it was renamed for children's author and Fernwood alumna Beverly Cleary in 2008.

[5] The building was designed by the firm of Ellis F. Lawrence, who founded The University of Oregon School of Architecture and Allied Arts in 1914.

[9] The Hollyrood building was constructed in 1958 at a cost of $198,000, in a direct response to the growing population of northeast Portland and the limitations of the Fernwood School.

[1][13] In addition, a facilitated conversation among Northeast Portland Schools (including Hollyrood, Fernwood, Laurelhurst, Beaumont Middle School and Alameda Elementary) helped to develop a plan to reassign some of the Rose City Park Elementary attendance area (the area assigned to Grant High, west of 57th Avenue) to elementary, middle or K–8 schools that feed into Grant.

The committee's work resulted in four recommended new names—Beverly Cleary, Fernwood, Grant Park, and Hollywood—which were presented to the superintendent with supporting information.

The committee did not identify a clear favorite as each choice had its pros and cons but the superintendent noted that the Beverly Cleary name received the highest number of votes in the community survey and that the Cleary name has special significance, as she is an alumnus of Fernwood (and Grant High School) and based many of her well-known children's stories on her experiences in the Fernwood neighborhood.

[21] Plans have been made to convert the Fernwood building into a middle school (still named Beverly Cleary), but so far this has not been carried out.