Vernon Township High School occupies 82 acres (33 ha) with a main building and associated sports fields.

Vernon Township High School opened in 1905, with completion in July of that year, an August 15 dedication, and a September 1 start of classes.

At its opening the new school had James M. Dickson as the principal, an enrollment of ninety girls and seventy boys, and a faculty of six.

Silas Echols, who began working for the school in its opening, became the principal in 1915 upon Dickson's retirement.

Enrollment was reduced during the United States entry into World War I but increased in the 1920s, and there were 503 pupils in 1935.

[4] Building F with vocational and music facilities,[citation needed] was added in the 1950s;[4] Eltis Henson became principal in 1961 due to Milward's retirement.

[4] The campus eventually came to encompass 32 acres (13 ha), with eleven buildings and several sports fields.

[4] On October 29, 1955,[4] the voters of the district approved establishing a junior college to accompany the high school.

As a result, tertiary matriculation rates increased from about 11% pre-1956 to about half of the student body after five years.

[9] Groundbreaking occurred in August 2014,[10] for the new 82-acre (33 ha) campus located at Wells Bypass and Ambassador Road on the southwest edge of Mt.

Vernon THS campus at 11101 Wells Bypass opened August 19, 2016, with a ribbon cutting by Illinois governor Bruce Rauner.

[15] The school's curriculum circa 1905 focused on academic, scientific, and some manual arts classes, with additional vocational and cultural courses being established in the 1940s.

The boys basketball team won four IHSA single-division state championships in 1920, 1949–50, and 1954 and has been to the Sweet Sixteen 17 times .

Official records for numerous prior single-division Sweepstakes wins are no longer available from the IHSA.