[1] The school was established on property donated by Sallie J. McCall in her 1909 will.

A trade school, courses included carpentry, masonry, cement work, automobile mechanics, driving, domestic science, dressmaking, and millinery.

[1] Through a $400,000[2] endowment McCall established, equivalent to $12,167,442 in 2023, the school did not charge tuition.

Several years after Robert A. Taft Information Technology High School opened nearby, in 1962 Colored Industrial School of Cincinnati closed.

[1][5] Scholarships were established for African American students with the endowment's remaining funds.