The school was built in 1934 with funds from the Works Progress Administration and Thomas R. Proctor.

[1] Due to the large immigrant and refugee population in Utica, more than 40 languages have been spoken by Proctor students, among them Arabic, Bosnian, Burmese, Karen, Nepali, Russian, Somali, Spanish, Ukrainian, and Vietnamese.

Thomas R. Proctor Park, which consists of land he purchased and donated to the city, is also named for him.

[4][5] In 2015, the Utica City School District was sued by six refugee students, who alleged that refugee students older than 16 who were judged to have poor English language skills were denied enrollment at Proctor High School.

They were instead diverted into weaker alternative programs that focused solely on English as a foreign language and did not lead to a diploma or adequately prepare for a high school equivalency exam.