The College existed until the end of the 1926 academic year when it closed due to financial problems.

The Calgary Board of Education purchased the property that year, and by September 1929 completed a group of new school buildings on the site.

From 1929 to 1935 academic and technical schools operated independently on the Western property, until which time they merged under a single administration.

Western Canada graduates have gone on to prolific careers in politics, law, sport, and the arts.

The inspiration to build an advanced school in the then North-West Territories (NWT) came from James Chalmers Herdman (1855–1910), a Scottish Presbyterian minister.

On 19 June 1903, An Ordinance to Incorporate "Western Canada College" received assent in the Legislative Assembly of the North-West Territories.

Opening ceremonies for the school took place the next evening at Hull's Opera House in Calgary.

[10] The contract to build the one-storey shops wing and power plant was awarded to Bennett and White on 29 April 1929 for around $40,000.

The stack was originally to be 125 feet high, however, residents in the neighbourhood protested that the structure would make the area look industrial, thus decreasing their house prices.

[12] The three new buildings were completed in August 1929, and on Tuesday, 3 September, the new school was opened to students for registration.

Opening ceremonies took place on the evening of Friday, 13 December and were presided over by F. E. Spooner, retiring chairman of the school board.

The final phase of the addition came in 1967, when the school added its auxiliary gymnasium, theatre, and band room.

To build the new gymnasium, part of the existing 1937 gym was removed, and the remaining section was converted to a cafeteria.

Western is one of a small number of Calgary high schools to offer an International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Programme.