The school was founded in 1965 and named after Joseph Henry Widdifield, a nineteenth-century physician and member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario for York North.

The school's motto was "Mens Quaerens in Corpore Sano," loosely meaning "an inquiring mind in a sound body" in Latin.

Widdifield was the first school in Canada to incorporate a Specialist High Skills Major (SHSM)— Arts and Culture certificate program.

[6] In September 2018, they announced that the closure would be delayed by at least one year, due to difficulties securing increased government funding for the other two local schools.

[11] On February 2 2024, the North Bay Nugget reported on a pair of businessmen who proposed a public–private partnership to convert the building into an athletic centre, but were struggling to gain an audience with the school board.