East High School, often locally referred to as East or East High, is a public secondary school located in Des Moines, Iowa, United States. East is the oldest high school in the Des Moines metro and is part of the Des Moines Public Schools. East is currently the seventh largest high school in the state by enrollment with 2,076 students. History East High was established in 1861 on the top floor of Bryant School, a primary school located at East 9th and Grand Ave. (sometimes listed as Pennsylvania Ave. and Grand Ave. - the other end of the same block) in Des Moines. Graduation rates in the early years were extremely low - an Elizabeth Mathews was the sole member of the very first graduating class in 1871, and there were no further high school graduates until 1875. In 1877, the high school moved to the top floor of Webster School at the corner of E. 12th and Lyon Street, where it remained until 1891. Rising enrollment forced the freshman class back to Bryant School in 1888. In 1891, a new and larger dedicated school building with an auditorium, cafeteria and laboratories was opened at E. 12th and Court, directly adjacent to the Iowa State Capitol grounds. At inception, in addition to the high school it housed all the primary students from Bryant and Webster, as well as the offices of the Board of Education and Superintendent. It is written that the students from Bryan and Webster marched to the new facility in a snowstorm. The primary students remained until 1903, when Cary School was built to house them. Originally there were about 200 students, subsequently growing to around 700. One of the few available photos of this building is on the cover of the 1910 Quill yearbook. In anticipation of yet a larger school, an entire square block of land just a few blocks away from the Capitol was purchased by the East Des Moines School District in 1901 from the State of Iowa for $8,000. The current main building of East High School at E. 13th and Walker St. was constructed in 1910-1911 at a cost of $400,000 to a design by architects Bird and Rawson. A bond issue and ultimately an Iowa Supreme Court ruling were required to allow construction to go forward. Groundbreaking was done by Principal May Goodrell on September 6, 1910, who also placed