C.K. McClatchy High School is a high school in the Sacramento City Unified School District. It is located in the Land Park area of Sacramento, California, USA. Established in 1937, it is the oldest operating high school in the district having succeeded crosstown rival, Sacramento High School, following its closure in 2003. McClatchy High School boasts over fifty clubs and over 50,000 alumni.HistoryPopulation growth in the city of Sacramento during the 1930s prompted the construction of C.K. McClatchy Senior High School, the city's second high school. Construction financing came from local sources as well as the Works Progress Administration (WPA), a New Deal economic stimulus program instituted by President Franklin Roosevelt.The school's design was done by local architectural firm of Starks and Flanders, whose existing portfolio included downtown landmarks such as the Elks Temple, the U.S. Post Office, and the Courthouse.On May 20, 1937, local dignitaries and students from the city’s junior high schools gathered to watch the laying of the school’s cornerstone bearing the name of C.K. McClatchy, the late editor and owner of The Sacramento Bee.On September 19, 1937, the school was officially dedicated. Sitting on 30acre, the school included a shooting range,and a band room complete with soundproof practice rooms as well as dressing and music rooms near the auditorium. A nurse’s suite with bathrooms and a sun porch and a quartered garden with central fountain in the Moorish style were also features of the new campus.The school is an architectural hybrid. According to the application for listing on the National Register of Historic Places, CKM “shares the pared down, stylized design typical of many WPA projects. Moderne in its massing and simplicity of line, it carries stylized elements of Classical Revival—perhaps more accurately, ‘Mannerist Revival’—architecture.”
