The first school in the Wenatchee Valley was the North End School (grades kindergarten through 12).  It was located on the corner of Miller and Springwater, the site of present day Lewis & Clark Elementary.  In 1905, the North End School District #7 (Lewis & Clark) joined the South End District #1 (Stevens and Whitman Schools) to form Wenatchee School District #46.

The Wenatchee School was a red brick building that was located on the site where the U.S. Post Office building is located today. Wenatchee School was built in 1893 - 1894 and in March 1904 the name was changed to Stevens School.  The Wenatchee School housed grade school children and high school students while the new high school was being built.

The first Whitman School was named for Dr. and Mrs. Marcus Whitman, early missionaries in this part of the country.  Built in 1903, Whitman School was composed of eight rooms.  In 1906, eight more rooms were added.

Wenatchee Junior High was designed in June, 1928 by Mr. L. Solberg, a local architect.  It was decided that Wenatchee Junior High would have at least 22 classrooms besides a cafeteria, laboratories, manual arts rooms, administration offices, and a gym with proper locker and dressing room space.  Herbert Ellison was brought from Whitman School to be the principal of the Junior High.  He died after a heart attack and the name of Wenatchee Junior High was changed to H. B. Ellison in his honor.

Orchard Junior High was built in 1962, because H.B. Ellison was getting old and Pioneer would have to hold more students if it shut down.  Orchard was dedicated on November 27, 1962.  It sits on property purchased in the spring of 1953 from the Walt Malloys, C.E. Chases, Duncan McQuaigs, and Herbert Cheevers.