An election held on November 17, 1899, settled a controversy over whether Trenton needed a new schoolhouse, and although the opposition probably would have prevailed, the women of Trenton voted solidly in favor of it. After a lawsuit over the site was decided for the board, the school was built at a cost of $21,320.57 with five assembly rooms, two recitation rooms, a library, a laboratory, and playrooms. It opened on Sept. 9, 1900, with monthly salaries set for the Principal/Superintendent at $70.00, grammar level teachers at $33.00, and primary level instructors at $30.00. The school made it possible for the first students to graduate from Trenton's earliest Kindergarten through 12th grade system in 1903; before then, many students had to attend 11th and 12th grade in Wyandotte to graduate. A three-room addition was built in 1911, and as enrollment grew, three portable buildings nicknamed "chicken-coops" by students were added. After the new Slocum-Truax High School opened for the 1924-25 school year, the building became a combination grade school and junior high, and it was demolished in 1963.