A new brick building for the school was built on Rodgers Street in South Norfolk, to replace the aging South Norfolk High School. When South Norfolk merged with Norfolk County to form the city of Chesapeake in 1963, Smith High became part of the new city. The school opened in 1954 and was named after Oscar Frommel Smith (25 October 1891 - 4 May 1950), a Hampton Roads fertilizer magnate and civic leader, who had recently died and who's widow, Ruth, offered the school the $50,000 if it would name the new stadium after her husband. The city council decided that not only the stadium, but the whole school would be named after him.