The institution that would become East High School began in 1856 with the construction of Green Bay's Sale School (nicknamed "Old Brick") on land donated to the city by fur trader John Jacob Astor. Sale was the first school built by the Green Bay Area Public School District. The school traces its formal beginnings (celebrating a sesquicentennial in 2011) to a Professor Furber, who added Latin and mathematics to the grade school curriculum in 1860. The first class to receive diplomas, consisting of four men and two women, was the class of 1875. The school moved to a new location on South Webster Avenue in 1893 and its students became known as the Hilltoppers. After the move, "Old Brick" continued to be used by the school district for administrative purposes, and was torn down in 1957. While at the Hilltopper building, the school published a literary magazine called "Aeroplane" beginning in 1910. The publication's commencement edition served as a pseudo-yearbook, and began printing directories of the whole school in its 1917 edition. The publication was renamed "East High Aeroplane" in 1924 in anticipation of the school's move to its new location.