Grant opened in September 1924, with 1,191 students. Many of the schools in the Portland Public School district that were built between 1908 and 1932 were designed by architects Floyd Naramore and George Jones. However, so many schools were being built simultaneously in Portland in the early 1920s, that the district had to hire another architectural firm to design Grant High School, which was in the Classical Revival style by architects Knighton and Howell. In November 1923, the bricklayers working on Grant went on strike after the district tried to cut costs by using a maintenance worker to lay bricks.