It opened in 1967 as Canon-McMillan Junior High School, and was built on the former site of the original Canonsburg High School, demolished a few years earlier. The original school's historic auditorium still remains as a freestanding building however, initially dating back to the 1920s, and still in use for school and community functions to this day. In 1967, Canon-McMillan Junior High held students in grades 7–9. It was the second junior high school in the district, after Cecil Junior High (now Cecil Intermediate) opened four years earlier in 1963.