The school was built on land donated by Ivy Julia Cromartie Stranahan, and was named after her late husband Frank Stranahan. The school progressively added the junior high school grades a year at a time due to rapid population growth in the area. The school opened as a high school in 1957. The first principal of Stranahan was Kenneth Dale Haun. Kenneth Haun had been a Junior High Assistant Principal when he was picked to help design and then serve as principal of Stranahan. As the school added grades each year and then gradually dropped the middle school grades, Kenneth Haun continued as head of the school. He served as principal for nearly thirty years. The school's unique design of separate buildings spread out more like a college campus was a result of limited funds to build the school. Buildings were gradually added in phases to accommodate growth of the student population. The first hall building was converted to a 2-story building in the 1970s. During renovations of first hall in the early 90s, there was a large fire that consumed most of the building. The building was renovated and it now contains the administration on the first floor and the second floor has English and social studies classrooms. The second hall has computer labs and foreign language classrooms. Third hall has art classrooms and fourth hall has math. The magnet classrooms are mostly in the new science and medical magnet buildings. Previously some of the magnet classrooms were located in second and third hall.