wilson opened its doors to students on monday, september 23, 1935, as an all-white school, thus becoming the sixth dc interhigh school. the school started with 640 sophomores and juniors. many students transferred to wilson from central and western. western had been running double shifts (9 am – 5 pm) to accommodate the students from the wilson neighborhoods. the first principal was norman j. nelson, who had previously been the assistant principal at western.