Benson Polytechnic High School

Benson was established to give "boys who wished to enter a trade a better opportunity than do shops and factories of the present time." Any boy from Portland who was at least fourteen years old, or who was a grammar school graduate, could attend. The course of study was three years. Students could also attend night school and/or summer sessions at the trade school.
In 1909, a course of study for girls was added, with classes in sewing, cooking, millinery, and homemaking.The Portland School of Trades was coeducational until 1913 when the girls' departments were moved to the original Lincoln High School.