Orr traces its origins to 1918, when it was opened as an elementary school in a building, which is currently the
Brian Piccolo Specialty School located at 1040 N. Keeler. Orr began hosting high school students in the 1920s, when it became a branch of
Austin High School. From the 1940s to the 1950s, Orr was used a vocational school for seventh and eighth grade boys, and for a short period it served as a temporary home for
Our Lady of the Angels School after that school was ravaged by a fire in 1958. Orr was then used as a branch of
Marshall High School before becoming an independent high school in 1963. Rezin Orr High School moved into a new building in 1973 under the leadership of principal, Kenneth Van Spankeren. The old Orr school building then became the Brian Piccolo Specialty School. The current high school building was designed by the firm of
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. ==Athletics==