The Izmir Secondary School was founded in July 1302/1884–85.
Although the school was converted into a boarding school by imperial decree in 1304/1886–87, its day school section continued to operate. Since the school included the rüştiye level in accordance with the central provinces’ preparatory school curriculum, it was established with seven grades.
The school also had a separate preparatory branch at the rüştiye level specifically for day students. Graduates of the school were eligible to attend higher institutions such as the mekâtib-i mülkiye and mekâtib-i hukuk.
The Izmir Preparatory School was located next to the Government House, overlooking the sea.
The three-story building housed a dining hall, pantry, storage room, and prayer room on the first floor; classrooms, administrative offices, and teachers’ rooms on the second floor; and dormitories on the third floor. Behind the school were the kitchen, the equipment room (Hikmethâne), and the bathhouse. Students were required to bathe once a week. The school had a full-time physician and an infirmary (revir). While the majority of students at the Izmir Preparatory School came from the sanjaks and districts under the province, students from other provinces also attended due to the high quality of education provided there. The school covered the food and beverage expenses of these students. Boarding students were divided into two categories: those who paid tuition and those who did not; an annual fee of two lira was collected from the paying students. Students admitted on a tuition-free basis were selected each year according to a rotation system organized by the province and its subordinate sanjaks.
It began its educational activities as a five-year Mekteb-i İdadi (elementary school) with 120 students in the old courthouse building that had burned down (in the area where the current governor’s office is located). The first principal was Abdurrahman Bey, a history and geography teacher. In 1890, it became a seven-year idadi. After the Second Constitutional Era, in 1910, during the tenure of the then Minister of National Education, Emrullah Efendi, it became the Mekteb-i Sultani (high school).
During the Greek occupation, the Greeks converted it into a courthouse; after the Turkish army liberated Izmir from the Greeks, it continued to be used as a courthouse until the suspicious fire in 1970. The high school, meanwhile, was moved to the Greek Gündüzlü Girls’ School after 1925 and continues to provide education at the same location under the name İzmir Atatürk High School.
