The school relocated to its present home in 1929, when William H. Gompert had replaced Snyder as Superintendent of School Building. He was a prodigious builder, who enjoyed the advantages of designing schools for the outer boroughs. Gompert’s design for Clinton sprawled over the generous site, with a three-story main building, a towered entrance, a large auditorium in the middle of an interior courtyard, and a gymnasium.

Only four years after its opening, enrollment at 5,600-seat Clinton was dramatically increased by the Depression and anti-child labor laws, peaking at 12,000. It remained the most populous New York high school for most of the twentieth century. The third-floor hallway contains two huge New Deal murals by Alfred Floegel: The History of the World (walls) and Constellations (ceiling). The oil on canvas murals were painted in 1934-1940. It was reported in 2018 that they had been damaged by being partially covered with a layer of blue paint.