The school opened in a small building with one teacher, Salina Ferrell Smith, before moving into specially constructed quarters on the ground floor of the Masonic Lodge, completed in December 1871. The building was destroyed by fire in 1878 and replaced in 1879. After two expansions of that building, the school moved in 1914 to its own building with six classrooms and an auditorium, which was replaced in 1937 by a white-brick building on approximately the same site. This was replaced in 1958 and again in 1977 by new buildings on different sites. The school's fourth campus opened in fall 2012; the previous campus became the junior high school.
Speech and debating
In 2010 Hallsville High School won both the UIL 4A LD championship and the CX debate championship. They also won the CX debate championship in 2009. The speech and debate squad has consistently sent a competitor to UIL state in at least one of the speech and debate events. The UIL Academic team was the state runner-up champion in 2010. In 2014, Hallsville High School was the state champion in 4A UIL Academic.
Athletics
The Hallsville Bobcats compete in cross country, volleyball, football, basketball, powerlifting, soccer, golf, tennis, track, softball and baseball. In the 2017-2018 school year the Bobcat Athletics division acquired a new Head Football Coach, however, the football team still did not have a very successful season, with one win and nine losses. This fact upset many members of extra-curricular events, such as Band and UIL, and many have clamored for more budget to be spent on events that are actually successful.
UIL Academics
The Hallsville High School UIL Academic team currently consists of 21 academic teams: Accounting, Computer Applications, Current Issues and Events, Literary Criticism, Ready Writing, Social Studies, Spelling and Vocabulary, Calculator Applications, Computer Science, Mathematics, Number Sense, Robotics, Science, One-Act Play, Theatrical Design, Film, Extemporaneous Speaking, Oral Interpretation, Debate, and Congress. The Academic Team is the largest extra-curricular event at Hallsville High School. In 2018, the Hallsville UIL team hosted the UIL District Meet. In 2019 hallsville sent 23kids to state with Nathan Davis winning state champion in Biology and social studies in region 5. The first state champion for social studies coach Sheila Wright who has been teaching at HHS since 1993. Garret Bell for a second year in a row was state champion in accounting. The accounting team is coached by Amy Fix who has been teaching at HHS since 2011.
Administration
Hallsville ISD is often criticized by many in its own schools that say that the administration in particular superintendent Jeff Callum is out of line with the views of Hallsville ISD. Many people criticize the fact that he makes over $190,000 a year while the average 1st year teacher pay is just over $38,000.
