Columbia High School’s unornamented concrete walls, flat roofs, horizontal bands of steel windows, steel pipe railings, and bold signage mark it as an early International Style building in the state. In Architectural Concrete (1938), designer A. Hays Town described the design as “ultramodern,” in contrast to Jackson’s Bailey Junior High School (JM46), which he termed “conservative-modern.” Town also noted that the combination auditorium-gymnasium at the east end was made “separate and prominent because the school building serves also as a community center … [and it] is located near the corner of the plan to give free access to traffic and parking.” At the front entrance, the liberal use of glass block and the circular window reflect a lingering Moderne taste, as do the tall entrance pylons, which, Town wrote, offer “a strong vertical contrast to the horizontal movement of the rest of the building.” Inside, a small two-story lobby lit by glass block opens to offices, classrooms, and the second-floor library. The school was widely published in architectural journals, including Architecture d’Aujourd’hui in 1937.