According to various notices in Manufacturers Record, Wheeling architect Millard F. Giesey, alone or in partnership with either Edward Franzheim or Frederic Faris or both, obtained the majority of Mannington's most important commissions during its heyday. His public school, the largest building in town, indicates that Mannington, although a boomtown, had its priorities in order. A huge Romanesque Revival pile, seemingly capable of holding the town's entire population, the red-brick school is fronted with a one-story, triple-arched stone portico, or loggia, that connects two rounded wings covered with dormered conical roofs. A campanile with a corbeled balcony beneath the belfry rises above and between the rounded wings. Unfortunately, its steepled top is now missing.
Behind the grandiose, almost pompous frontispiece, the remainder of the building is a staid three-story block with ranks of classroom windows. The Mannington District Public High School (1925), now the Mannington Middle School, stands to the rear. Another large red brick building, it, too, has ranks of classroom windows.