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Morgantown High School

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1925–1926, Edward B. Lee. 1940, attrib. Tucker and Silling. 1990s, Alpha Associates. Bounded by Edgewood St. and Wilson and Prairie aves.
  • (West Virginia Collection within the Carol M. Highsmith Archive, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division)

Pittsburgh architect Lee designed at least three of the four brick buildings that make up this imposing Georgian Revival academic complex: the main building, the gymnasium, and the shop-cafeteria. Although his 1920s plans envisioned an auditorium, it was built only in 1940 and then apparently to a different design. The four buildings surround the athletic field, and all but the shop-cafeteria have cupolas astride their roofs. The main building, which stretches almost 400 feet, provides the most important architectural presence. Accommodating a large municipal high school's several functions in four separate buildings was unusual for its time, and the arrangement has closer affinities to a private preparatory school than to a public institution. That the components continue to serve their original purposes proves the enduring validity of the concept.

Writing Credits

Author: 
S. Allen Chambers Jr.
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Citation

S. Allen Chambers Jr., "Morgantown High School", [Morgantown, West Virginia], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/WV-01-ML14.

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