You are here

West Virginia » Northern West Virginia » Monongalia County » Morgantown » Morgantown High School

Morgantown High School

-A A +A
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.
×

Data

What's Nearby

C. L. Chenoweth House
Alexander Wade House
Waitman T. Willey House
Lustron House
Lustron House

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.

If SAH Archipedia has been useful to you, please consider supporting it.

SAH Archipedia tells the story of the United States through its buildings, landscapes, and cities. This freely available resource empowers the public with authoritative knowledge that deepens their understanding and appreciation of the built environment. But the Society of Architectural Historians, which created SAH Archipedia with University of Virginia Press, needs your support to maintain the high-caliber research, writing, photography, cartography, editing, design, and programming that make SAH Archipedia a trusted online resource available to all who value the history of place, heritage tourism, and learning.

,