Overlooking Washington Park is this three-story Italian Renaissance Revival school building with red brick walls trimmed in yellowish terracotta under a red tile roof. The main entrance has a loggia of five arches with griffins and grotesques perched above to keep students in line. A large, square tower, banded with several bracketed cornices, features a clock face. Inside, the study hall is guarded by an owl, a crowing cock, a parrot, and a penguin exemplifying wisdom, early rising, recitation, and deportment. The Denver School Board set high design standards in the 1920s and hired Denver's leading architects, granting them artistic freedom, a policy that proved its worth in South High.