In 1860, when the educators of Marshall decided to build three primary schools, they chose for the Fourth Ward School a site on Capitol Hill facing the vacant statehouse square. All three schools were designed in the Gothic Revival style by Smith of Detroit, the first in the dynasty of architects that became the present-day firm of SmithGroup, Incorporated. Of the three schools, only this one survives. The two-room, red brick school is cruciform in plan. A hipped roof covers the central portion; pierced, decorative bargeboards in the projecting gables and gable wings and pointed-arched windows provide the Gothic decorative features; paired brackets and the wide eaves are Italianate elements.