The common school was built in 1859 to consolidate many of the one-room schools then operating in the borough. It is a large brick structure of two stories, with a central gable-roofed core linking three large hipped-roof wings, each with a pedimented wall dormer ornamented with a circular vent. The school is unusual for the amount of original fabric remaining, such as sawn trim on two facade porches, original six-over-six windows, and round-arched windows in the upper story of the central pavilion. Sited on a large lawn in the residential section of Bedford, the former school now houses the National Museum of the American Coverlet on the first story, and offices on the second.