This fine Public Works Administration (PWA)-funded Moderne public school is an unusual departure from the Colonial Revival complexes more typically built in southwestern Virginia. Two stories high and of pale buff-colored brick with cast-stone details, the long building has a strong vertical counter emphasis created by regularly spaced piers marking classroom divisions. Shorter and narrower piers separate window openings. The entrance is monumentalized by massive piers and fluted quarter-columns whose simple geometric decoration draws from classical ornament. A pair of large bronze lanterns with orange glass shades flanks the heavy bronze and glass double-leaf entrance doors. This building provides an unexpected jolt of early modern design in Hillsville.