House (Middletown School)

House (Middletown School)

House (Middletown School) Photograph by D Hughes
c. 1909, Charles M. Robinson(?). 7600 block of N. Main St.

When the cornerstone for the Middletown School was laid on May 20, 1909, it attracted one of the biggest crowds to congregate in town. According to newspaper accounts, people came by train, buggy, and car to witness the event, including the assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the commissioner of agriculture of Virginia. The building was the first high school built in Frederick County and one of the first agricultural high schools in Virginia. It served as an elementary school from 1950 until it closed in 1983. Architecturally sophisticated, the two-story Classical Revival brick building sits on a raised stone basement and features a hipped roof clad in slate shingles, large nine-over-nine sash windows, and a recessed entrance with a Palladian-like window on the second story. The school is similar to other high schools by Robinson (
AA7
, and probably
FR33
). The building is now used as a house.

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