{"nrhp_refnum":"85000387","name":"Middlebrook High School","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"VA 670","address_restricted":false,"city":"Middlebrook","county":"Augusta County","state":"VA","lat":38.050096438000026,"lon":-79.21295304099993,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1985-02-27","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Community Planning and Development","Education","Politics/Government","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-story frame high school and community building with full basement, built in 1923 on Route 670 in Middlebrook, Augusta County, Virginia, to a State Board of Education plan. It sits within a school complex that includes an elementary school and an agricultural shop building.","why_significant":"The nomination finds local significance because it is the county's best illustration of the consolidated school doubling as a community center. Its customized State plan shows the variety in school designs before standardized plans were adopted. With the 1916 grade school and the agricultural shop, it survives as one of the best-preserved early twentieth-century school complexes in the county.","narrative":"Middlebrook High School, built in 1923 on Route 670 in Middlebrook, is a two-story frame building with a full basement, a hipped metal roof and a front porch copied from the older grade school beside it. The State Board of Education prepared its plans in 1922, and local residents raised funds and supplied much of the labor, with Irvin Swortzel of Middlebrook closely involved in construction. The design gave unusual weight to shared space: an auditorium on the main floor, a gymnasium filling the second floor, and a kitchen and dining hall in the basement, in addition to only four classrooms. It is listed for its local importance as the county's clearest example of a consolidated school serving as a community center, for its customized State plan, and for its place in a surviving school complex that also includes the 1916 grade school and an agricultural shop. The school closed in 1967 and has since been used for storage.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Irvin Swortzel","architectural_style":"Vernacular","criteria":[],"status_note":"Used for storage since the school closed in 1967; condition listed as fair and not substantially remodeled.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:52:01.142566-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/80/6785/41678580/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_VA/85000387.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/85000387/19ea25cc5b-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/85000387/19ea25cc5b-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Nyttend","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Middlebrook_School_front.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Nyttend</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Middlebrook_School_front.jpg"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"83003259","name":"Middlebrook Historic District","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/virginia/middlebrook-historic-district-83003259/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/41678580","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middlebrook_Schools","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q14712838"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/virginia/augusta-county/middlebrook-high-school-85000387/"}