Craigsville School
Why it's listed
Craigsville School is a two-story brick building on Railroad Avenue in western Augusta County, completed in 1917 to serve the booming mountain town of Craigsville. A Staunton contractor, who brought most of his workmen from the city, built it with County funding to replace a smaller frame school on the same site. The symmetrical block has a hip roof, granite jack arches over tall six-over-six windows, shingled cross gables with fanlights, a wooden entrance portico and an octagonal wooden belfry. Inside, four rooms and a central hall on each floor housed all grades through high school. A new high school opened in 1932, and the older building served as the elementary school until 1968, then sat vacant until 1983-84, when it was converted into fourteen apartments. It is valued as an excellent example of large consolidated school construction from the 1910s, before standardized state plans, and for what it shows about Craigsville's early twentieth-century growth.
Significance in brief: The nomination calls it an excellent example of the first major phase of large consolidated school construction in Augusta County in the 1910s. Its four-room-per-floor plan with central hall is typical of consolidated schools built before the State Department of Education's Plan Service of the 1920s. It also reflects the growth of Craigsville as a lumbering, quarrying and cement-producing community.
Machine-generated summary. This summary was generated by a language model from the official nomination document and has not been reviewed line by line by an editor. It may contain errors. Check the source document before relying on any detail. Source: nomination document (PDF) · National Archives catalog entry. NRHP reference 85000383, listed February 27, 1985. Summary generated October 2026 (model claude-sonnet-5-5, prompt v1.0-2026-10-29, confidence medium).
Key facts
| Address | Railroad Ave., Craigsville |
|---|---|
| County | Augusta County |
| Listed | February 27, 1985 |
| Reference number | 85000383 |
| Resource type | Building |
| Architect / builder | A Staunton contractor; Mr. Sneider and Mr. Crittenberger of Staunton were among the men involved in construction |
| Architectural style | Colonial Revival/Vernacular |
| Areas of significance | Community Planning and Development, Education, Politics/Government, Architecture |
| Level of significance | State |
| Status (as stated in the nomination) | Remodeled in 1983-84 into fourteen apartments using tax act credits; condition described as very good and altered. It had remained vacant from 1968 until the remodeling. |
| Acreage | 1 |
| Coordinates | 38.07955, -79.37972 (NPS GIS) |
What listing means for this property
For a publicly owned building or structure, listing mainly matters when federal funds, permits or licences are involved: projects then go through Section 106 review so effects on the property are considered. Listing also strengthens applications for preservation grants and, for leased income-producing uses, can enable the federal rehabilitation tax credit.
General information, not legal or tax advice. Rules change; confirm with your State Historic Preservation Office or a qualified adviser.
Sources and further reading
- National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places database (snapshot May 2026), reference 85000383.
- Nomination form (PDF, National Archives) — catalog entry
- Wikipedia article (used for cross-checking only; text not reproduced here)
- Wikidata Q14712209
- This listing as JSON
Last updated October 2026. Found an error? See the editorial policy for how to report it.