Old Somersworth High School
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The Old Somersworth High School, also formerly the Hilltop Elementary School, is a historic school building at 17 Grand Street in Somersworth, New Hampshire. It is a three-story brick Georgian Revival building, constructed in 1927 on the site of
New Hampshire New Hampshire is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...
's oldest high school. It was designed by
Charles Greely Loring Charles Greely Loring may refer to: * Charles Greely Loring (architect) (1881–1966), American architect based in Boston, son of the Civil War general * Charles Greely Loring (general) (1828–1902), Union Army general during the Civil War, later ...
, and served as a high school until 1956 and an elementary school until 2007. The building was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
in 2015.


Description and history

The former Somersworth High School building stands in a generally residential area on a ridge overlooking downtown Somersworth, on an irregularly shaped lot bounded by Grove, Grand, Highland, and Prospect Streets. It is a three-story masonry structure, built out of brick with stone trim, and faces southeast toward Grand Street. It is roughly H-shaped, with front and rear wings joined by a wide central connector. Windows are generally set in rectangular openings with stone sills and lintels, and a stone cornice is topped by a low brick parapet, obscuring the flat roof. The front facade is fifteen bays wide, with the main entrance at its center, recessed in a square stone-faced opening. Somersworth built New Hampshire's first municipal high school, on this site in 1849. That aging structure was replaced by the present Georgian Revival structure in 1927, and was considered a state-of-the-art high school at the time. It was enlarged in 1939, adding space for vocational training and a biology laboratory. It was used as a high school until 1956, when the city built a new high school. It was then adapted for use as an elementary school, a role it served until closing in 2007.


See also

*
National Register of Historic Places listings in Strafford County, New Hampshire This is a list of the National Register of Historic Places listings in Strafford County, New Hampshire. This is intended to be a complete list of the properties and districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Strafford County, New ...


References

{{NRHP in Strafford County, New Hampshire School buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in New Hampshire Colonial Revival architecture in New Hampshire School buildings completed in 1937 Schools in Strafford County, New Hampshire Somersworth, New Hampshire National Register of Historic Places in Strafford County, New Hampshire