Halifax Lofts

GENERAL INFORMATION: Halifax High School was constructed between 1935 and 1939, under the Works Progress Administration. The firm Hinnant & Smith of Lynchburg was commissioned as the architect and J.H. Bennett, Inc. as the builder. Halifax High School was designed in the Colonial Revival style, common for institutional and civic buildings of this period. The arrangement of classrooms around a central auditorium reflects the progressive education reforms adopted by the state in the early twentieth century. When the first consolidated county high school was built in 1953, Halifax High School became Halifax Elementary School. The school served as an elementary school until its closure in 2007. As part of the 2015 historic district boundary increase, Halifax High School contributes to the Mountain Road Historic District, which is eligible for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places under Criterion A and Criterion C for the period of 1820 to 1965.

ARCHITECTURAL FEATURES: The U-shaped school consists of two stories of classrooms (and an attic) arranged around a central auditorium. Prominent front gables flank the slate, side-gabled roof. The intersection points of the gables are punctuated with octagonal cupolas with bell-shaped roofs. Hipped dormers are spaced across the front roof plane. Full-height, pedimented porticos, supported by paired square columns, are situated on each end of the front elevation. Beneath the porticos are pedimented entrances with double-leaf doors. The brick walls of the school are laid in an American bond with a Flemish header every sixth row. The multi-light, metal austral windows are arranged in pairs or grouped. Brick jack arches with white keystones surmount the front elevation windows. Single-story porticos, with hipped standing-seam metal roofs, mark the side entrances.