Located along S. 16th Street, the school was designed by Joseph Anschutz and built under the direction of Charles O'Neill, Jr.[1] The three-story brick building was built in a regular rectangular plan in the Victorian style of architecture, with three chimneys dominating its facade.

[4]: 6 Anschutz worked in the tradition of Samuel Sloan's "Philadelphia Plan" of school architecture: On each floor, classrooms opened onto a single corridor, and were divided by moveable partitions.

Stairways and other non-classroom space were located at the end of the corridor, near the outside of the building.

[2]: 1 In 1986, the Francis Drexel School was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in recognition of its architectural significance.

[9] Media related to Francis M. Drexel School at Wikimedia Commons