Its early (for a school) use of the Beaux-Arts style and placement on a rise in the land give it a monumental quality despite its relatively small size.

The school building is located on a one-acre (4,000 m2) lot the north side of Croton, a quarter-mile (500 m) northeast of where it forks off from Highland Avenue (U.S. Route 9) in downtown Ossining.

It is just west of Todd Place, and the intersection where Dale Avenue (New York State Route 134) forks off to the northeast.

In the middle is the recessed main entrance, with double wooden doors in a classically detailed segmental-arched surround and narrow one-over-one double-hung sash windows on either side.

[5] On the second and third stories of the projecting middle section, the three bays are set with triple three-over-three double-hung sash.

At the top is a wide frieze, then a wider terra cotta entablature with "WASHINGTON SCHOOL" inscribed in a central tablet.

Their entrances have a similar surround, but are topped with a recessed two-story segmental arch with windows that light the staircase behind them.

The auditorium section has large tripartite windows with transoms, giving way to six-over-six double-hung sash backstage.

Two central corridors on either side cross the building, with the east-west one providing access to the stairs at either end.

The auditorium has its original fold-down wooden chairs and ceiling skylight with a stained glass emblem in the center depicting a ship with sails and the legend "Embark on a voyage of knowledge.

"[5] Originally known as Sing Sing, Ossining first prospered in the 18th and early 19th centuries as one of many farm communities shipping produce to New York City via sloops on the Hudson River, benefiting from the village's location at a crossroads with a turnpike connecting it to farms further inland, corresponding to the current intersection of Croton and Highland avenues.

The construction of one of New York's first prisons near the port in the 1820s spurred some additional development, and when the Hudson River Railroad was built in the middle of the century industrialization soon followed.

[5] The village's older system of small wooden schoolhouses was no longer adequate to educate its children to the level society desired, and Washington was commissioned as its first modern school.

He included a number of modern features that had already become standard on other institutional buildings of the era, such as large windows to let in natural light, partially enclosed steel stairways to provide better fire safety, and central heating.

Only one other building in the village, the Bank for Savings, a contributing property to the Downtown Ossining Historic District built the year after the school, would use it.

The school is a particular strong example of the style, with its axial symmetry, advancing and retreating wall planes and classical detailing.

As the school district's reach extended beyond the town and village of Ossining to neighboring New Castle, racial disparities became evident.