The Greenbelt Center School, designed by Douglas Ellington and Reginald D. Wadsworth in 1936, is in itself, a piece of art. Not only did it manage to house an elementary school but also, all the organization, club, and church meetings and activities of Greenbelt. Its simple, functional design matched what dominated most of the town and proved to be a fine example of Art Deco and New Deal aesthetics. The central location helped make the building a familiar visual feature of the community.
The Center school is connected to the houses via walkways and
crosswalks. Set back from the street a fair distance, it combines
straight and simple lines in a streamlined form, featuring rectilinear
windows and glass brick along the sides and rear of the building. 
On the
front, six bas-relief panels, sculpted by Lenore Thomas, a New Deal WPA
artist, illustrates the purposes expressed in the Preamble of our
Constitution. It appears to be a small, two story building from the
front, but because it was set on a slope, most of the volume is in the
rear. The space inside amounts to 67,700 square feet.
A few features of the interior are noticed right away when entering the building. Colored tile designs cover the floors and walls and there is abundance of natural light from the glass bricks that allow light from outside to reach the hallway. The glass bricks were carefully placed to eliminate dark corners, stairways, and halls. The building was, at first, equipped with thirteen classrooms for kindergarten and elementary school and included rooms for a library, home-ec, arts and crafts, wood shop, first-aid, offices, and locker rooms. An auditorium and gymnasium was located in the front, fully equipped to house the majority of activities and large meetings with performance stage and partition. The North End was an addition built in 1968, however, the original floor plan was sufficient enough for the social and educational center that it was originally planned for.
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