Washington Elementary School was constructed in 1939 with the assistance of the Public Works Administration (PWA) in the City of Janesville, Rock County, Wisconsin. Washington Elementary School was constructed in fulfillment of the Janesville Board of Education’s early twentieth century building program and the State Department of Education’s recommendations to establish a three-tier school system in Janesville consisting of graded elementary, junior high (also referred to as middle school), and senior high schools in the 1920s and 1930s. It is one of the four elementary schools constructed in Janesville between 1929 and 1939, pursuant to the State Department of Education’s recommendations, and is one of the four oldest operational modern elementary schools in the city. Washington Elementary School is significant at the local level in the area of Education as a representation of the establishment of the contemporary public school system in Janesville and the adaptation of the buildings to meet changing educational needs.

In the area of Architecture, Washington Elementary School is also significant at the local level as a distinctive example of a Classical Revival educational building. The Madison-based architectural firm of Law, Law, and Potter designed Washington Elementary School in the Classical Revival style with influences of the contemporaneous Stripped Classicist style. Emblematic of the Classical Revival style, the school exhibits orderly facades rhythmically punctuated with windows, a distinct axial plan, raised corner quoins, and classically derived embellishments to mark the original primary and secondary entrances including fluted pilasters, simplified entablatures, broken pediment, scrolled finials, and a rotunda. The influence of Stripped Classicism is present in the austere execution of the classical details such as the cast stone pilasters and rotunda columns that are rectangular and flattened with only vertical and horizontal incising to allude to column bases and capitals. The first addition was completed 1952 and was similarly designed by Law, Law, Potter, and Nystrom to be consistent with the architectural character of the original school. A subsequent addition was constructed along the rear of elevation between 1992 and 1994.