Adams Elementary School was constructed in 1939 with the assistance of the Public Works Administration (PWA) in the City of Janesville, Rock County, Wisconsin. Adams 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. Adams 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, Adams Elementary School is significant at the local level under as a distinctive example of a Classical Revival educational building. The Madison-based architectural firm of Law, Law, and Potter designed Adams Elementary School in the Classical Revival style with influences of the contemporaneous Stripped Classicism and Art Deco styles. Emblematic of the Classical Revival style, the school exhibits balanced facades, classically derived entablatures and pediments, and a distinctive, classically derived entrance and cupola. The influence of Stripped Classicism and Art Deco are present in the austere execution of the classical details and the incorporation of reeded and angular features on secondary elevations and in the interior. The first addition was constructed in 1951–1952 and was similarly designed by Law, Law, Potter, and Nystrom to be consistent with the architectural character of the original school. Subsequent additions were constructed in 1976 and 1995.