The former Locust Avenue School, at 26 Locust Avenue in Danbury, was built in 1896 as an elementary school to serve students in the eastern part of the city. The Romanesque Revival structure was designed by architect Warren R. Briggs of Bridgeport, who featured an illustration and floorplan of the school in his book, Modern American School Buildings (1899), where its referred to as “Center School.” His advanced ideas of school construction involved a ventilation system and high ceilings to keep the classrooms airy and bright with abundant natural light. Briggs had earlier designed a sister school, erected on Morris Street in 1893, that served students in the western part of the city.
In 1905, administration of the school was transferred to the Danbury State Normal School (now Western Connecticut State University), which provided teaching staff until 1965, when control was turned over to the Danbury Board of Education. The building’s last year as an elementary school was 1976. Since then, it has served as a high school for at-risk students and now known as the Alternative Center for Excellence.