“With schools in general, one of the things that’s changed over the last 50 or 60 years is just the amount of school funding available,” Jaggers said. “It’s definitely affected the building side. ... The emphasis is getting the most bang for the buck in terms of square footage.”

A combination of factors played into changing tastes and standards. Art deco had nearly run its course when Webster was built, and the end of the Great Depression and the coming of World War II meant the end of jobs programs like the WPA and the federal money that went with them.

And then came the Cold War.

“Schools in the ’60s and ’70s were often built in conjunction with a bomb shelter,” Jaggers said. “A lot of cinder block construction. They were practical and very durable but very institutional.”

Connie McFarland of McFarland Architects phrased it another way.

“Schools were built like jails,” she said.

That may have been the nadir of school design. McFarland and Jaggers say recent trends in school design are resulting in distinctive if not exactly classic buildings, especially inside.