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The next school to be built was Benton Avenue, then called "Academy Avenue" or School No. 5, which was located on the corner of Academy and Benton Avenues. Construction was begun in 1882 but work was suspended due to winter weather. The Board appointed a building committee April 14, 1883, to supervise construction of the school. Ten days later it was decided to heat the structure with steam heat, and the architect made the necessary changes in the plans. Contracts for ventilation and lighting were let May 29. By June 11, the foundation walls had been completed and floor timbers were in place. It was noted the north wall of the foundation had been put up during the fall of 1882, but had to be torn down and relaid due to ice damage. A "thin stratum of quicksand" and been "encountered on the North side," but this did not interfere with the foundation. Early July saw the second floor timbers in place with work on the walls progressing rapidly. By early August, the walls on Benton and Academy Avenues were nearly completed. As previously mentioned, the Middletown Bank on North Street had been built on the site of Middletown's second school house." The five stone steps" which had graced the bank building were removed and used on the Benton Avenue school."
Construction was largely completed by early December, and it was hoped the school would be opened after Christmas vacation. The new school was described as follows:
"The building is, without a doubt, the best ventilated of any school rooin in the country, and is, in all other respects, the peer of any. The building is seventy two feet square, two stories in height, and is built of brick, with Syracuse trimmings. A hall twelve feet wide runs through both stories, and of each side of it, in each story, are two rooms, twenty eight feet square, or eight rooms in all. Each rooin will accommodate about fifty pupils, or about four hundred in the entire building. The ceilings are twelve feet high. The side walls are of plaster, the overhead ceiling is of wood, painted white, so there will never be any accidents from falling plaster. All the outside doors leading from each room open outward into the halls. Each room has six windows, three on each of two sides, giving plenty of light, which will be regulated by a central rolling shade, in the absence of inner blinds. Each room is also provided with two cloak closets, one for boys and one for girls, and a third closet for teachers' supplies, apparatus, etc, Around each room is a black board on the wall make of manilla paper, and of the