The building cost a little more than $800,000 and was designed by Frederic P. Wiedersum, founder of Wiedersum Associates Architects, PLLC. William Laverty, an architect who at the Hauppauge firm today, said Mepham was recognized as one of the first contemporary high schools in North America for its design.

Wiedersum, who founded his firm in 1926, first designed schools in the Valley Stream Central High School District in 1929, but Laverty said there’s something unique about Mepham.

“It has a different look because there’s a roundness to it,” he said. “The marble and other interior materials are far too expensive to be used today, but they help make it an outstanding looking building.”

Alumni and current members of the school’s staff said three parts of the building stand out: the main entryway featuring high ceilings and columns, the auditorium and the library. Two of these areas recently underwent restoration, thanks to gifts from the alumni association.

The group donated about $40,000 –– raised through membership fees and donations –– to the school in 2007 so the map that spans one auditorium wall could be restored. The mural, which Worthing said might have been acquired from the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City, is believed to be the largest painted map of Long Island.

According to the Society for the Preservation of Long Island Antiquities, the 80-foot wide map was painted on canvas off-site in sections and applied to the wall after the school’s construction in 1937. In its 2007 Preservation Notes newsletter, the group said the mural had not been maintained since a section was added to the school in the 1960s.

Worthing said a Long Island conservator, Jonathan Sherman, was hired for the project because alumni wanted workers to handle the mural with care. “They went over every inch of the map,” he said. “There were places that faded or were damaged. They discovered areas that were painted over.”

Conservators also worked on the library restoration, which was completed this summer. Gino DiClemente, who has been head custodian at Mepham since 1987, proposed the idea of treating the wood and other areas of the room that librarian Shari Stack said is loved by students and staff alike.