{"nrhp_refnum":"00000843","name":"Red Men Hall","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"831-833 Walnut St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Reading","county":"Berks County","state":"PA","lat":40.339258649000044,"lon":-75.92208167599995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2000-07-27","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Red Men Hall is a 4 1/2 story rectangular brick meeting hall in Reading, Berks County, Pennsylvania, built around 1909 for the fraternal Improved Order of Red Men. Its narrow end faces Walnut Street.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the building is a locally significant example of late 19th/early 20th century fraternal hall architecture, reflecting Renaissance Revival and Craftsman styles. Its front facade carries Henry Chapman Mercer mosaic tiles with Native American motifs tied to the fraternal use of the building. The document also links the building to the Red Men's role in the Conrad Weiser Park project.","narrative":"Red Men Hall is a four-and-a-half-story brick meeting hall on Walnut Street in Reading, Berks County, built around 1909 by the Improved Order of Red Men. Its Walnut Street facade has a grid of square windows, large ground-floor brick arches with cut limestone keystones and bands, and a continuous three-story bay window at the center. The facade's mosaic tiles, designed by Henry Chapman Mercer and made by the Moravian Pottery and Tile Works, show Native American motifs that reflect the building's fraternal use. Muhlenberg Bros., Architects designed the hall, which the Red Men occupied from 1910 until 1938. The nomination regards it as a well-preserved example of Renaissance Revival brickwork and Craftsman detailing from its period. Later alterations include bricked-in side openings and aluminum doors, probably from the 1970s. The building was sold to the Grand Army of the Republic in 1949.","period_of_significance":"1909-1910","architect_builder":"Muhlenberg Bros., Architects (architect); Landis Co., O.M. (installed tile work)","architectural_style":"Renaissance Revival; Craftsman; Italian Renaissance","criteria":["C"],"status_note":"The document describes the building as currently vacant, with poor interior and window condition and boarded openings.","vacant_flag":true,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:37.431288-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/00000843.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/00000843/588437e2ae-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/00000843/588437e2ae-1600.webp","licence":"CC0","author":"Smallbones","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Red_Men_Hall_Reading.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Smallbones</a>, <a href=\"http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Red_Men_Hall_Reading.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71997920","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Men_Hall_(Reading,_Pennsylvania)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7304590"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/berks-county/red-men-hall-00000843/"}