{"nrhp_refnum":"01000594","name":"Chicago Telephone Company Kedzie Exchange","other_names":["Wilhelm K. Roetgen Elementary School"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"17 S. Homan Ave.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Chicago","county":"Cook County","state":"IL","lat":41.88031349500005,"lon":-87.71087020399995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2001-05-30","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Communications","Social History","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A telephone exchange building at 17 South Homan Avenue in Chicago, just south of Garfield Park, designed by Pond & Pond and built in 1906-1907, then enlarged in 1913, 1928 and 1948 by Holabird & Roche.","why_significant":"It is a representative example of Chicago's neighborhood telephone exchanges, and the nomination argues it shows how the telephone company and its architects designed civic-looking buildings with attention to the welfare of a largely female operator workforce. Its additions record the rapid growth of telephone service. It also reflects the Classical Revival style and its later reuse as a public school.","narrative":"Located at 17 South Homan Avenue, just south of Garfield Park in Chicago, this former telephone exchange began as an L-shaped, three-story Classical Revival building designed by Pond & Pond in 1906. Holabird & Roche enlarged it in 1913, 1928 and 1948, producing a rectangular plan around an open interior court. The fireproof structure of concrete and steel has a stone and brick facade with a rusticated lower story and an arched entrance. Inside, the plan separated work by use and gender. Male employees occupied the basement and first floor, operators worked at switchboards on the second floor, and a rest room and dining room occupied the third. Flower-box sills and floral stair details reflect the architects' concern for the largely female workforce. Irving Pond defended this approach against criticism of the building's ornament. In the 1960s the building became a public school. It is now vacant but structurally sound, and it is significant locally for communications, social history and architecture.","period_of_significance":"Communications 1906-1950; Social History 1906-1928; Architecture 1906-1948","architect_builder":"Pond, Irving K. (1857-1939); Pond, Allen B. (1858-1929); Holabird & Roche","architectural_style":"Late 19th and 20th Century Revivals: Classical Revival","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Vacant and deteriorated but structurally sound; used as a public school from the 1960s until it closed in the 1990s; plans are being pursued to renovate it.","vacant_flag":true,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:37.224846-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/76/8925/28892576/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_IL/01000594.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/01000594/7af9d28654-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/01000594/7af9d28654-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"Zol87 from Chicago, IL, USA","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chicago_Telephone_Company_Kedzie_Exchange_Building.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Zol87 from Chicago, IL, USA</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chicago_Telephone_Company_Kedzie_Exchange_Building.jpg"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"12000040","name":"Chicago Park Boulevard System Historic District","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/illinois/chicago-park-boulevard-system-historic-district-12000040/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/28892576","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Telephone_Company_Kedzie_Exchange","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q60753996"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/illinois/cook-county/chicago-telephone-company-kedzie-exchange-01000594/"}