{"nrhp_refnum":"03000078","name":"Boekel Building","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"505-515 Vine St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Philadelphia","county":"Philadelphia","state":"PA","lat":39.95657016800004,"lon":-75.14783698699995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2003-02-20","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Industry","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A six-story Commercial Style factory building of brick, terra cotta and reinforced concrete at 505-515 Vine Street on the northeast corner of Vine and Randolph Streets in Philadelphia. It was designed by architect-engineer Clarence Wunder and built in 1922-1923 for William Boekel & Company.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the building is significant under criterion A for its association with the scientific instrument maker William Boekel & Co. and its reflection of Philadelphia industrial history. It is also significant under criterion C as an early 20th-century reinforced concrete factory by an architect known for industrial buildings, with mushroom column and slab construction that remains largely intact.","narrative":"Built in 1922-1923 to a design by architect-engineer Clarence Wunder, this six-story factory at 505-515 Vine Street in Philadelphia is a Commercial Style building of brick, terra cotta and reinforced concrete. Its massive brick piers, broad window banks and a terra cotta entrance framed with fleurs de lis and seashell motifs give it a clear industrial character. Its interior uses exposed mushroom columns carrying flat concrete floor slabs, a system that suited heavy loads and vibration-sensitive work. William Boekel & Company, a scientific instrument and laboratory equipment maker founded in 1868 as a plumbing supplies firm, occupied the lower floors and rented the upper floors to metalworking firms. The building is significant for its link to that company, which moved here after its previous plant at 518 Vine Street was demolished for the approach to the Benjamin Franklin Bridge, and for its reinforced concrete factory construction. The company remained in the building until 1992.","period_of_significance":"1922-1952","architect_builder":"Clarence Wunder (architect-engineer)","architectural_style":"Commercial Style","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Most windows and the front door were replaced c.1992; the building was occupied by the Boekel company until 1992 and the document describes it as remarkably well preserved.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:37.870275-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/03000078.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/03000078/8edf26f97c-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/03000078/8edf26f97c-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"Beyond My Ken","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Boekel_Building_505-515_Vine_Street_from_west.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Beyond My Ken</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:Boekel_Building_505-515_Vine_Street_from_west.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71997502","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boekel_Building","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4937161"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/philadelphia/boekel-building-03000078/"}