{"nrhp_refnum":"04000882","name":"Mulford Building","other_names":["Metropolitan Building"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"640 N. Broad St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Philadelphia","county":"Philadelphia","state":"PA","lat":39.96603987300006,"lon":-75.17361848999997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2004-08-20","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Health/Medicine"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A 9-story manufacturers' loft building at 640 N. Broad Street at the southwest corner of Broad and Wallace Streets in Philadelphia, built 1912-1913 with a 1934 four-story addition on the southwest corner.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the building is significant for its association with the pharmaceutical industry in Philadelphia, as the H.K. Mulford Company and successor firms used it for production, packaging and distribution of biological products. It is also argued to be an important example of a manufacturers' loft building designed by industrial architect Charles Balderston.","narrative":"Built in 1912-1913 as a nine-story garment manufacturers' loft on North Broad Street in Philadelphia, the building rises from a limestone base to a brick shaft and a copper cornice. Its tripartite Broad Street facade has a two-story portico with Tuscan columns. Originally called the Metropolitan Building, it housed about 29 garment tenants between 1913 and 1918, with nearly 1,100 workers recorded in 1914. In 1918 the H.K. Mulford Company bought it for pharmaceutical production and distribution, and it became the corporate headquarters for the firm and its successors, Sharp & Dohme and Merck, Sharp & Dohme. A four-story addition was built on the southwest corner in 1934. The building is important for its link to Philadelphia's biological drug industry and for its design by architect Charles Balderston as a manufacturers' loft. In recent years it had been used for artists' lofts and has been vacant for about two years.","period_of_significance":"1912-1954","architect_builder":"Balderston, Charles","architectural_style":"LATE 19th AND 20th CENTURY REVIVALS/Classical Revival","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"For the past two years, the building has stood vacant.","vacant_flag":true,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:10:27.243007-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/04000882.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/04000882/0758779ec4-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/04000882/0758779ec4-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Smallbones","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:640_Broad_Philly.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Smallbones</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:640_Broad_Philly.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71997296","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulford_Building","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6933941"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/philadelphia/mulford-building-04000882/"}