{"nrhp_refnum":"08000117","name":"Grafton School","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"1111 Elm St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Grafton","county":"Lorain County","state":"OH","lat":41.275886437000054,"lon":-82.05060141699994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2008-02-21","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Education","Social History","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-story brick Art Deco school building at 1111 Elm Street in Grafton, Lorain County, Ohio, built in 1936 as a WPA project to house grades 1-12, with an L-shaped addition from 1959. The architect is named as Walter G. Caldwell.","why_significant":"The nomination argues it is significant under Criterion A for social history, as an example of a New Deal WPA school built in Ohio during the Depression when local voters could no longer fund a new school. It is also significant under Criterion C as a rare Art Deco design for an Ohio school and as a model of efficient Progressive-era school planning.","narrative":"Grafton School is a two-story brick school at 1111 Elm Street in Grafton, Ohio, completed in 1936 to house grades 1 through 12. Its Art Deco design features low horizontal massing, bands of steel casement windows, grey Manganese brick and a carved stone entrance tower with reeding and stylized wing motifs. A 1959 addition, built to match, changed the footprint from a T to a U shape and served the postwar baby boom. Inside, a ten-foot central corridor, yellow glazed brick walls and a combined gymnasium and auditorium reflect a design built around efficiency and shared use by the town. The building was funded through the Works Progress Administration after local voters rejected a levy during the Great Depression, and it is one of 249 WPA school buildings in Ohio. It was listed for its role in social history and for its uncommon Art Deco style among Ohio schools. It was used as a school until 2005.","period_of_significance":"1936-1959","architect_builder":"Walter G. Caldwell (architect)","architectural_style":"Modern Movement, Art Deco","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Listed current function is vacant, not in use; the building served as a school until 2005, and the form lists work in progress and multiple dwelling as current functions.","vacant_flag":true,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:52:07.02779-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_OH/08000117.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/08000117/0f23b5d269-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/08000117/0f23b5d269-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"TnrSmith","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Grafton_Elementary_School.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">TnrSmith</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Grafton_Elementary_School.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71989865","wikipedia":null,"wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q138508588"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/ohio/lorain-county/grafton-school-08000117/"}