{"nrhp_refnum":"08001267","name":"St. Stanislaus Institute","other_names":["St. Stanislaus Orphanage","Holy Child Church"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"141 Old Newport St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Newport Township","county":"Luzerne County","state":"PA","lat":41.19241675200004,"lon":-76.01597754199997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2008-12-30","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Social History"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A former Catholic orphanage campus in Sheatown, Newport Township, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, made up of several interconnected and separate buildings in Spanish Mission and Modern styles, built between 1918 and 1939. The campus is now partly vacant, with the chapel still serving as an active parish church.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the campus is locally significant under Criterion A for its association with Catholic orphanage care in the Diocese of Scranton, serving Polish children for over sixty years. It documents the Polish parish community that founded the institution and the social welfare programs it ran, including schooling, medical clinics and residential care.","narrative":"Sheatown, a village in Newport Township near Nanticoke, is the setting for this campus of brick, stucco and clay-block buildings erected between 1918 and 1939. The first building, the boys' dormitory, was dedicated on July 4, 1919, and housed 200 children in its first years. A girls' dormitory designed by Alexander Prawdzik followed in 1924, with a rectory and a laundry and boiler house added in 1939 along with the Holy Child chapel. The institution was founded by the Polish parishes of the Scranton Diocese, which raised funds to buy the land and build the orphanage for children who had lost parents to the influenza outbreak, mining accidents and wartime deaths. Children were schooled, cared for medically and housed until age sixteen. The Diocese closed the facility in 1972. The buildings are regarded as significant for their association with Catholic social welfare and the Polish community in the Wyoming Valley.","period_of_significance":"1918-1958","architect_builder":"Alexander I. Prawdzik (architect, Girls Building); Construction Service Company, Inc. (builder, Girls Building); Ralph M. Herr (architect, chapel); A. Grosek Construction Company (builder, chapel)","architectural_style":"Mission/Spanish Colonial Revival; Modern Movement","criteria":["A"],"status_note":"Buildings A, B and D stand vacant; Building C is an active parish church; the former rectory is a private home.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:10:27.396327-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/08001267.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/08001267/631b1ed231-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/08001267/631b1ed231-1600.webp","licence":"CC0","author":"Smallbones","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:St_Stan_LuzCo_PA_1.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:St_Stan_LuzCo_PA_1.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71996743","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Stanislaus_Institute","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7591702"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/luzerne-county/st-stanislaus-institute-08001267/"}