{"nrhp_refnum":"66000679","name":"Eakins, Thomas, House","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"1729 Mount Vernon Pl.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Philadelphia","county":"Philadelphia","state":"PA","lat":39.96545757900006,"lon":-75.1669468686445,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1966-10-15","is_nhl":true,"nhl_designated_date":"1965-12-21","areas_of_significance":["Art"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A four-story townhouse at 1729 Mount Vernon Place in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, built circa 1854, with three brick stories and a wood fourth story. It was the home of the painter Thomas Eakins for most of his life.","why_significant":"The nomination argues that Eakins was a painter of exceptional dedication whose realism and portraiture reflected his independent vision despite criticism from Philadelphia society. It also points to his influential teaching at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and to the house as the place where he lived and worked for decades.","narrative":"A four-story townhouse at 1729 Mount Vernon Place in Philadelphia, built about 1854, with three brick stories and a wood fourth story, white marble steps, and marble sills and lintels on the front door and first three floors. Thomas Eakins' father bought the house in 1857 when the painter was two years old, and Eakins lived there until his death in 1916, inheriting it in 1899. Eakins was born in Philadelphia in 1844, studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and spent three years in Paris before returning to the city in 1870. He taught at the Academy from 1873 until his forced retirement in February 1886, after a dispute over his use of nude models and his insistence on dissection and anatomy study. The house is regarded as the setting of a painter known for realistic portraits, including his 1887 portrait of Walt Whitman, and for works such as The Gross Clinic and The Agnew Clinic. The building is associated with his working life in the city.","period_of_significance":"1857-1916","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Undergoing renovation by the City of Philadelphia for future use as a museum; the Present Condition section also describes it as in poor condition and converted to an apartment building.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:31.107378-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/66000679_NHL.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/66000679/fd86df2787-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/66000679/fd86df2787-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Courtland V. D. Hubbard, Photographer","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Thomas_Eakins_House,_1729_Mount_Vernon_Street,_Philadelphia_(Philadelphia_County,_Pennsylvania).jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Courtland V. D. Hubbard, Photographer</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Thomas_Eakins_House,_1729_Mount_Vernon_Street,_Philadelphia_(Philadelphia_County,_Pennsylvania).jpg"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"78002455","name":"Spring Garden District","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/pennsylvania/spring-garden-district-78002455/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71994321","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Eakins_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7789216"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/philadelphia/eakins-thomas-house-66000679/"}