{"nrhp_refnum":"73001486","name":"Administration Building, Lake Erie College","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"391 W. Washington St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Painesville","county":"Lake County","state":"OH","lat":41.717644791000055,"lon":-81.25143156999997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1973-03-20","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Education","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"The Administration Building, also called College Hall, at Lake Erie College, 391 W. Washington Street, Painesville, Ohio. It is a large brick Italian Villa style college building from 1859, designed by Charles Wallace Heard of the Cleveland firm Heard and Porter.","why_significant":"The nomination cites its architecture and its role in the history of the college. It was the first major building of the school that began as Lake Erie Female Seminary after an earlier women's seminary burned. It features cast-iron interior columns and wooden arcaded galleries, and is the largest surviving building designed by Charles Heard.","narrative":"Built in 1859 for Lake Erie Female Seminary, College Hall is the Administration Building of Lake Erie College in Painesville, Ohio. Its formal Italian Villa design centers on a tall Italianate tower that marks the north entry to a symmetrical, dumb-bell plan, with brick walls, stone belt courses, bracketed eaves and Palladian-style windows. Arcaded wooden galleries link the tower to the end wings. The school was founded after the Willoughby Seminary burned in 1856 and Painesville citizens offered land and financial support. College Hall was modeled partly on Mount Holyoke and housed 150 students, with living quarters, classrooms, a library, a dining hall and a social hall. Architect Charles Wallace Heard used cast-iron columns in place of some interior bearing walls, an early technique in the Midwest. A south wing was added in 1877 and enlarged in 1881. It is the largest surviving building of Heard's design and remains in educational use.","period_of_significance":"19th Century (specific date 1859)","architect_builder":"Charles Wallace Heard, of Heard and Porter, Cleveland","architectural_style":"Italian Villa","criteria":[],"status_note":"Condition listed as excellent and altered; occupied and used for educational purposes. A 1877 south wing was added, with upper stories completed in 1881 and 1910-1911.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:53:09.776689-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_OH/73001486.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/73001486/0855069387-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/73001486/0855069387-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"User:Dkocan","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:LEC_College_Hall.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">User:Dkocan</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:LEC_College_Hall.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71989581","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Administration_Building_(Lake_Erie_College)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4683415"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/ohio/lake-county/administration-building-lake-erie-college-73001486/"}