{"nrhp_refnum":"73001662","name":"Fidelity Mutual Life Insurance Company Building","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Fairmount and Pennsylvania Aves.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Philadelphia","county":"Philadelphia","state":"PA","lat":39.96756281200004,"lon":-75.17936016199997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1973-07-02","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Community Planning and Development","Commerce","Art","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A three-story limestone commercial office building at a three-sided site in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, completed in 1926 from designs by Zantzinger and Borie, the architects of the Philadelphia Museum of Art across the Parkway.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the building is a creative solution to a difficult irregular site that helps unify the urban block and complements the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. It also argues the building is among the most richly sculpted commercial buildings of the twentieth century, with ornament that communicates the nature of the company, and that the sculpture by Lee Lawrie is regarded as the finest commercial work of his career and unique to Philadelphia.","narrative":"Completed in 1926 to designs by the Philadelphia firm Zantzinger and Borie, the three-story limestone office building for the Fidelity Mutual Life Insurance Company occupies a lot with three sides and a street cutting through one corner. The architects answered the awkward plan with raised corner pavilions framing large arched openings, the principal one facing south toward the city. Sculptor Lee Lawrie carved the limestone walls with figures that spell out the company's values: fidelity, friendship, frugality and prudence on the upper levels, recumbent Great Danes at eye level, and a row of squirrels, opossums, pelicans and owls along the pavilion tops. The low wings carry scenes of the continents and the earth's four corners. Its significance lies in how it fits the site and the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, and in the unusual degree to which its ornament describes the company it houses. Its exterior remains essentially unaltered.","period_of_significance":"1926","architect_builder":"Zantzinger and Borie (architects); Lee Lawrie (sculptor)","architectural_style":null,"criteria":["C"],"status_note":"The building is essentially as designed in 1926, with unaltered facades apart from a darkening of the metal grillage over the entrance.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:13:00.794597-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/73001662.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/73001662/968f4a8936-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/73001662/968f4a8936-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Vladsinger","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Philadelphia_Museum_Perelman_Building.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Vladsinger</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:Philadelphia_Museum_Perelman_Building.JPG"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"72001151","name":"Fairmount Park","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/pennsylvania/fairmount-park-72001151/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71997074","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perelman_Building","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7167836"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/philadelphia/fidelity-mutual-life-insurance-company-building-73001662/"}