{"nrhp_refnum":"74001787","name":"McCormick, John B., House","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"W of Georgeville off PA 210","address_restricted":false,"city":"Georgeville","county":"Indiana County","state":"PA","lat":40.83871257200008,"lon":-79.11696198099997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1974-05-03","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Industry","Engineering","Architecture","Invention"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-and-a-half story stone farmhouse in Georgeville, Indiana County, Pennsylvania, originally built in 1817-1829 and later extended with major additions between 1902 and 1905.","why_significant":"The house is significant for its association with John Buchanan McCormick, whose water turbine work in hydrodynamics was considered a major breakthrough and was manufactured and used internationally. It is also significant for its unusual mixture of architectural styles resulting from the early twentieth-century additions.","narrative":"Georgeville's Judge Joshua Lewis built the core of this stone house between 1817 and 1829 as a plain two-and-a-half story, three-bay dwelling with a massive gable chimney and little ornament. In 1896 it was bought by John Buchanan McCormick, a self-taught man who had worked as a raftsman, cabinet maker, wood carver, painter and singing-school teacher before turning to engineering. Between 1902 and 1905 he personally designed a rear addition, a wide porch on Doric columns, a three-story stone tower butted into the gable end, and Federal-style dormers, producing an unusual mix of Italianate, Federal and castellated details. The house is listed for its connection to McCormick's mixed-flow water turbine, a design suited to low-head sites that was manufactured in several countries and won a prize at the 1890 Edinburgh Exposition. The house is now operated as a museum.","period_of_significance":"1817-1820, 1902-1905","architect_builder":"John B. McCormick (personally designed the alterations and additions)","architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"The house has remained relatively unchanged since the 1905 additions and is in good state of repair; it is operated as a museum.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:13:01.199334-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/74001787.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/74001787/c7b101e7ef-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/74001787/c7b101e7ef-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Nyttend","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:John_B._McCormick_House.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Nyttend</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:John_B._McCormick_House.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71995643","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_B._McCormick_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q15229645"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/indiana-county/mccormick-john-b-house-74001787/"}