{"nrhp_refnum":"75001631","name":"Stonorov, Oskar G., House","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"SW of Phoenixville on Pickering Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Phoenixville","county":"Chester County","state":"PA","lat":40.100256166000065,"lon":-75.57216117699994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1975-12-06","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A country house in Phoenixville, Chester County, Pennsylvania, built in 1938 by architect Oskar Stonorov on the stone walls of an existing stone and frame farmhouse. It is part of a farm on Pickering Creek.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the house is a strong personal design statement by one of the earliest and most significant International Style architects to make a career in the United States. It also presents the design as the start of an approach to adding contemporary living space to a native Pennsylvania farmhouse while keeping the old house. The farm is cited as an expression of Stonorov's effort to balance urban life with contact with nature.","narrative":"Built in 1938 by the architect Oskar Stonorov, this country house in Phoenixville, Chester County, occupies the stone walls of a Pennsylvania farmhouse on a hillside above Pickering Creek. Stonorov, who had arrived from Germany in 1929 and was among a small number of European architects bringing Bauhaus and International Style ideas to America, removed the old frame sections and interior structure, kept the L-shaped plan, and reshaped the stone walls. New exterior walls are frame clad in vertical cypress siding, with large fixed glass panes and steel casement windows set in bands. Flat roofs with parapet edges or thin overhangs complete the design. A studio connected by a bridge and a guest house added in the early 1950s extend the complex. The house is regarded as a strong personal statement by one of the earliest International Style architects to settle permanently in the country. It also set out an approach to adding contemporary rooms to older farmhouses that Stonorov used in later projects.","period_of_significance":"1938","architect_builder":"Oskar Stonorov","architectural_style":"International Style","criteria":[],"status_note":null,"vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:30.511286-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/75001631.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/75001631/68a874add8-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/75001631/68a874add8-1600.webp","licence":"CC0","author":"Smallbones","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stonorov_Chesco.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:Stonorov_Chesco.JPG"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"91001125","name":"Middle Pickering Rural Historic District","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/pennsylvania/middle-pickering-rural-historic-district-91001125/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71997588","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oskar_G._Stonorov_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7106915"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/chester-county/stonorov-oskar-g-house-75001631/"}