{"nrhp_refnum":"77001146","name":"Allison, William, House","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"1 mi. W of Spring Mills on PA 45","address_restricted":false,"city":"Spring Mills","county":"Centre County","state":"PA","lat":40.85139127300005,"lon":-77.58155234399999,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1977-04-18","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A three-story brick house of Victorian Gothic inspiration in the Spring Mills area of Centre County, Pennsylvania, built by William M. Allison before his 1880 marriage to Luranna B. Higman. Four outbuildings remain on the property.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the house is a notable example of rural American Gothic architecture, copied closely from a published builder's guide plan. It is said to have been the first house in Centre County with central heating, and it is associated with Allison, a prominent local businessman in the Penns Valley region.","narrative":"Built of brick in 1880 by William M. Allison as a wedding gift for his bride, Luranna B. Higman, this three-story house near Spring Mills follows Victorian Gothic design. Its steep roof, varied gable ends, bargeboards and shaped-brick chimneys give the third story its Gothic character. The plan was copied almost exactly from a Gothic cottage design published in A. J. Bicknell's Detail, Cottage and Constructive Architecture (New York, 1873), with brick replacing the clapboard siding shown in the drawings. Architect William T. Hallett supplied the original drawings. Inside, native walnut appears in the stairway, sliding doors and trim, and the three original marble mantelpieces remain on the first floor. Allison managed a woolen mill, ran a grist mill, supervised family farming interests and entered the coal business. The house is regarded as one of the finest in Penns Valley and was the first in Centre County with central heating.","period_of_significance":"1880","architect_builder":"William T. Hallett (architect); William Allison (builder)","architectural_style":"Victorian Gothic","criteria":["C"],"status_note":"The house stands today in excellent condition with relatively slight alteration; a rear addition was torn away about ten years before the nomination.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:29.864389-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/77001146.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/77001146/459001c8f3-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/77001146/459001c8f3-1600.webp","licence":"CC0","author":"Smallbones","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:William_Allison_House_(Spring_Mills,_Pennsylvania).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:William_Allison_House_(Spring_Mills,_Pennsylvania).jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71998223","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Allison_House_(Spring_Mills,_Pennsylvania)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q8004377"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/centre-county/allison-william-house-77001146/"}