{"nrhp_refnum":"78002448","name":"Graham and Laird, Schober and Mitchell Factories","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"19th St. between Hamilton and Buttonwood Sts.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Philadelphia","county":"Philadelphia","state":"PA","lat":39.96244231900005,"lon":-75.16927706699994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1978-07-07","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Industry","Community Planning and Development","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Two adjoining nineteenth-century brick factory buildings on 19th Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: the Graham factory of 1885-86 and the Laird, Schober and Mitchell shoe factory built five years later.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the buildings are handsome examples of nineteenth-century factory design that influenced American architects from Louis Sullivan to Louis Kahn. It also presents them as representatives of the mid-city factory district and the real estate and industrial forces of the nineteenth-century city. The Laird, Schober and Mitchell factory is described as one of the earliest surviving works of a major factory architecture firm.","narrative":"Two brick factory buildings on 19th Street in Philadelphia were erected in the 1880s, the Graham factory in 1885-86 and the Laird, Schober and Mitchell shoe factory about five years later. Both use tall floor heights, generous segmentally arched windows and projecting piers that express the internal frame. The shoe factory is more elaborate, with a low square tower capped by a copper pyramidal roof marking its entrance, and pilasters with stylized Ionic capitals. The Graham interior relies on heavy timber framing with iron-clad central posts and trapezoidal iron joint plates. The buildings are regarded as handsome examples of nineteenth-century factory design that influenced architects from Louis Sullivan to Louis Kahn. They also illustrate the factory district that developed near rail lines below Spring Garden Street, which was largely cleared in later decades.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Geisinger and Hales (architects of the Laird, Schober and Mitchell factory)","architectural_style":null,"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 17:11:30.223213-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/78002448.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/78002448/f4bbf4f4a2-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/78002448/f4bbf4f4a2-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Smallbones","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Graham_and_Laird_Philly.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Smallbones</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Graham_and_Laird_Philly.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71997232","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graham_and_Laird,_Schober_and_Mitchell_Factories","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5593379"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/philadelphia/graham-and-laird-schober-and-mitchell-factories-78002448/"}