{"nrhp_refnum":"79002319","name":"Franklin Institute","other_names":["Franklin Institute of the State of Pennsylvania for the Prom"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"15 S. 7th St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Philadelphia","county":"Philadelphia","state":"PA","lat":39.95030279200006,"lon":-75.15203794899998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1979-08-01","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Industry","Education","Science","Architecture","Invention"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A three-story marble-porticoed building at South 7th Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, designed by architect John Haviland and built in 1825-26 for the Franklin Institute.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the building is an early and influential monument of the Greek Revival style in America, helping to establish its classical vocabulary for urban street-front architecture. It also argues the building is associated with many inventions and scientific and educational events that the Franklin Institute fostered, and so is of national significance in architecture, education, industry, science and commerce.","narrative":"Built in 1825-26 on South 7th Street in Philadelphia, this three-story brick building has a marble porch of four Tuscan-styled piers, modeled loosely on the Choragic Monument of Thrasyllus. Architect John Haviland designed it for the Franklin Institute, which had been organized the previous year by Samuel V. Merrick and William H. Keating. Its austere, monumental facade is regarded as an early major example of the Greek Revival style in America, and its urban street-front design influenced later classical buildings, including Thomas U. Walter's Philadelphia Saving Fund Society building. Inside, the plan was an I-shape with a sunken lecture hall. The institute used the building for much of its early history, and the 1930s saw a move to the Parkway and a shift to museum use. The building is also associated with firsts in American science and technology, such as a weather bureau, coal gasification, machine-part standardization, and early public demonstrations of motion pictures and the transcontinental telephone.","period_of_significance":"1825-1826","architect_builder":"John Haviland (architect)","architectural_style":"Greek Revival","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Moved to the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in 1933, sold in 1938 to A. Atwater Kent for use as a city-run museum, and adapted over time for museum use while retaining much original detailing.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:30.364368-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/79002319.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/79002319/ceb7389981-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/79002319/ceb7389981-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"Beyond My Ken","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Philadelphia_History_Museum_at_the_Atwater_Kent_from_south.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Beyond My Ken</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Philadelphia_History_Museum_at_the_Atwater_Kent_from_south.jpg"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"84003531","name":"East Center City Commercial Historic District","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/pennsylvania/east-center-city-commercial-historic-district-84003531/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71997264","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philadelphia_History_Museum","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2870183"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/philadelphia/franklin-institute-79002319/"}