{"nrhp_refnum":"80003525","name":"Lancaster County House of Employment","other_names":["Old County Hospital","Building No. 1"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"900 E. King St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Lancaster","county":"Lancaster County","state":"PA","lat":40.03795024000004,"lon":-76.28525337599996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1980-04-17","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Health/Medicine","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-story Georgian institutional building on East King Street in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, with high basement windows and a fifteen-bay facade, known as the Lancaster County House of Employment (also called the Old County Hospital). It was built in 1799-1801 on land purchased from Matthias Slough.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the building is an important example of Georgian institutional architecture in Pennsylvania whose basic exterior integrity survives. It also argues the building served as a county house of employment and hospital from its inception, making it one of the oldest hospital-type structures still standing in the United States. Its design is linked to Philadelphia prototypes, particularly the work of Robert Smith.","narrative":"Built in 1799-1801 as a county house of employment on East King Street in Lancaster, the two-story stone building was designed by the joiners William Hensel and George Brungard, with masonry work by Charles and Thomas Wilson of Chester County. The county directors who commissioned it had the authority of an act passed by the state legislature in 1797. Its fifteen-bay facade and central pedimented doorway follow Philadelphia-derived Georgian models, and the nomination compares its plan to work by Robert Smith. The building housed the poor and was used for medical care from the start, with a physician appointed in December 1800 and a steward and matron supervising the inmates. The county used it as a house of employment until the county almshouse was completed in 1876, after which it served as a hospital, offices and a nurses' home. The nomination treats the building as a rare survivor of early institutional architecture in Pennsylvania, valued for its early date, its surviving exterior form and its long record of county service.","period_of_significance":"1799-1801","architect_builder":"William Hensel (joiner/carpenter); George Brungard (carpenter); Charles and Thomas Wilson (masons)","architectural_style":"Georgian","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Currently houses offices for several County agencies.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:33.678172-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/80003525.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/80003525/b75561c7cd-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/80003525/b75561c7cd-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Smallbones","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:LanCo_House_of_E_overview.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Smallbones</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:LanCo_House_of_E_overview.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71996111","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lancaster_County_House_of_Employment","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6483159"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/lancaster-county/lancaster-county-house-of-employment-80003525/"}