{"nrhp_refnum":"80003565","name":"Guthrie, George W., School","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"643 N. Washington St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Wilkes-Barre","county":"Luzerne County","state":"PA","lat":41.25605577600004,"lon":-75.86263518199996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1980-06-27","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Education","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A four-story public high school on a hill in the northern part of Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, opened in September 1915. It was designed by local architect Robert Ireland.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the school was an innovation in both educational and architectural history for the city, reflecting the prosperity of the anthracite industry. Its planned facilities for manual training, home economics and pupils with special needs, together with its steel-frame and glass-heavy construction, are presented as early examples of progressive practice. It is also described as a prominent landmark intended as a visible symbol of public commitment to education.","narrative":"Completed in 1915 on a hill in northern Wilkes-Barre, the George W. Guthrie School is a four-story brick building with stone and terracotta trim, a hip roof and a steel frame with reinforced concrete floors. Designed by local architect Robert Ireland, it measures 136 feet across the front and was built to hold 1,225 pupils, with eighteen regular classrooms, a manual training room, a cooking and dressing department, and a room for 25 pupils with special needs. Its large windows, double glazing and sliding classroom doors were advanced for their time. The school is significant as one of the earliest in the city to include manual training and home economics in its design, and as a product of the coal-driven building boom that followed the rise in anthracite shipments before the First World War. Its planned provision for pupils with special needs also reflects early progressive thinking about education.","period_of_significance":"1914-1915","architect_builder":"Robert Ireland (architect)","architectural_style":null,"criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"The two side pavilions were enclosed in 1922; the southern pavilion has been demolished and the northern one stands in ruin after a fire.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:32.669493-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/80003565.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/80003565/baefa81171-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/80003565/baefa81171-1600.webp","licence":"CC0","author":"Smallbones","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:George_Guthrie_School_Wilkes-Barre_LuzCo_PA.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:George_Guthrie_School_Wilkes-Barre_LuzCo_PA.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71998734","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_W._Guthrie_School","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5545631"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/luzerne-county/guthrie-george-w-school-80003565/"}