{"nrhp_refnum":"80003576","name":"Union School","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"516--518 Bethlehem Pike","address_restricted":false,"city":"Fort Washington","county":"Montgomery County","state":"PA","lat":40.12868028300005,"lon":-75.21792680699997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1980-08-11","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Education"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A fieldstone schoolhouse with an attached schoolmaster's house in Whitemarsh Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. The main school structure was built in 1773.","why_significant":"The nomination describes the Union School as one of the earliest public schools in Pennsylvania and the first successful school open to students regardless of social position or religious preference. It was founded through the will of Samuel Morris, whose bequest funded the building and a teacher's salary, and it was used as a school until 1936.","narrative":"Built in 1773 as a fieldstone schoolhouse in Whitemarsh Township, Montgomery County, the Union School was funded through the will of Samuel Morris, a local justice of the peace and overseer of the Plymouth Friends Meeting who died in 1770. His brother Joshua Morris carried out the bequest and completed the building. The will allowed children living within a 1½-mile radius of Morris's home, Hope Lodge, to attend free of charge. The school is described as one of the earliest public schools in Pennsylvania and the first successful one that admitted pupils regardless of social position or religious affiliation. Children, parents and grandparents attended over the years. A schoolmaster's house was added to the north end in the early 1800s, and the roof was raised to meet its roofline. The school was used until 1936, except for a period in the 1870s when it served as a lyceum. A trust created in 1773 still supports education in Whitemarsh, Whitpain and Upper Dublin townships.","period_of_significance":"1773","architect_builder":"Joshua Morris (builder)","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 17:11:34.416248-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/80003576.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/80003576/8f38894554-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/80003576/8f38894554-1600.webp","licence":"CC0","author":"Smallbones","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Union_School_Montco_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:Union_School_Montco_PA.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71998718","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_School_(Fort_Washington,_Pennsylvania)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7886006"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/montgomery-county/union-school-80003576/"}