{"nrhp_refnum":"80003616","name":"Packard Motor Corporation Building","other_names":["Press Building"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"317--321 N. Broad St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Philadelphia","county":"Philadelphia","state":"PA","lat":39.95866837300008,"lon":-75.16212567299993,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1980-02-08","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Engineering","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A seven-story terra cotta clad reinforced concrete and steel frame building at 317-321 North Broad Street in Philadelphia, built in 1910-11 as a showroom and assembly building for the Packard Motor Car Company of Detroit.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the building is important as a work by the architect Albert Kahn, as the sales office of the Packard Company, and as one of the early applications of reinforced concrete to a commercial building. It also cites its role as a center of the local automobile trade in Philadelphia in the early 20th century.","narrative":"Built in 1910-11 on North Broad Street in Philadelphia, this seven-story building was designed by Kahn & Wilby of Detroit as a showroom and assembly space for the Packard Motor Car Company. Its facade is clad in terra cotta and divided into base, shaft and capital, with a corinthian-derived crowning cornice. The building is long and narrow, with ornament applied only to the front seven bays, while the rear is plain reinforced concrete. The two-story main showroom has plaster beams with a grape vine pattern, molded plaster panels and electric chandeliers. The site is linked to the work of Albert Kahn, whose Packard Assembly Plant of 1903 is noted. The building is also tied to the early reinforced concrete work of Kahn's associate firm, the Trussed Concrete Steel Company. Locally, it marked the start of a cluster of automobile dealerships that made Philadelphia a center of automobile sales in the early twentieth century.","period_of_significance":"1900-","architect_builder":"Kahn & Wilby of Detroit, Mich.","architectural_style":"Sullivanesque style","criteria":[],"status_note":"Though the showroom was subdivided at a later date, most original materials remain.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:32.732277-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/80003616.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/80003616/dca1baeb25-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/80003616/dca1baeb25-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Smallbones","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Packard1.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Smallbones</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Packard1.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71997290","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Packard_Motor_Corporation_Building","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7122923"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/philadelphia/packard-motor-corporation-building-80003616/"}