{"nrhp_refnum":"81000539","name":"West Chester State College Quadrangle Historic District","other_names":[],"category":"district","location":{"address":"Bounded by S. High and S. Church Sts., College and Rosedale Aves.","address_restricted":false,"city":"West Chester","county":"Chester County","state":"PA","lat":39.95227824850005,"lon":-75.59818029794354,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1981-10-08","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Education","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A historic district comprising the original campus quadrangle of West Chester State College in West Chester, Chester County, Pennsylvania, covering about 12.6 acres bounded by High Street, College Avenue, Church Street and Rosedale Avenue. It contains seven buildings, six of them historic serpentine stone structures and one later intrusion.","why_significant":"The district is significant for its architecture and education associations. Its buildings, most built of local serpentine stone that is no longer quarried, embody the history of the college's original campus and relate well to one another and to the central open greensward. The nomination argues that the quad reflects nearly a century of changing cultural values in building design and function.","narrative":"The West Chester State College quadrangle, a 12.6-acre campus in West Chester, Pennsylvania, is the school's original campus, laid out along High Street, College Avenue, Church Street and Rosedale Avenue. Its buildings are mostly built of local serpentine stone, a greenish metamorphic rock found only in Chester County and northern Maryland. Recitation Hall, designed by T. Roney Williamson and opened in 1893, was the fourth structure on the old campus. The Model School, designed in 1899 by the Philadelphia firm Baker and Dallett in a Georgian Revival style, was built to give students a place to observe teaching. The Library followed in 1902-04 with a classical facade and a tetrastyle Ionic portico. Philips Memorial Building, completed in 1927 in Collegiate Gothic style, was the quad's first building not built of serpentine. The district is regarded as significant because its serpentine examples are rare, the stone can no longer be quarried, and the buildings together show nearly a century of changing design and campus life.","period_of_significance":"1871-1975","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Collegiate Gothic; Georgian Revival; classical revival; Brutalism","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Six historic buildings remain on the quad, and the Green Library and annex were built as intrusions in 1965-67 and 1973-75; the Model School was renamed Ruby Jones Hall in 1978 and is in use for college offices and classrooms.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:33.946422-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/81000539.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/81000539/ad9228dc46-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/81000539/ad9228dc46-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Smallbones","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Philips_Hall_WCU_1.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Smallbones</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Philips_Hall_WCU_1.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71998656","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Chester_State_College_Quadrangle_Historic_District","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7984723"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/chester-county/west-chester-state-college-quadrangle-historic-district-81000539/"}