{"nrhp_refnum":"82001547","name":"Fleisher, Samuel S., Art Memorial","other_names":["St. Martin's College for Boys"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"711-721 Catharine St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Philadelphia","county":"Philadelphia","state":"PA","lat":39.939126086000044,"lon":-75.15529056399998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1982-11-14","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Education","Architecture","Social History"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A complex of four linked buildings in South Philadelphia comprising the former Church of the Evangelists (Sanctuary, 1884-86), the former St. Martin's College for Indigent Boys building (1906), and two late 1850s row houses, now housing a free public art school and museum.","why_significant":"The Sanctuary embodies late nineteenth-century High Church Episcopal taste and Italianate Romanesque architecture, and the complex is significant for its later use by Samuel S. Fleisher's Graphic Sketch Club, which became the Samuel S. Fleisher Art Memorial, described as the only free art school and museum in the nation. The buildings also reflect social and humanitarian efforts to provide free education and art instruction to a poor immigrant neighborhood.","narrative":"Four connected brick buildings on a South Philadelphia block form the Fleisher Art Memorial. The Sanctuary, a Romanesque basilica completed in 1886 as the Church of the Evangelists, was designed by L.C. Baker and E.J. Dallett and modeled on San Zeno Maggiore in Verona. It incorporates the campanile of an 1857 church and holds a rose window made in Roermond, a reredos by Violet Oakley, and frescoes by Robert Henri and Nicola d'Ascenzio. The adjoining St. Martin's College building of 1906 was a free school for poor boys of any faith. In 1916 Samuel S. Fleisher bought the group for his Graphic Sketch Club, which offered free art instruction to the public and later became the Samuel S. Fleisher Art Memorial, which continues to operate as a free art school and museum. The complex is regarded as an important expression of late nineteenth-century High Church taste and of the social and humanitarian role of art in the city.","period_of_significance":"1857-1906","architect_builder":"L.C. Baker and E.J. Dallett of Furness & Evans Co. (architects)","architectural_style":"Italianate Romanesque","criteria":[],"status_note":"Operates as an art school and museum; the Sanctuary is described as somewhat dilapidated but rich in historical features.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:13:15.421487-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/82001547.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/82001547/54b58f8ccd-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/82001547/54b58f8ccd-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Smallbones","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fleisher_Art_Memorial.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Smallbones</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fleisher_Art_Memorial.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71997084","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_S._Fleisher_Art_Memorial","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7412542"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/philadelphia/fleisher-samuel-s-art-memorial-82001547/"}