{"nrhp_refnum":"82003763","name":"Wilhelm Mansion and Carriage House","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"730 Centre Ave.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Reading","county":"Berks County","state":"PA","lat":40.34657655800004,"lon":-75.93077736899994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1982-03-01","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A three-story Gothic Revival mansion and a two-story granite carriage house on a 0.63-acre landscaped lot on Centre Avenue in Reading, Berks County, Pennsylvania. The mansion was built in 1877 and the carriage house bears an 1890 datestone.","why_significant":"The nomination describes the Wilhelm Mansion as one of the outstanding landmarks in Reading and one of the few single dwellings in the Gothic Revival style in the city. It cites the craftsmanship of its interiors and its determination as an outstanding city building by the Pennsylvania State Comprehensive Historical Site Survey. It also links the house to Bishop Mark Anthony DeWolfe Howe, its first occupant, and to Charles Wilhelm, a paint company president who lived there for about 50 years.","narrative":"Built in 1877 as a three-story Gothic Revival residence of granite on a landscaped lot at Centre Avenue in Reading, the Wilhelm Mansion is a rare single-family example of its style in the city. Two rear rooms added in 1888 follow the original design. Its interior includes a ballroom, a solarium with an oriel window, a dining room paneled in oak with terra cotta fireplace, and a library with a Teutonic fireplace dated 1884. Art glass, bargeboard trim and molded plaster ceilings appear throughout. The first occupant was Mark Anthony DeWolfe Howe, Episcopal bishop of the Reading diocese from 1877 to 1880. Later, paint manufacturer Charles Wilhelm lived there for about fifty years until his death in 1936. The house is valued for its craftsmanship and its link to Reading's industrial era. The carriage house, dated 1890, stands on the rear of the lot.","period_of_significance":"1877","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Gothic Revival","criteria":[],"status_note":"The first floor was converted to doctors' offices around 1973, and the upper floors and carriage house were left vacant; restoration was planned.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:33.103444-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/82003763.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/82003763/871c3fd411-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/82003763/871c3fd411-1600.webp","licence":"CC0","author":"Smallbones","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wilhelm_House.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:Wilhelm_House.JPG"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"04001227","name":"Queen Anne Historic District","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/pennsylvania/queen-anne-historic-district-04001227/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71997916","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Mansion_and_Carriage_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q8002248"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/berks-county/wilhelm-mansion-and-carriage-house-82003763/"}