{"nrhp_refnum":"83000769","name":"State Normal Training School","other_names":["Washington Street School"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Washington St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Westfield","county":"Hampden County","state":"MA","lat":42.12205986300006,"lon":-72.75163582799996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1983-07-07","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Education","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A late Victorian red brick school building on Washington Street in Westfield, Hampden County, Massachusetts, built in 1899/1900 and designed by Gardner, Pyne and Gardner.","why_significant":"It is an outstanding local example of late Victorian institutional architecture by a prominent regional firm. It also housed the training school for the Westfield State Normal School, described as the second oldest public teacher training school in the nation, reflecting the professionalization of teaching in the late 19th century.","narrative":"Built in 1899/1900 on Washington Street in Westfield, this red brick school served as the practice and training school for the nearby State Normal School. Designed by Gardner, Pyne and Gardner, it rises two and a half stories above a full basement under a double hip roof, with brownstone trim, dog tooth brickwork and decorative rafter feet. Its west entry carries a carved brownstone arch and a lintel engraved \"State Normal Training School 1899.\" The exterior is unchanged since construction, and much of the interior, including pine wainscoting and pressed metal ceilings, survives. Student teachers practiced here while the building also served as a regular school for the community. Westfield's normal school and training school together reflect a late 19th century shift toward professional teacher preparation. The Westfield State used the building for about fifty years before it passed to the local school system in 1956 and to the city in 1977. It is now vacant, with rehabilitation for offices planned.","period_of_significance":"1800-1899","architect_builder":"Gardner, Pyne & Gardner, architects","architectural_style":"Romanesque Revival (late Victorian)","criteria":["A","B","C"],"status_note":"Listed as unoccupied and vacant, owned by the City of Westfield; a rehabilitation to stabilize the building and convert it to office space was planned.","vacant_flag":true,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:58.043684-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/81/7952/63795281/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/83000769.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/83000769/a3b22c59d3-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/83000769/a3b22c59d3-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 3.0","author":"John Phelan","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:State_Normal_Training_School,_Westfield_MA.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">John Phelan</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:State_Normal_Training_School,_Westfield_MA.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63795281","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_Normal_Training_School","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7603445"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/hampden-county/state-normal-training-school-83000769/"}