{"nrhp_refnum":"83002252","name":"Kirk Johnson Building","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"16-18 W. King St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Lancaster","county":"Lancaster County","state":"PA","lat":40.03744267500008,"lon":-76.30645901699995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1983-07-07","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A four-story commercial building with a copper-clad mansard roof fronting the south side of the first block of West King Street in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. It was built in 1911-1912 as a music store for Kirk Johnson.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the building is an unusual adaptation of the Beaux-Arts style to a commercial building, with a narrow, ornate white tile facade that may recall Parisian shopfronts of the 17th and early 18th centuries. It is described as a unique commercial structure for Lancaster City and County and having no closely related commercial facade in south-central Pennsylvania. Kirk Johnson is presented as the leading music dealer in Lancaster for about half a century.","narrative":"Built in 1911-1912 as a music store on West King Street in Lancaster, this narrow four-story building has a facade of white tile, sheet copper and white marble, topped by a copper-clad mansard roof. Lancaster architect C. Emlen Urban designed it for Kirk Johnson, who had become the city's leading music dealer, and the builder was W. V. Eisenberger. The facade adapts the Beaux-Arts style to a commercial front, with a marble-framed storefront, copper friezes with Grecian key motifs, lattice balustrades, and a richly ornamented central dormer. Its design is often compared with Parisian shopfronts of the 1600s and early 1700s. Because the facade remains largely original, the building is regarded as a rare commercial example in Lancaster City and County, with no closely related counterpart elsewhere in south-central Pennsylvania. Its storefront doors and windows were restored in 1979-1980 using 1911 drawings by Urban.","period_of_significance":"1911-1912","architect_builder":"C. Emlen Urban (architect); W. V. Eisenberger (builder)","architectural_style":"Beaux-Arts","criteria":["C"],"status_note":"Facade is described as more than 90% intact to its original design; the original French-style display windows and doors were restored in 1979-1980.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:34.316594-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/83002252.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/83002252/1419722732-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/83002252/1419722732-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Smallbones","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kirk_Johnson_Lancaster.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Smallbones</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kirk_Johnson_Lancaster.JPG"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"01000956","name":"Lancaster City Historic District","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/pennsylvania/lancaster-city-historic-district-01000956/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71996063","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirk_Johnson_Building","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6415469"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/lancaster-county/kirk-johnson-building-83002252/"}