{"nrhp_refnum":"83003928","name":"St. Joseph's School","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Eagle St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"North Adams","county":"Berkshire County","state":"MA","lat":42.70116463800008,"lon":-73.10884093999994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1983-12-22","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Education","Architecture","Religion"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A three-story masonry former parochial school on Eagle Street at Route 2 in North Adams, Berkshire County, Massachusetts, built in 1928-29 by builder D.J. Donahue and later converted to elderly housing.","why_significant":"The building is a rare survivor of Neo-Classical architecture in North Adams. It also represents the city's Irish Roman Catholic immigrant heritage as the city's only parochial school, and it is one of the few remaining buildings tied to Catholic education in Northern Berkshire County after the original 1886 school was demolished.","narrative":"Built in 1928-29 at the corner of Eagle Street and Route 2, St. Joseph's School is a three-story Neo-Classical Revival building with a gabled central pavilion, buff brick upper stories and a base of concrete blocks textured with coal and pink marble chips. Inside, the foyer has yellow and black marble floors, and the corridors have terrazzo floors and oak wainscot. It replaced an 1886 school that had become too small for about 500 students. The new school opened in 1929 with 605 pupils and peaked at 1,220 in 1958. It was the city's only parochial school, serving first the Irish Catholic families who supplied much of the local mill workforce. It closed in the late 1970s because of falling enrollment and financial problems. A 1982 rehabilitation turned the complex into elderly housing and added a new wing. Only the original 1928-29 section is counted as contributing to its significance.","period_of_significance":"1900- (specific dates 1928-29)","architect_builder":"Architect: Unknown; Builder: D.J. Donahue","architectural_style":"Neo-Classical Revival","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Rehabilitated in 1982 and converted to congregate elderly housing; the form lists it as occupied.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:56.840073-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/66/7942/63794266/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/83003928.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/83003928/ed61b3bfde-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/83003928/ed61b3bfde-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"Beyond My Ken","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:St._Joseph%27s_School_North_Adams.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Beyond My Ken</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:St._Joseph%27s_School_North_Adams.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63794266","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Joseph%27s_School_(North_Adams,_Massachusetts)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7589229"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/berkshire-county/st-josephs-school-83003928/"}