{"nrhp_refnum":"84003214","name":"Sharples Separator Works","other_names":["Gumas Warehouse","Kauffman Warehouse"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"N. Franklin and Evans Sts.","address_restricted":false,"city":"West Chester","county":"Chester County","state":"PA","lat":39.96500554600004,"lon":-75.60224777077931,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1984-06-28","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Industry","Invention"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A nineteen-unit industrial complex of brick, timber and concrete buildings on a roughly five-acre triangular plot in West Chester, Chester County, Pennsylvania. It housed the manufacture of the Sharples Tubular Centrifugal Cream Separator.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the works was the largest mechanized industrial environment built in the West Chester area and the site where the first American-invented and American-made cream separator was produced. It states the works were the precursor of the Sharples-Stokes centrifuge and that the surviving complex, with its distinctive brickwork and arrangement of units, is an unusual and intact example of turn-of-the-century industrial design.","narrative":"West Chester's largest mechanized industrial complex, the Sharples Separator Works, grew from a machine shop on North Walnut Street opened by Philip M. Sharples in 1881. After moving in 1890 to a site near the Pennsylvania Railroad, the company expanded through 1909 into a cluster of nineteen units, most built of brick with timber post-and-beam frames. The works produced the Sharples Tubular Centrifugal Separator, the first American-invented and American-made cream separating machine, and the nomination argues it provided the prototype for the later Sharples-Stokes industrial centrifuge. The complex is noted for its decorative brickwork, corbelled courses and arrangement of machine shops around a central yard. Operations ended in receivership in 1933, and most of the plant was later adapted for warehousing and small industry. The Sharples Corporation continued elsewhere under successor firms.","period_of_significance":"1800-1939","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Some buildings are vacant and others are used for warehousing or small industry; Building 14 is described as structurally unstable.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:33.840892-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/84003214.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/84003214/ccd64c4595-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/84003214/ccd64c4595-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Smallbones","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SharplesWorks.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Smallbones</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SharplesWorks.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71998669","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharples_Separator_Works","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7490406"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/chester-county/sharples-separator-works-84003214/"}