{"nrhp_refnum":"84003581","name":"Wesley Building","other_names":["Robert Morris Hotel","Board of Home Missions of the United Met"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"1701-1709 Arch St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Philadelphia","county":"Philadelphia","state":"PA","lat":39.954965353000034,"lon":-75.16838053399994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1984-05-10","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Religion"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"The Wesley Building, also called the Robert Morris Hotel, is a Gothic-style office and hotel building at 1701-1709 Arch Street at Seventeenth Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was built for the Methodist Church, with its original six-story section dating from 1914 and an eight-story hotel addition from 1921 by the same architects.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the building is an unusually complete example of Gothic architecture applied to a skyscraper, with its terra cotta facade and interior detailing largely intact. It also reflects Philadelphia's role as a center of Methodist activity and the work of the Ballinger firm, which designed both the original building and the addition to match.","narrative":"Built in 1914 as a six-story office headquarters for Methodist organizations, the Wesley Building at Seventeenth and Arch Streets in Philadelphia was designed by the firm of Ballinger and Perrot in the Gothic style. Its glazed terra cotta facade, produced locally, covers a steel frame and includes pointed-arch windows, pinnacles and a projecting tracery cornice. In 1921 the Ballinger Company added eight stories above the original building for the Robert Morris Hotel, a dry hotel that housed visiting Methodists and travelers. The addition repeats the original details so closely that the join is hard to see. Horace Castor designed a separate four-story Gothic-detailed office building next door in 1922. The lobby has a vaulted ceiling, marble finishes and a carved and gilded stair, and the second-floor ballroom has a beamed ceiling. The building is regarded as one of the city's most important examples of Gothic design applied to a high-rise.","period_of_significance":"1914-1922","architect_builder":"Ballinger & Perrot/Ballinger Company (architects); Horace Castor (architect of the 1922 addition); Cramp & Company (contractor)","architectural_style":"Gothic","criteria":["C"],"status_note":"Recent facade washing and interior refurbishing are noted; the Wawa Food Market storefront is mentioned as the only exterior change to the 1922 addition.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:33.154829-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/84003581.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/84003581/a50009d896-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/84003581/a50009d896-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"Beyond My Ken","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Robert_Morris_Hotel.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:Robert_Morris_Hotel.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71997360","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wesley_Building_(Philadelphia)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7983857"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/philadelphia/wesley-building-84003581/"}