{"nrhp_refnum":"84003582","name":"Wills Hospital","other_names":["Wills Eye Hospital"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"1601 Spring Garden St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Philadelphia","county":"Philadelphia","state":"PA","lat":39.96334923400008,"lon":-75.16518111499994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1984-07-12","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Health/Medicine","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"The Centennial Building of the Wills Eye Hospital, occupying a full city block at the northwest corner of 16th and Spring Garden Streets in Philadelphia, extending to Brandywine Street. It was completed in 1931-32 and designed by John T. Windrim.","why_significant":"The building is presented as a landmark in the history of American ophthalmology and as an important, original hospital design. Its clear lobby-centered plan and purpose-built clinical spaces made possible the hospital's teaching and research roles, and its research outputs are described as shaping later eye hospitals. It is also described as a rare monumental Depression-era institutional building in a Georgian-derived Federal Tuscan style.","narrative":"Built in 1931-32 on a full city block at the northwest corner of 16th and Spring Garden Streets in Philadelphia, the Centennial Building of the Wills Eye Hospital is a nearly square, red brick and stone structure of about 154 by 157 feet. Its main facade is a two-story Federal Tuscan portico with eight columns, recalling the seven bays of the earlier hospital building designed by T.U. Walter on Logan Circle. The architect was John T. Windrim. A two-story marble lobby, skylit from above, serves as the organizing space, with offices and circulation arranged around it. The interior clinical spaces were planned for sanitation, with glazed tile and terrazzo floors. The building is significant for its role in the hospital's growth as a center of eye surgery, research and teaching. Discoveries made there in the 1930s, including work on diabetic eye disease and contact lenses, shaped later eye hospitals. Its design is also regarded as a notable example of institutional architecture from the Depression era.","period_of_significance":"1931-1932","architect_builder":"John T. Windrim (architect)","architectural_style":"Georgian Revival / Federal Tuscan classicism","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"The document states the building survives very much intact, with alterations occurring only in the patient floors and principal medical offices.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:32.690299-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/84003582.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/84003582/1523638d7d-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/84003582/1523638d7d-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"DutchTreat","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wills_Eye_Hospital_Entrance.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">DutchTreat</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:Wills_Eye_Hospital_Entrance.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71997384","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wills_Eye_Hospital","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q8022473"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/philadelphia/wills-hospital-84003582/"}