{"nrhp_refnum":"85000458","name":"William Penn Hotel","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Mellon Sq. between 6th and Oliver Sts.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Pittsburgh","county":"Allegheny County","state":"PA","lat":40.44045107200003,"lon":-79.99602307499998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1985-03-07","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Commerce","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A downtown hotel occupying an entire city block in Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, facing Mellon Square and Grant Street. It was built in two phases, the larger western portion in 1916 and the Grant Street addition about a decade later.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the hotel was the setting of the city's business and social life and a landmark design by the local firm Janssen and Abbott for Henry Clay Frick. Its lobbies, dining rooms, seventeenth-floor ballroom and Joseph Urban-designed Art Deco room are presented as an unified ensemble of notable integrity that reflects the ambitions of Pittsburgh's industrial elite.","narrative":"Occupying a full block of downtown Pittsburgh between Mellon Square and Grant Street, the William Penn Hotel was built in two phases: the western portion in 1916 and the Grant Street addition about a decade later, both in limestone, deep red brick and cream terra cotta. Its three guest towers rise above a limestone base containing the main public rooms. The main lobby has a walnut coffered ceiling, and the Georgian and Terrace dining rooms flank it. The seventeenth-floor ballroom has round-arched windows and crystal chandeliers, while the Urban Room, designed by New York theater designer Joseph Urban, has black glass walls and a gold-accented ceiling. Frick acquired the site and chose the architects, and the hotel was intended to rival Philadelphia's Bellevue-Stratford. It is regarded as one of the city's best-preserved buildings and a major example of a regional style.","period_of_significance":"1916-19; 1923-29","architect_builder":"Janssen & Abbot; Jacobson & Cocken","architectural_style":"Georgian Classicism with Mediterranean and Art Deco elements","criteria":["C"],"status_note":"Exterior essentially as designed, with several small upper-story balconies removed for safety; some interiors modernized.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:32.097188-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/85000458.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/85000458/0e0cbb2e5d-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/85000458/0e0cbb2e5d-1600.webp","licence":"CC0","author":"Cbaile19","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:William_Penn_Hotel,_2015-04-23.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Cbaile19</a>, <a href=\"http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:William_Penn_Hotel,_2015-04-23.jpg"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"13000251","name":"Pittsburgh Central Downtown Historic District (Boundary Increase)","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/pennsylvania/pittsburgh-central-downtown-historic-district-boundary-increase-13000251/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71997704","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omni_William_Penn_Hotel","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7090344"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/allegheny-county/william-penn-hotel-85000458/"}