{"nrhp_refnum":"85000470","name":"La Blanche Apartments","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"5100 Walnut St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Philadelphia","county":"Philadelphia","state":"PA","lat":39.956222249000064,"lon":-75.22417179699994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1985-03-07","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Social History"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A three-part apartment house at the corner blocks of Walnut Street, Fifty-first Street and Chancellor Street in West Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, built in 1910 with three subdivisions each having its own entrance and firetower.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the building reflects the expansion of middle-class apartment housing in West Philadelphia after 1907, is among the first large apartment buildings in the city, and is a fine example of the Georgian Revival style. Its abundance of recessed niches, balconies and Palladian windows is presented as an unusually creative treatment of the style, and its architects Anderson and Haupt are described as among the firm's most substantial commissions.","narrative":"Built in 1910 on the corners of a West Philadelphia block, the La Blanche Apartment House is a three-story red brick building with cast stone quoins, a rusticated cast stone base and a pressed metal cornice. Its Fifty-first Street and Walnut Street elevations carry pressed-metal balconies set in deep-arched niches framing wooden Palladian windows and doors, while the Chancellor Street side has projecting stacked bays on scroll brackets. The building was designed by Anderson and Haupt and was among the first large apartment buildings in Philadelphia. It was built as the Market Street Elevated spurred housing growth in West Philadelphia and offered respectable housing to the new middle classes, who had long associated apartments with tenements. Its use of galvanized sheet iron and cast stone allowed lavish detailing at moderate cost. The building was originally 28 units and was later divided to 49. Its exterior is regarded as largely intact.","period_of_significance":"1910-1960","architect_builder":"Anderson and Haupt Architects (Julius J. Anderson and Max Haupt)","architectural_style":"Georgian Revival","criteria":["C"],"status_note":"Subdivided from 28 to 49 units in 1926, 1927 and 1960; exterior shell described as excellent","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:33.926245-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/85000470.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/85000470/9efef1c376-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/85000470/9efef1c376-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Smallbones","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:La_Blanche_Philly_A.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Smallbones</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:La_Blanche_Philly_A.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71997396","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Blanche_Apartments","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q15241086"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/philadelphia/la-blanche-apartments-85000470/"}