{"nrhp_refnum":"85000999","name":"Pennsylvania Institute for the Deaf and Dumb","other_names":["Pennsylvania School for the Deaf"],"category":"district","location":{"address":"7500 Germantown Ave.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Philadelphia","county":"Philadelphia","state":"PA","lat":40.06412004650005,"lon":-75.19611765670581,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1985-05-09","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Education","Architecture","Social History"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A group of late nineteenth-century campus buildings on a hilly site of about sixty acres in the Mount Airy section of Philadelphia, bounded by Germantown Avenue to the north and Pennsylvania Railroad tracks to the west and south. It houses the Pennsylvania School for the Deaf, which has occupied the site since the early 1890s.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the campus is one of the best preserved groups of late Victorian buildings in the Philadelphia region and a work of the Wilson Brothers, a firm described as among the first to combine architecture, planning and engineering. It cites the pavilion plan adapted for healthful air and light, the powerful industrial power house, and the free handling of medieval styles in local Wissahickon Schist. It also cites the school's long role as a major institution for educating the deaf.","narrative":"Set on a hilly site of about sixty acres in Mount Airy, Philadelphia, this campus was laid out in the 1890s by the Wilson Brothers, a firm of architects, engineers and planners. The buildings follow a pavilion plan arranged for light and air, and they are built of rough Wissahickon Schist. The central dormitory halls, Cresheim, Wingohocking and Wissinoming, each contain about 80,000 square feet and were designed for the school's primary, intermediate and advanced departments. The power house, with its Flemish gables, octagonal brick chimney and iron truss-roofed interior, served the school's industrial arts classes. Morris Hall and Gilpin Hall, by Cope and Stewardson and their successors Stewardson and Page, show the shift toward collegiate Gothic and later pastoral styles. The campus is listed for its intact late Victorian ensemble and its role in deaf education. The school was founded in 1820 and was among the earliest such institutions in the country.","period_of_significance":"1900-","architect_builder":"Wilson Brothers (architects, engineers and planners); Cope and Stewardson; Stewardson and Page","architectural_style":"Victorian; medieval-derived Gothic; Colonial Revival","criteria":[],"status_note":"Largely unaltered since construction according to the statement of significance; some later buildings are described as intrusions.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:33.935867-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/85000999.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/85000999/354d59fb46-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/85000999/354d59fb46-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Smallbones","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:7500_Germantown_Ave_Philly.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Smallbones</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:7500_Germantown_Ave_Philly.JPG"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"72001151","name":"Fairmount Park","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/pennsylvania/fairmount-park-72001151/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71997278","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennsylvania_School_for_the_Deaf","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q15265915"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/philadelphia/pennsylvania-institute-for-the-deaf-and-dumb-85000999/"}