{"nrhp_refnum":"85001748","name":"Bindley Hardware Company Building","other_names":["Williams,J.A.,Co."],"category":"building","location":{"address":"401 Amberson Ave.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Pittsburgh","county":"Allegheny County","state":"PA","lat":40.45356129000004,"lon":-79.94075372999998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1985-08-08","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Industry","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A three-story brick warehouse on Amberson Avenue in the Shadyside section of Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, built in 1903 for the Bindley Hardware Company. Albion Bindley is named as its builder and architect.","why_significant":"The building is tied to John Bindley, a Pittsburgh industrialist who tried to form a national hardware combine and then organized a regional one from this site. It was designed as a wholesale storage and shipping facility with rail and road access, and its permanent construction and imposing brick design are cited as reasons for its survival as an industrial landmark.","narrative":"Along the Pennsylvania Railroad main line in Shadyside, Pittsburgh, stands a three-story brick warehouse completed in 1903 for the Bindley Hardware Company. Albion Bindley, brother of the industrialist John Bindley, designed and built it as a wholesale storage and shipping depot. Its plan follows a regular column grid, with arcaded first-floor brick piers and a bracketed cornice on each of its four facades. Iron girders and brick fire walls divide the interior into quadrants, and loading docks serve both the railroad siding and the street. John Bindley had sought a national hardware combine modeled on the recently formed United States Steel Company; after that effort collapsed in 1902, he organized a regional version based in this building. The warehouse is regarded as the principal surviving monument to that effort and to Pittsburgh's iron and steel era. Its permanent construction and continued use as a hardware warehouse give it a rare survival among the city's industrial buildings.","period_of_significance":"1903","architect_builder":"Albion Bindley (builder/architect)","architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Occupied by another hardware dealer, J. A. Williams Co., and remains in its original warehouse use.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:34.060014-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/85001748.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/85001748/1281043da2-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/85001748/1281043da2-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 2.0","author":"Eli Pousson","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bindley_Hardware_Co._Building.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Eli Pousson</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 2.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bindley_Hardware_Co._Building.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71997758","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bindley_Hardware_Company_Building","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4914028"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/allegheny-county/bindley-hardware-company-building-85001748/"}