{"nrhp_refnum":"85001962","name":"Suburban Station Building","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"1617 John F. Kennedy Blvd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Philadelphia","county":"Philadelphia","state":"PA","lat":39.95216351700003,"lon":-75.17428580399996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1985-09-05","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Transportation","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A 21-story Art Deco office building at 1617 John F. Kennedy Boulevard in Philadelphia, constructed over the eastern terminus of the Pennsylvania Railroad line and the underground Penn Center Station. It opened on September 28, 1930.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the building is the city's premier example of Art Deco architecture and an unusually intact example of the style. It is also presented as a symbol of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company's position in local and national rail transportation, and as an innovative combination of office space with direct commuter station access.","narrative":"Opened on September 28, 1930, the Suburban Station Building rises 21 stories above the eastern end of the Pennsylvania Railroad line in central Philadelphia, built over the large underground Penn Center Station. The Chicago firm of Graham, Anderson, Probst and White designed it in the Art Deco style, with polished black granite entrance portals, bronze doors, stylized wheat-sheaf bands above the entrances, and a battlemented castle-like roofline at the 21st floor. Its lobby retains chandeliers, lamps, signage and elevator doors from the original scheme. The building was built for the Pennsylvania Railroad Company and was intended to draw attention to the station below and to the importance of rail travel. It is regarded as an unusually intact example of the style in a city where Art Deco was applied far less often than in New York.","period_of_significance":"1900-","architect_builder":"Graham, Anderson, Probst & White (architect); Joseph Stewart & Co. (builder)","architectural_style":"Art Deco","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":null,"vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:34.082526-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/85001962.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/85001962/cdbbb0146c-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/85001962/cdbbb0146c-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"Famartin","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2025-08-04_12_35_03_The_southeast_entrance_to_the_Suburban_Station_in_Philadelphia,_Pennsylvania.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Famartin</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:2025-08-04_12_35_03_The_southeast_entrance_to_the_Suburban_Station_in_Philadelphia,_Pennsylvania.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71997416","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suburban_Station","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1531481"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/philadelphia/suburban-station-building-85001962/"}