{"nrhp_refnum":"86001567","name":"Knox County Infirmary","other_names":["Mount Vernon Bible College"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"7516 Johnstown Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Mount Vernon","county":"Knox County","state":"OH","lat":40.347809866000034,"lon":-82.55177057899994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1986-07-10","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A four-story brick county infirmary on Johnstown Road near Mount Vernon, Knox County, Ohio, built 1875-77 to designs by J.B. Tinsley & Company of Columbus. It now serves as the main building of a small college campus.","why_significant":"The nomination presents it as a large, well-preserved example of Italianate architecture and one of Ohio's largest late nineteenth-century county infirmaries. It was the largest public building in Knox County when built. It follows the rare Kirkbride plan, with a central tower and side wings.","narrative":"Built between 1875 and 1877 near Mount Vernon, Ohio, the Knox County Infirmary is a four-story brick building measuring 75 by 127 feet on a sandstone foundation. Columbus architects J.B. Tinsley & Company designed it in the Italianate style, with a central tower rising 65 feet, flanking wings, and ventilator cupolas. When completed it was the largest public building in the county, at a final cost of $83,000 after the first contractor went bankrupt. The plan follows the Kirkbride model, which held that orderly architecture, with a central administrative block and separate wings for men and women, could help rehabilitate residents. Few examples of that plan survive. The county first set up its poorhouse in 1842 on a farm now part of the site. After the county abandoned the building, Mount Vernon Bible College bought it and opened there in 1957. Interior partitions were removed to make classrooms, but the exterior remains largely intact, and the building is still the centerpiece of the campus.","period_of_significance":"1800-1899 (specific dates 1875-77)","architect_builder":"J.B. Tinsley & Company, Columbus, Ohio","architectural_style":"Italianate, Kirkbride plan","criteria":[],"status_note":"Occupied and in educational use as a Bible college building; the brick has been cleaned and repointed and a new roof installed.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:53:14.358672-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_OH/86001567.pdf"},"photo":null,"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71989515","wikipedia":null,"wikidata":null},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/ohio/knox-county/knox-county-infirmary-86001567/"}