{"nrhp_refnum":"86002656","name":"Beechwood Elementary School","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Rockland Ave. near Sebring Ave.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Pittsburgh","county":"Allegheny County","state":"PA","lat":40.41453536700004,"lon":-80.02057024099997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1986-09-30","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Education","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Beechwood Elementary School is a two-part school building at 341 South Bellefield Avenue in Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, raised on a terrace above the street. The present building dates from 1923 and was designed by architect Press Dowler.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the school reflects the transition in the early twentieth century from Revival styles to Modernistic design, and from centrally focused classroom blocks to linear arrangements of specialized spaces. Its Modernistic central massing contrasts with traditional Gothic detailing. The document also notes that Dowler's Beechwood and Knoxville schools anticipate later local school designs of the 1930s.","narrative":"Beechwood Elementary School occupies a terrace above a street at the foot of a bluff in Pittsburgh, and its present form dates from 1923. Press Dowler designed the building, which appears as two small traditional school buildings joined at the centre by a boxy connecting wing. The end sections are two storeys high with three bays, while the central section projects in a C-shape with Modernistic massing above a raised basement. Its entries carry Tudor-arch surrounds and Gothic tracery, and the halls have terrazzo floors. Within the building sits a remnant of an earlier four-room school built on the site in 1908 by West Liberty Borough. The nomination treats the school as a record of changing architectural style and educational planning in the early twentieth century. Dowler was known mainly for school design, and the school was named for the beech trees in the area.","period_of_significance":"1921-1940","architect_builder":"Press C. Dowler (architect); Williams & Haas Co. (builder)","architectural_style":"Tudor Revival","criteria":[],"status_note":"Condition recorded as good; integrity recorded as good; all windows are replacements.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:33.410358-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/86002656.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/86002656/e40994fc79-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/86002656/e40994fc79-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"Lee Paxton","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:BeechwoodElementarySchool.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Lee Paxton</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:BeechwoodElementarySchool.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71992210","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beechwood_Elementary_School","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4879687"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/allegheny-county/beechwood-elementary-school-86002656/"}