{"nrhp_refnum":"86002682","name":"Letsche Elementary School","other_names":["Letsche Alternative Learning Center"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"1530 Cliff St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Pittsburgh","county":"Allegheny County","state":"PA","lat":40.444614829000045,"lon":-79.98794282899996,"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":"Letsche Elementary School is a brick school building on a narrow sloping hillside site above downtown Pittsburgh, at 1530 Cliff Street, in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. It consists of an original two-story section and a 1941 three-story Art Deco addition, and was used mainly as an elementary school before serving as an alternative high school.","why_significant":"The nomination argues that the 1941 addition is a major local example of Art Deco style in a public building, with highly decorative terra cotta panels on its primary facade. It also ties the school to the work of Marion M. Steen, a staff architect for the Pittsburgh Board of Public Education, and treats it as one of his most significant designs. The inclusion of a building less than fifty years old is justified by the older original section and by Steen's importance to local school design.","narrative":"Set on a narrow hillside lot above downtown Pittsburgh at 1530 Cliff Street, Letsche Elementary School combines an original brick section from 1905 with a three-story addition completed in 1941. The original building is two brick stories on a raised stone basement, with terra cotta pilaster caps and cornice. The 1941 addition, designed by Marion M. Steen, the Pittsburgh Board of Public Education's staff architect, has a central facade swath of vertical stone panels framing Art Deco floral terra cotta panels. Its auditorium has curving corners, buff tile wainscoting and a layered ceiling edge, and the library has built-in wood benching. The school was among Steen's last large projects, following earlier work such as Prospect, Lemington and Schiller Schools. Its importance rests on the addition's Art Deco decoration in a public building and on Steen's contribution to local school design. The school was named for George P. Letsche, a former school board president.","period_of_significance":"1901-1920;1941-1960","architect_builder":"M. M. Steen (architect)","architectural_style":"Classical Revival; Art Deco","criteria":[],"status_note":"Now serves as an Alternative High School","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:34.145969-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/86002682.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/86002682/19778b29c9-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/86002682/19778b29c9-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"Lee Paxton","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:LetscheElementarySchoolFront.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:LetscheElementarySchoolFront.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71992162","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letsche_Elementary_School","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6533508"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/allegheny-county/letsche-elementary-school-86002682/"}