{"nrhp_refnum":"86003263","name":"Bartram, John, High School","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Sixty-seventh and Elmwood Sts.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Philadelphia","county":"Philadelphia","state":"PA","lat":39.92124700800008,"lon":-75.23248326899994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1986-12-04","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Education","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"John Bartram High School is a large public high school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, built in 1937 and designed by the Philadelphia Board of Education's architect Irwin T. Catharine. It shares a campus setting with the Tilden Junior High School, and the two buildings sit back to back.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the school is a late example of Catharine's Deco/Moderne work and that its ornamentation displays his skill with that style. It is described as one of the larger school structures designed by the Board, built to hold more than 3,500 students. The school is also presented as a high point of the Board's school design before the postwar period.","narrative":"Built in 1937 in Philadelphia, John Bartram High School was designed by Irwin T. Catharine, the city's school board architect, in the Art Deco and Moderne styles. Catharine completed the building shortly before his retirement as Superintendent of Buildings, and it is regarded as a late example of his work. The school was designed to accommodate more than 3,500 students, making it one of the larger structures the board produced. Its ornamentation is considered an especially clear showcase of Catharine's handling of the Deco and Moderne idiom. The school sits beside Tilden Junior High School on a shared campus, with the two buildings placed back to back while serving grades 7 through 12. The nomination also places the school within the board's output as a high point in school design, one that later postwar school buildings did not match in quality. It was listed for its architecture and its role in education.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Irwin T. Catharine (architect)","architectural_style":"Art Deco/Moderne","criteria":["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 17:11:34.302072-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/86003263.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/86003263/e2ad9f3959-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/86003263/e2ad9f3959-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Smallbones","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bartram_HS_Philly.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Smallbones</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bartram_HS_Philly.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71993749","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bartram_High_School","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q15229647"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/philadelphia/bartram-john-high-school-86003263/"}