{"nrhp_refnum":"86003279","name":"Northeast Manual Training School","other_names":["Edison High School"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"701 Lehigh St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Philadelphia","county":"Philadelphia","state":"PA","lat":39.99311010200006,"lon":-75.14416739999996,"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":"A school building in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, built in 1903-1905 and designed by Lloyd Titus. It was known as the Northeast Manual Training School when it opened in 1890 and is also referred to in the text as Thomas Edison High School.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the building is a prototype of specialized interior spaces, with twenty classrooms and seven shops arranged around a central auditorium, departing from earlier multi-purpose classroom plans. It is also presented as one of the first vocational schools in Philadelphia, opened in response to calls for industrial curricula in public schools.","narrative":"Built in 1903-1905 in Philadelphia, this school was designed by Lloyd Titus with twenty classrooms and seven shops arranged around a central auditorium. Earlier Philadelphia schools placed multi-purpose classrooms divided by movable partitions, following the Sloan plan, but Titus's layout gave each subject and trade its own specialized room. The building is regarded as one of the first schools in the city to use specialized interior spaces, a practice that became standard in Philadelphia public schools after ideas associated with William Wirt were adopted following 1905. The institution began in 1890 as the Northeast Manual Training School, one of the earliest vocational schools in Philadelphia, opened as reformers in the industrial Northeast pressed for trade and industrial courses in public education. Its significance rests on both its interior planning and its role in the city's vocational education.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Lloyd Titus (architect)","architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"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 17:11:33.865187-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/86003279.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/86003279/8b8720aaff-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/86003279/8b8720aaff-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Smallbones","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NE_Manual_Training_Philly.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Smallbones</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NE_Manual_Training_Philly.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71993693","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_Manual_Training_School","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7057934"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/philadelphia/northeast-manual-training-school-86003279/"}