{"nrhp_refnum":"86003302","name":"Philadelphia High School for Girls","other_names":["Masterman,Julia R.,School"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Seventeenth and Spring Garden Sts.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Philadelphia","county":"Philadelphia","state":"PA","lat":39.96316836600005,"lon":-75.16564904299997,"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 former public secondary school building in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, originally built as the Philadelphia High School for Girls and later known as the Julia R. Masterman School. The document describes it as Neo-Classical in design.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the building is a fine example of Neo-Classical school architecture and was the largest Philadelphia public school devoted to the academic education of girls before the schools were converted to coeducational use. Its size and monumentality are noted in comparison with other School Board buildings of the period.","narrative":"Built as the Philadelphia High School for Girls, this Neo-Classical school building stands along the Spring Garden corridor in Philadelphia. Its original floor plans of 1932 included a large library, a music room, biological laboratories, a home economics room with a practice kitchen, a gymnasium, an auditorium, an infirmary and a doctor's office, and the roof held play space with a covered promenade. With a pupil capacity of about 1200, it was one of the larger facilities in the city's school system. The nomination regards it as the largest Philadelphia public school built for the academic education of girls before the schools became coeducational, and it is compared in scale to the Martin School and Germantown High School. The building was later converted to coeducational use for grades 3 through 9 and renamed the Masterman School. Its design is linked to the nearby U.S. Mint building, and it is described as an example of institutional public architecture of its era.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Irwin T. Catharine (architect)","architectural_style":"Neo-Classical","criteria":["C"],"status_note":"The school was later converted to coeducational use and renamed the Masterman School; it provided secondary and college preparatory education for grades 5 through 12 in recent years.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:33.148091-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/86003302.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/86003302/6b08eee700-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/86003302/6b08eee700-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Smallbones","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Masterman_School_Philly.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Smallbones</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Masterman_School_Philly.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71993787","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_R._Masterman_School","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q15229841"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/philadelphia/philadelphia-high-school-for-girls-86003302/"}