{"nrhp_refnum":"86003327","name":"Schaeffer, Charles, School","other_names":["Seventh Day Adventist Church"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Germantown Ave. and Abbottsford Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Philadelphia","county":"Philadelphia","state":"PA","lat":40.027326222000056,"lon":-75.16017820599996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1986-12-04","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"The Charles W. Schaeffer School is a school building in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, constructed in 1876 by the Philadelphia School Board.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the school is one of the few surviving examples of 1870s schools built by the Philadelphia School Board. It is described as a rare survivor among early schools that used the Sloan Plan, a rectangular corridor-less layout with classrooms on each floor reached by staircases at the flanking ends of the building.","narrative":"The Charles W. Schaeffer School is a school building in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, completed in 1876 to a design by Louis Esler, the first Building Supervisor for the School District of Philadelphia. Esler held the post from 1867, a position created after the 1854 consolidation of the city when new schools were needed in annexed areas, including former suburban enclaves. The building follows the traditional rectangular plan closely modeled on the Sloan Plan, or Philadelphia Plan, devised by architect Samuel Sloan in 1850. It has several classrooms on each floor and no central corridor; classrooms are reached by staircases at the building's flanking ends. The nomination regards the school as a rare surviving example of early Philadelphia schools built to the Sloan Plan. Its continued use of this simple layout is presented as evidence of how slowly school design changed in nineteenth-century Philadelphia. The building is significant for its architecture.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Louis Esler (design, as Building Supervisor for the School District of Philadelphia)","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 17:11:34.281042-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/86003327.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/86003327/4bd6b607c6-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/86003327/4bd6b607c6-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Smallbones","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Schaeffer_School_1876.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Smallbones</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Schaeffer_School_1876.JPG"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"66000678","name":"Colonial Germantown Historic District","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/pennsylvania/colonial-germantown-historic-district-66000678/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71993609","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Schaeffer_School","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5082375"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/philadelphia/schaeffer-charles-school-86003327/"}