{"nrhp_refnum":"86003340","name":"Wagner, Gen. Louis, Junior High School","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Seventeenth and Chelton Sts.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Philadelphia","county":"Philadelphia","state":"PA","lat":40.05148901000007,"lon":-75.14757235999997,"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":"A public junior high school building in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, built in 1927 from the design of Irwin T. Catharine.","why_significant":"The nomination presents the school as a relatively simplified example of Classical Revival school design common in Philadelphia in the early twentieth century. It is regarded as a distinctive Neo-Classical public school design by Catharine, with monumental scale and long horizontal lines that set it apart from two other Catharine schools in the same thematic group.","narrative":"Built in 1927 to designs by Irwin T. Catharine, Wagner Junior High School is a Classical Revival public school in Philadelphia. Catharine was the son of School Board member Joseph Catharine and studied architecture at Drexel Institute in preparation for work with the School Board. He served as Head Draftsman from 1919 and drew the plans for this school during that period. In 1930 he became Superintendent of Buildings, a post he held until retiring in 1937. The building is a simplified example of the Classical Revival school type that was widespread in Philadelphia in the early twentieth century. It is less elaborately detailed than the W. and E. Martin School and the Julia Masterman School, also Catharine designs in the same thematic group. Its monumental scale and long horizontal massing are more striking than either of those schools, which is the basis for its distinction within Catharine's body of public school work.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Irwin T. Catharine (architect)","architectural_style":"Classical Revival","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 17:11:33.923487-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/86003340.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/86003340/d17e271d5f-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/86003340/d17e271d5f-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Smallbones","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wagner_Jr_HS_Philly.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Smallbones</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wagner_Jr_HS_Philly.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71993519","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gen._Louis_Wagner_Middle_School","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5530813"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/philadelphia/wagner-gen-louis-junior-high-school-86003340/"}