{"nrhp_refnum":"87000687","name":"Franklin College Building No. 5","other_names":["New Athens Elementary School"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Main St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"New Athens","county":"Harrison County","state":"OH","lat":40.187498160000075,"lon":-80.99617724099994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1987-05-08","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Education","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A 2-1/2 story Georgian Revival brick building on Main Street in New Athens, Harrison County, Ohio, completed in 1900 as the fifth and last major building of Franklin College. It was designed by the Columbus firm of Yost and Packard, and a 1909 gymnasium stands beside it.","why_significant":"It is the last representative of Franklin College, which shaped the history and development of New Athens and educated large numbers of Presbyterian clergymen and other prominent graduates. It is also the town's most architecturally distinctive building and a well-executed example of Georgian Revival work by Yost and Packard, a leading Ohio firm.","narrative":"Built in 1900, this 2-1/2 story brick building on Main Street in New Athens, Ohio, was the fifth and last major home of Franklin College. Designed by the Columbus firm of Yost and Packard, it is a slightly H-shaped Georgian Revival structure with Palladian windows, a pedimented portico with Corinthian capitals, dormers, a hipped roof and an octagonal cupola. A 1909 gymnasium stands beside it. The college began as Alma Academy in 1818, took the Franklin name in 1826 and closed in 1921, merging with Muskingum College. Over that span it granted 796 baccalaureate degrees, nearly half to men who became clergymen, and it was the first Ohio college to graduate a black student. After the college closed, the building passed to the local board of education and became a school. With the older college buildings gone and the commercial block lost to fire in 1925, it is the best surviving reminder of New Athens as a thriving educational and commercial center.","period_of_significance":"1900","architect_builder":"Yost & Packard","architectural_style":"Georgian Revival","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Occupied and in educational use as New Athens Elementary School; condition listed as good and altered, with the interior extensively remodeled in 1950 and a modern one-story addition on the south side.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:53:14.72913-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_OH/87000687.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/87000687/5ece251a8c-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/87000687/5ece251a8c-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 3.0","author":"Bwsmith84 (talk)","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Franklin_Museum_New_Athen_Ohio.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Bwsmith84 (talk)</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Franklin_Museum_New_Athen_Ohio.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71989310","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_College_Building_No._5","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5491370"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/ohio/harrison-county/franklin-college-building-no-5-87000687/"}