{"nrhp_refnum":"88002238","name":"Wilson, James, Public School","other_names":["Annunciation R.C. School"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"1148 Wharton St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Philadelphia","county":"Philadelphia","state":"PA","lat":39.933438515000034,"lon":-75.16347052699996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2012-12-12","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A three-story, six-bay brick school on a raised brick basement at 1148-1150 Wharton Street (also 1301 S. 12th Street) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, built 1908-1909 for the Philadelphia School District and later used as the Annunciation Roman Catholic School.","why_significant":"The building is argued to be significant for its place in the history of education and of school architecture in Philadelphia. Architect Henry deCourcy Richards applied a distinctly Mediterranean ornamentation to a standard three-story form, a departure from the district's usual styles. The James Madison School, built on the same plan, has been demolished, leaving this building as the sole survivor of that short-lived experiment.","narrative":"Built in 1908-1909 to designs by Henry deCourcy Richards, this three-story brick school on a raised basement stands at Wharton and South 12th Streets in Philadelphia. Richards used the district's standard six-bay plan but gave it Mediterranean ornament: a large stone cornice with brackets, a brick parapet, stone pedimented stair-tower entries with arched openings above, and brick pilasters dividing each bay. The building was constructed as a public school for the Philadelphia School District. Its later use as an elementary school run by the Annunciation parish began after a 1948 acquisition from the district. Its design was the exception to the district's usual choice of Italianate, Gothic and Classical Revival styles. The nearby James Madison School of the same design was demolished, so this is the only surviving example of that short-lived approach. The nomination treats it as important for the history of education and of school architecture in Philadelphia.","period_of_significance":"1908-1909","architect_builder":"H. deCourcy Richards (architect); Lynch Bros. (builder)","architectural_style":"Mediterranean / Mission/Spanish with Prairie School noted on the form","criteria":["C"],"status_note":"Building is in good condition and the school has been shut down; the owner parish has placed the property under contract to sell.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:10:27.180981-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/88002238.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/88002238/bce5fd7179-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/88002238/bce5fd7179-1600.webp","licence":"CC0","author":"Smallbones","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Philly_Wilson_Public_School.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Smallbones</a>, <a href=\"http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Philly_Wilson_Public_School.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71993673","wikipedia":null,"wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q139769222"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/philadelphia/wilson-james-public-school-88002238/"}