{"nrhp_refnum":"88002272","name":"Fitzsimons, Thomas, Junior High School","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"2601 W. Cumberland St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Philadelphia","county":"Philadelphia","state":"PA","lat":39.99378861100007,"lon":-75.17486021999997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1988-11-18","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Education","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A four-story brick school building with a raised brick basement at 2601 West Cumberland Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, built in 1926-1927 to designs by Irwin T. Catharine and constructed by Cramp & Company. It was built as a junior high school.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the building is significant for its place in the history of education and of school architecture in Philadelphia. It is one of the junior high schools built under the School District's 6-3-3 scheme of grades, and it represents the second generation of purpose-built junior high schools, designed in the Collegiate or Academic Gothic style. The form states the building retains excellent integrity.","narrative":"Brick school building at 2601 West Cumberland Street in Philadelphia, a four-story structure with three floors of classrooms over a raised brick basement, completed in 1926-1927. Irwin T. Catharine designed it as one of five identical junior high schools of the JHS-6 type, and Cramp & Company built it. Catharine chose the Collegiate or Academic Gothic style for the group, a choice that linked the schools to the traditional architecture of colleges in the eastern United States. The facade has a central Gothic arched entrance beneath a battlemented tower with carved tracery, carved limestone at the pavilion tops, and paired and triple window openings across the wings. The building marks the Philadelphia School District's move to separate junior and senior high schools under its 6-3-3 system of grades. The form describes its integrity as excellent. It is significant for education history and for the design of Philadelphia's school buildings.","period_of_significance":"1926-1927","architect_builder":"Irwin T. Catharine (architect); Cramp & Company (builder)","architectural_style":"Late Gothic Revival","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Currently used as a school","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:36.385662-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/88002272.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/88002272/44f0629f90-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/88002272/44f0629f90-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Smallbones","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fitzsimons_School_Philly.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Smallbones</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fitzsimons_School_Philly.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71993743","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_FitzSimons_High_School","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7789621"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/philadelphia/fitzsimons-thomas-junior-high-school-88002272/"}