{"nrhp_refnum":"88002331","name":"Vare, Edwin H., Junior High School","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"2102 S. 24th St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Philadelphia","county":"Philadelphia","state":"PA","lat":39.925836573000026,"lon":-75.18568768999995,"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 three-story brick junior high school building on a raised basement at 21st and Winter Streets in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, built 1922-1924 from a model designed by Irwin T. Catharine. It is in the Colonial Revival style.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the school represents the School District of Philadelphia's post-World War I program of building schools specifically as junior high schools, a change in educational practice. It was one of eight identical buildings erected from this model in 1922-1924 and was large for its era. The building is said to retain very good integrity.","narrative":"Built between 1922 and 1924 in Philadelphia, the Edwin H. Vare Junior High School is a three-story brick building on a raised basement, set at 21st and Winter Streets. Its front is laid out in a shallow W-shaped plan, with a central pavilion of stone that bears the school's name above the third floor and a balcony at the top. The first floor has arched entrance openings separated by stone pilasters, and the upper floors have stone sills and keystone-center lintels. The building was one of eight identical schools erected by the School District of Philadelphia in these years, all built from a model devised by Irwin T. Catharine. The district undertook the program in response to changing educational theory, and the Vare School was among the first buildings designed specifically as junior high schools. Its size was exceeded only by the senior high schools of the previous decade. It is regarded as representing both a new approach to pedagogy and the architectural planning that met that need.","period_of_significance":"1922-1924","architect_builder":"Irwin T. Catharine (architect); school district construction","architectural_style":"Colonial Revival","criteria":["A","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 17:11:36.172129-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/88002331.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/88002331/dca448456e-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/88002331/dca448456e-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Smallbones","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vare_School_door.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Smallbones</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vare_School_door.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71993739","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Vare_Charter_School","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5346482"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/philadelphia/vare-edwin-h-junior-high-school-88002331/"}