{"nrhp_refnum":"91001487","name":"Shawen Acres","other_names":["Montgomery County Children's Home","Montgomery County Children"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"3304 N. Main St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Dayton","county":"Montgomery County","state":"OH","lat":39.796711627000064,"lon":-84.21464351876939,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1991-10-09","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Social History"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Shawen Acres, formerly the Montgomery County Children's Home, is a 19-acre complex of English Cottage style institutional buildings at 3304 North Main Street in Dayton, Ohio, built in 1926-1927. It includes an administration building, a gymnasium/auditorium and physical plant, and ten cottages.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the complex is an excellent example of English Cottage style applied to institutional architecture and reflects changing early twentieth-century ideas about child care. Its \"cottage system\" in a parklike setting replaced old dormitory-style orphanages and became a model of progressive reform.","narrative":"Shawen Acres, built in 1926-1927 on North Main Street in Dayton, is a former county children's home laid out as a campus of stucco buildings with tile roofs. An administration building, a gymnasium/auditorium with physical plant, and ten cottages sit along a circular drive on rolling, tree-filled grounds. The cottages, some paired and some detached, use the English Cottage style with gables, casement windows, chimneys, and open porches. The complex was designed to replace the crowded dormitory-style home that preceded it. County voters approved a bond in 1925, and Dr. Charles Shawen donated the land, which gave the home its name. It opened in February 1928. Each cottage housed twenty to thirty children under cottage parents, with siblings kept together, and recreation, education, and health care were built into the program. The complex was listed for its architecture and for its role in the shift toward home-like child care in the early twentieth century.","period_of_significance":"1926-1941","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Tudor Revival/Other: English Cottage","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Current functions listed are county children's services and civic/social use; a swimming pool replaced in 1950 and a 1950 hospital addition are noted, and cottages have replacement front doors for security.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:53:14.119618-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_OH/91001487.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/91001487/d6c889ff8c-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/91001487/d6c889ff8c-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Greg5030 Photo by Greg Hume","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ShawenAcres.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Greg5030 Photo by Greg Hume</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ShawenAcres.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71990569","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shawen_Acres","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7491239"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/ohio/montgomery-county/shawen-acres-91001487/"}