{"nrhp_refnum":"96000717","name":"Rittenhouse, David, Junior High School","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"1705 Locust St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Norristown","county":"Montgomery County","state":"PA","lat":40.12976150500003,"lon":-75.33108007899995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1996-06-28","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Education"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A three-story Colonial Revival junior high school building in red brick with limestone trim on Locust Street in Norristown, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, designed by Ritter and Shay and completed in 1928.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the building embodies the distinctive characteristics of the Colonial Revival style and represents the work of Ritter and Shay, described as one of Philadelphia's finest early 20th century architecture firms. It also argues the school is significant as one of Norristown's first schools built exclusively for junior high students, and as a representative late 1920s public school building with high integrity.","narrative":"Built in 1928 in Norristown, the David Rittenhouse Junior High School is a three-story brick building with limestone trim, designed by the Philadelphia firm Ritter and Shay in the Colonial Revival style. Its central projecting entrance has a semi-circular limestone portico with four columns, a Palladian window above, and a limestone-clad ventilation tower, with flanking two-story wings of matching materials. The school was built to hold junior high students at a cost of about $475,000 and opened in September 1928 with 28 classrooms and a planned capacity of 1,000 students. Its design and integrity are cited as typical of late 1920s public school architecture, with specialized rooms for art, music, home economics and shop. Mid-century additions, including a gymnasium and connecting corridor, were removed in 1995. The building has been vacant since its closing as a middle school in 1981.","period_of_significance":"1927-1946","architect_builder":"Ritter and Shay (architects); Kelly, P. H. Co., Inc. (contractor)","architectural_style":"Colonial Revival","criteria":["C"],"status_note":"Vacant since the school closed in 1981; the rear gymnasium and corridor added in the 1950s were removed in spring 1995.","vacant_flag":true,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:37.423285-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/96000717.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/96000717/7dd3794db5-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/96000717/7dd3794db5-1600.webp","licence":"CC0","author":"Smallbones","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rittenhouse_School_Norristown_Montco_PA.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:Rittenhouse_School_Norristown_Montco_PA.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71996788","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Rittenhouse_Junior_High_School","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5239086"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/montgomery-county/rittenhouse-david-junior-high-school-96000717/"}