{"nrhp_refnum":"96001203","name":"Terminal Commerce Building","other_names":["North American Building"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"401 N. Broad St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Philadelphia","county":"Philadelphia","state":"PA","lat":39.95994002000003,"lon":-75.15463521499998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1996-10-24","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Commerce","Engineering"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A twelve-story Art Deco office, showroom, warehouse and freight-station building occupying a full city block at the northeast corner of Broad and Callowhill Streets in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was built in 1929-31 for the Reading Company.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the building is significant as a fine example of Art Deco architecture adapted by a large railroad corporation to enhance its image, and for its commercial role as a multi-purpose downtown building combining office, showroom, warehouse, parking and rail freight facilities. It is also significant for its reinforced-concrete flat-slab engineering, which provided fire resistance and high floor loads.","narrative":"Built in 1929-31 at the northeast corner of Broad and Callowhill Streets in Philadelphia, the Terminal Commerce Building is a massive twelve-story structure of reinforced concrete and steel clad in yellow brick and terra cotta. Designed by William Steele & Sons for the Reading Company, it combined offices, showrooms, warehouse floors, parking and a rail freight station on one site, with floors of about 120,000 square feet. Its front half is an Art Deco office block with a central tower, while the rear half is a plainer warehouse. The building is significant as a fine example of Art Deco architecture adapted by a railroad corporation to project a modern image, and for its flat-slab concrete construction, which offered fire resistance and high floor loads. It housed many merchandisers after 1931 and, from 1959, the U.S. Armed Forces Examining Station.","period_of_significance":"1929-46","architect_builder":"Steele, William, & Sons Company","architectural_style":"Art Deco","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"The document notes that the federal government leased most of the space after 1955 and describes its later office and induction-station use; current condition is not stated in the text provided.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:38.048409-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/96001203.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/96001203/781443e519-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/96001203/781443e519-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Smallbones","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Terminal_Commerce_Philly.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Smallbones</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Terminal_Commerce_Philly.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71997442","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terminal_Commerce_Building","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7702652"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/philadelphia/terminal-commerce-building-96001203/"}