{"nrhp_refnum":"98000231","name":"Hooper, William, School (Former)","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"410 Meares St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Wilmington","county":"New Hanover County","state":"NC","lat":34.221509120000064,"lon":-77.94235170499996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1998-03-12","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Education","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-story Classical Revival school building on a raised basement at 410 Meares Street on the south side of Wilmington, New Hanover County, North Carolina, completed in 1914. Designed by architect Joseph F. Leitner and built by Wallace & Osterman.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the school is significant for its association with public education in Wilmington, following state education reforms and the 1914 school bond program, and that it was among the first North Carolina schools designed by a professional architect. Its architecture is presented as embodying the period's ideas that well-designed school buildings supported effective teaching, and it is said to have set a standard for later school buildings in New Hanover County.","narrative":"Built in 1914 on Meares Street in Wilmington, the two-story brick school sits on a raised basement and has a U-shaped plan, with classrooms on two floors and a playroom, boiler room and space for future classrooms in the basement. Joseph F. Leitner designed it in the Classical Revival style, with a central pavilion, wood Doric columns, decorative terra cotta and banks of six-over-six windows. Wallace & Osterman built it for the New Hanover County school system, which opened it in September 1914 as an elementary school. It was named for William Hooper, a signer of the Declaration of Independence from Wilmington. The school is regarded as an important example of the early twentieth-century push to build well-designed schools, and it is said to have set a standard for later buildings in the county. Stairwell wings were added in 1940, and the school served the community until 1984.","period_of_significance":"1914-1947","architect_builder":"Joseph F. Leitner (architect); Wallace & Osterman (builder)","architectural_style":"Classical Revival","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Vacant and awaiting adaptive reuse; the school closed in 1984 and county offices occupied it afterward, and the property was sold in 1988. Planned conversion into apartments is described, and the 1954 cafeteria and other auxiliary buildings have been removed.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:41.318173-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/57/7215/47721557/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NC/98000231.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/98000231/ad6f69ad0b-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/98000231/ad6f69ad0b-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Sanfranman59","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:William_Hooper_School_(Wilmington,_NC).JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Sanfranman59</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:William_Hooper_School_(Wilmington,_NC).JPG"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"03000344","name":"Wilmington Historic District (Boundary Increase)","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/north-carolina/wilmington-historic-district-boundary-increase-03000344/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/47721557","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Hooper_School","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q8012487"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/north-carolina/new-hanover-county/hooper-william-school-former-98000231/"}