Walter George Smith School, historic school building in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
The Walter George Smith School is a four-story school building in Philadelphia's Point Breeze neighborhood built in the mid-1920s. The brick and stone structure displays Late Gothic Revival features including pointed arches, decorative stonework, and a symmetrical design with projecting wings.
Designed by architect Irwin T. Catharine, the school opened in 1925 to serve children from the growing neighborhood. It was part of a large building program to expand the city's schools and served generations of students until it closed in 2013.
The school was named after Walter George Smith, a lawyer and advocate for public education. Today visitors can see original architectural details and elements like chalkboards and trim preserved inside the apartments, connecting the building to its educational past.
The former school building is now residential apartments located on South 19th Street in the flat, accessible Point Breeze area. The neighborhood is served by bus lines and was historically accessible by streetcars, and is surrounded by rowhouses and small parks.
The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1986 and closed as a school in 2013, but was later converted to modern apartments while preserving original features like pointed arches, stonework, and even schoolhouse fixtures. This transformation demonstrates how developers can restore and adapt historic structures for contemporary living.
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