Samuel F. B. Morse School

Last updated
Samuel F. B. Morse School
Morse School, South Side, Pittsburgh, 2020-01-11.jpg
The former school in 2020
Pittsburgh locator map 2018.png
Red pog.svg
USA Pennsylvania location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Usa edcp location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Location2418 Sarah Street (South Side Flats), Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
Coordinates 40°25′36.72″N79°58′14.52″W / 40.4268667°N 79.9707000°W / 40.4268667; -79.9707000
Built1874
ArchitectThomas D. Evans
Architectural style Italianate
NRHP reference No. 86002694 [1]
Added to NRHPSeptember 30, 1986

The Samuel F. B. Morse School is located at 2418 Sarah Street in the South Side Flats neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Built in 1874, it was named in honor of Samuel Morse, commonly credited as the inventor of the telegraph.

Contents

Today, it is an apartment building known as "Morse Gardens".

History

The school was built in 1874 and dedicated on January 15, 1875. [2] It was named after Samuel Morse, credited as one of the main contributors to the invention of the telegraph. The school originally served an area of German, Scotch-Irish, and Welsh immigrants, who floated a $66,000 bond issue in order to build the school. [3]

The school closed in 1979 and was sold to the Pittsburgh Housing Authority, which converted it to a 70-unit senior housing facility called Morse Gardens. The former school building houses 30 apartments, while the other 40 are in a five-story addition which replaced a former school annex building. [4]

It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on September 30, 1986. [1]

Architecture

The Morse School is a three-story brick building in the Italianate style. It was designed by Welsh-American architect Thomas D. Evans (1844–1903), who was particularly known for school buildings. [5] It has been speculated that Evans also designed the Springfield Public School in the Strip District based on the similarity between the two buildings. [6]

The front elevation is seven bays wide, with a projecting, three-bay center section. The original front entrance is set behind an arcade of three pointed arches supported by Corinthian columns. The gable above the main entrance is marked with a stone bearing the name of the school. The windows are arched, with Italianate trim. The roof is hipped with central gables on three sides and a prominent cornice. The original belfry has been removed, but the school bell is still displayed inside the building. [3]

The interior of the school had thirteen classrooms, along with a third-floor auditorium, organized around intersecting central hallways with a stairwell at either end. During the conversion to residential use, each classroom was turned into two one-bedroom apartments and the hallways were opened up into a three-story atrium. [3]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cummins School</span> United States historic place

The Cummins School is a historic former school building in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. Built in 1871 in the neighborhood of Walnut Hills, it was later used as a model for the construction of other city school buildings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Samuel L. Smith House</span> Historic house in Michigan, United States

The Samuel L. Smith House is located at 5035 Woodward Avenue in Midtown Detroit, Michigan. It was also known as the Schools Annex. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dodge-Greenleaf House</span> Historic house in New York, United States

The Dodge-Greenleaf House is on NY 211 in Otisville, New York, United States. It was built circa 1855 in the Gothic Revival style. The architect is unknown but it exemplifies contemporary trends in home design popularized by the writings and pattern books of Andrew Jackson Downing of nearby Newburgh, as articulated in the Picturesque mode.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Myrtle Street School</span> United States historic place

The Myrtle Street School is a historic school at 64 Myrtle Street in the Indian Orchard neighborhood of Springfield, Massachusetts. Built in stages between 1868 and 1915, it encapsulates changing trends in school design over that period of time, and is a good example of a school building with Second Empire and Classical Revival features. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985. It has been converted to residential use.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Republican Block</span> United States historic place

The Republican Block is a historic commercial building at 1365 Main Street in downtown Springfield, Massachusetts. Built in 1858, it heralded the northward expansion of the downtown north of Court Square, and was the first permanent home of the Springfield Republican, one of the state's oldest newspapers. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Springfield Public School</span> United States historic place

The Springfield Public School located in the Strip District neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was built in 1872 and closed in 1934. After closing it served as a warehouse. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eaton School (Norridgewock, Maine)</span> United States historic place

The Eaton School, in Norridgewock, Maine, also known as Somerset Grange #18, is a historic community building at Main Street and Mercer Road in Norridgewock, Maine. Originally built in 1866–67 to house a private academy and the local Masonic lodge, it is notable as an early design of Charles F. Douglas, a Maine native whose career began in Somerset County. The building is a fine local example of Second Empire design, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988. It has been owned since 1916 by the local chapter of the Grange.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eastport City Hall</span> United States historic place

The Eastport City Hall, originally built as the Boynton High School, is an historic municipal building at 78 High Street in Eastport, Maine. Built in 1847 to a design by Gridley James Fox Bryant, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002. It served as a school until 1917, and has housed the city's offices since 1974.

The Union School is a historic former school building on Mt. Ephraim Road in Searsport, Maine. Built in 1866, it is one of the town's prominent former public buildings, and an important surviving school commission of architect George M. Harding. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1993. It has been converted into apartments.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Foster School</span> United States historic place

The Stephen C. Foster School, also known as the Stephen C. Foster Community Center, is a historic school building in the Central Lawrenceville neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is named for composer Stephen Foster, whose father William Barclay Foster once owned the land on which the building is located. The school opened in 1886 and operated until 1939, when its students were transferred to the new elementary wing of Arsenal Junior High School. Since 1939, the building has been used as a community center.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Public School 9 and Public School 9 Annex</span> United States historic place

Public School 9 and Public School 9 Annex are two historic school buildings located at 227 and 279 Sterling Place, respectively, at Vanderbilt Avenue in the Prospect Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jonesborough Historic District</span> Historic district in Tennessee, United States

The Jonesborough Historic District is a historic district in Jonesborough, Tennessee, that was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as Jonesboro Historic District in 1969.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Franklin School (Lexington, Massachusetts)</span> United States historic place

The Franklin School is a historic former school building at 7 Stedman Rd. in Lexington, Massachusetts. Built in 1931, it is the only school built by the town in the period of the Great Depression. The Georgian Revival structure was designed by architects Kilham, Hopkins & Greeley. It served as a public school until 1985, when it was converted to the Franklin School Apartments. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2009.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New Pump-House</span> United States historic place

New Pump-House, also known as the Byrd Park Pump House, is a historic pumping station building located in Byrd Park, Richmond, Virginia. It was built in 1881–1883, and is a three-part, "I" plan, Gothic Revival style granite building. A one-story, L-shaped annex was built in 1905. The building features a steeply pitched roof, projecting gables, Gothic arches, and lancet windows. Also on the property are the contributing Beaux Arts style 1924 Hydro Electric Pumping Station constructed of brick, concrete, and stucco and the 1881 Worthington Steam Pump Building, a one-story Italianate style pump house built of brick coated with stucco. The complex was built as the waterworks for the city of Richmond.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Union Chapel School and Shop Building</span> United States historic place

The Union Chapel School and Shop Building is a historic school complex in rural Conway County, Arkansas. It is located at the junction of Union Chapel Road and Acker Lane, about 2.5 miles (4.0 km) south of Springfield. It consists of three buildings: a classroom, shop building, and pump house. The classroom building is a stone single-story structure, with a gable roof, and bands of sash windows flanking the main entrance, which is set in a rounded-arch opening. The shop building is also stone, and is covered by a hip roof. The shop building was one of several built on the grounds in the late 1920s with funding from the Rosenwald Fund, and is the only one from that period to survive. The classroom building was built in 1937–38 with funding from the Works Progress Administration, replacing one of the Rosenwald buildings that had burned down.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LaSalle Annex</span> United States historic place

LaSalle Annex is a historic multi-use commercial building located at South Bend, St. Joseph County, Indiana. It was built in 1925, and is a three to four-story, six bay by eight bay, building constructed of concrete, stone, and brick. It features an Italianate style tower and round arched openings. It was originally built as a multi-use building containing stores, a parking structure, hotel rooms, bachelor apartments, and a variety of large recreational facilities including a roller rink, dance floor, and bowling alley. It was originally built as an annex to the LaSalle Hotel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Burton</span> United States historic place

The Burton is a historic apartment building located at Indianapolis, Indiana. It was built in 1920, and is a two-story, Spanish Colonial Revival style stuccoed building on a raised basement. It features a semicircular metal arched entrance hood, stepped gables, and a red tile roof.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Sid-Mar</span> United States historic place

The Sid-Mar is a historic apartment building located at Indianapolis, Indiana. It was built in 1887, and is a three-story, triangular, Italianate style red brick building. It has commercial storefronts on the first floor and segmental arched and projecting bay windows on the upper floors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mt. Pisgah Lutheran Church</span> Historic church in Indiana, United States

Mount Pisgah Lutheran Church, also known in its early years as the First Lutheran Church and First English Lutheran Church and more recently as The Sanctuary on Penn, is located at 701 North Pennsylvania Street in downtown Indianapolis, Indiana. The historic church was built by the city's first Lutheran congregation, which organized in 1837, and was its third house of worship. The former church, whose present-day name is The Sanctuary on Penn, is operated as a for-profit event venue.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sioux City Central High School and Central Annex</span> United States historic place

The Sioux City Central High School and Central Annex, also known as the Castle on the Hill, are historic buildings located in Sioux City, Iowa, United States. The high school building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. The annex was added to the historic designation in 2016.

References

  1. 1 2 "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
  2. "Morse School House". Pittsburgh Commercial. January 16, 1875. Retrieved February 9, 2024 via Newspapers.com.
  3. 1 2 3 "National Register of Historic Places Inventory–Nomination Form: Samuel F. B. Morse School". National Archives Catalog. National Park Service. Retrieved February 9, 2024.
  4. Spatter, Sam (April 15, 1985). "South Side elderly moving into converted Morse school". Pittsburgh Press. Retrieved February 9, 2024 via Newspapers.com.
  5. "Thomas D. Evans Has Passed Away". Pittsburgh Gazette. June 21, 1903. Retrieved February 9, 2024 via Newspapers.com.
  6. "National Register of Historic Places Inventory–Nomination Form: Springfield Public School". National Archives Catalog. National Park Service. Retrieved February 9, 2024.