Irwin T. Catharine

Irwin Thornton Catharine (October 22, 1883 – March 3, 1944) was the chief architect of Philadelphia public schools from 1920 until his retirement in 1937. Buildings built during Catharine's tenure ranged from Gothic Revival, as in the case of Simon Gratz High School, to Streamline Moderne, as in his last project, Joseph H. Brown Elementary School. He died in Philadelphia in 1944.

Catharine succeeded Henry deCoursey Richards as the main school designer in Philadelphia. From 1918 to 1937, his work added 104 new buildings (replacing 37 existing ones), added wings to 26 other schools, and otherwise improved at least 50 other schools.[1]: 13 

A number of Catharine's works are listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.[2]

The former Edward Bok Vocational School, in the Wharton neighborhood of South Philadelphia, which has been repurposed as the Bok Building for commercial uses after the closure of the school it housed, has a bar and restaurant on its top floor named Irwin's, in honor of Catharine.[3]

Works

Catharine's works (all in Philadelphia) include the following. If Catharine has notable works outside of Philadelphia, none are listed on the National Register.[2]

References

  1. ^ Jefferson M. Moak; William Sisson; Elizabeth Mintz. "Philadelphia Public Schools TR". National Park Service.
  2. ^ a b c "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  3. ^ LaBan, Craig (4 January 2019). "More than its bar: Bok grows up with multiple food businesses". Philadelphia Inquirer. Retrieved 12 December 2025.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Irwin T. Catharine.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.