The Philadelphia School of Occupational Therapy, also known as the Medical Services Building, is an historic

school A school is an educational institution designed to provide learning spaces and learning environments for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is sometimes compuls ...

building which is located in the Rittenhouse Square West neighborhood of

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

. It was designed by

Georgina Pope Yeatman Georgina Pope Yeatman (June 26, 1902 – October, 1982) was an American architect. In 1936, she became the first woman to serve as the director of architecture for the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which, at that time, was the third largest ...

, who was one of only four women to be licensed as architects by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania during the early part of her career. Yeatman later went on to become the first woman ever to be appointed to the post as director of architecture for the city of

, which was the third largest city in Pennsylvania during the 1930s. It was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 2003.

History and architectural features

A three-story, five-bay, "U"-shaped brown brick building, which was designed in the

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

style by

"Philadelphia's First Woman Cabinet Member," ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'', January 12, 1936, p. 61. of the Bissell & Sinkler architecture firm, the Philadelphia School of Occupational Therapy was built in 1930 as a two-story building. A third story was added in 1939. ''Note:'' This includes The front facade features sculptural iron panels,

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...

carvings, and two-story brick pilasters with decorative caps. The Philadelphia School of Occupational Therapy occupied the building into the late-1950s, after which it housed medical offices associated with the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

. ''Note:'' This includes It has been converted to

apartment An apartment (American English), or flat (British English, Indian English, South African English), is a self-contained housing unit (a type of residential real estate) that occupies part of a building, generally on a single story. There are ma ...

s. Notable alumni of the school included

Kamala Nimbkar Kamala Vishnu Nimbkar (January 5, 1900 – August 29, 1979), born Elizabeth Lundy, was an American-born occupational therapist in India. Early life Elizabeth Lundy was born in Mount Holly, New Jersey the daughter of Joseph Wilmer Lundy and Bess ...

and

Muriel Zimmerman Muriel Ellen Zimmerman (1916 – September 25, 2014) was an American occupational therapist, head of the Self-Help Device Unit at the Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine in New York City. Early life Zimmerman was born in 1916, in Lehman ...

. It was added to the

in 2003.

Gallery

File:Philly School Occupational Therapy.JPG, Iron panel

References

{{Authority control School buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Philadelphia Art Deco architecture in Pennsylvania School buildings completed in 1930 Rittenhouse Square, Philadelphia 1930 establishments in Pennsylvania

History and architectural features

See also

Gallery

References