{"nrhp_refnum":"00000055","name":"Morton, Morton, House","other_names":["Mortonson, Morton, House","Morton, Morton and Lydia, House"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Jct. of Muckinipates and Darby Creeks","address_restricted":false,"city":"Norwood","county":"Delaware County","state":"PA","lat":39.880687300000034,"lon":-75.29057697399998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2000-02-04","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A c.1750 two-story, three-bay brick house with an attached one-and-one-half story kitchen wing, located in the Borough of Norwood, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, on the confluence of Darby and Muckinipates Creeks.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the house illustrates the impact of the Georgian style on local vernacular architecture in southeastern Pennsylvania, combining Georgian symmetry and Flemish-bond brickwork with a traditional hall-parlor plan and winder stair. It is described as the only extant eighteenth-century house in Norwood Borough and as representing middle-class building traditions of the period.","narrative":"Built in the mid-eighteenth century on land at the confluence of Darby and Muckinipates Creeks, the Morton Morton House is a symmetrical two-story brick house with a gable roof and an attached kitchen wing. Its brickwork is laid in Flemish bond with the initials MM in glazed headers, and its interior keeps a hall-parlor plan with a winder stair and Georgian paneling around the fireplaces. The house was altered around 1845 when a third story was added, then restored in 1971 to its earlier appearance using archival, architectural and archaeological research. It is significant as an example of how the Georgian style was adapted to older local building traditions in southeastern Pennsylvania. Morton Morton, who married into the Mortonson family, held much of the surrounding land in the eighteenth century, and the tax records and mortgage of 1768 help date its construction. The house is the only surviving eighteenth-century house in Norwood Borough.","period_of_significance":"c.1750","architect_builder":"Dickey, John (restoration)","architectural_style":"Colonial/Georgian","criteria":["C"],"status_note":"After its 1971 restoration the house was used as a house museum until it was closed in 1997 due to termite infestation; the document describes the building as in fair condition.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:37.122625-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/00000055.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/00000055/001068980f-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/00000055/001068980f-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"User:Smallbones on English Wikipedia.","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MortonMorton_House.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">User:Smallbones on English Wikipedia.</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MortonMorton_House.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71996826","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morton_Morton_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6914922"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/delaware-county/morton-morton-house-00000055/"}