{"nrhp_refnum":"02000229","name":"Curtis Arboretum","other_names":["Lyndon","Cyrus, H.K., Estate","Curtis Hall and Arboretum"],"category":"site","location":{"address":"1250 W. Church rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Cheltenham","county":"Montgomery County","state":"PA","lat":40.084458958000056,"lon":-75.1474214989911,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2002-03-20","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Landscape Architecture","Entertainment/Recreation","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A forty-eight acre public arboretum and park in Wyncote, Cheltenham Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, centered on Curtis Hall, a French Renaissance Revival music room building of Indiana limestone. The grounds are the remnant of the estate of publisher Cyrus H.K. Curtis.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the site is significant for its designed landscape, shaped by Curtis and later modified by the Olmstead Brothers and the Township, and for the architecture of Curtis Hall by Baily & Truscott. It also cites its local importance as a public arboretum and park and as one of the Township's largest open spaces.","narrative":"Curtis Hall, a one-and-a-half-story building of Indiana limestone with a steeply pitched red slate roof, stands on a forty-eight acre site in Wyncote. Baily & Truscott designed it in 1895 as a music room addition to Lyndon, the mansion of publisher Cyrus H.K. Curtis, and it was later adapted by Ehrling H. Pederson after the house was demolished in 1937. Curtis collected unusual trees for his estate, and the grounds hold over four hundred specimens of more than ninety species. Olmstead Brothers prepared the 1937 planting plan and tree labels. The Township received the property from Curtis's daughter in 1938, and it became a public park with summer concerts and a Memorial Grove dedicated in 1948 to local war dead. The setting is valued for its designed landscape, terraces, arbor, stone bridges and the way the 1937 and 1948 changes built on Curtis's original planting.","period_of_significance":"1893-1948","architect_builder":"Baily & Truscott; Meyers, Jacob & Sons; Pederson, Ehrling H.; Olmstead Brothers","architectural_style":"French Renaissance Revival","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Public arboretum and park owned by Cheltenham Township; the document describes a 1970 lawsuit by Curtis heirs contesting the Township's ownership.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:36.402027-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/02000229.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/02000229/4367207abe-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/02000229/4367207abe-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Ike9898","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Curtis_Hall_I.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Ike9898</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Curtis_Hall_I.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71995019","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtis_Arboretum_(Wyncote)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5195753"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/montgomery-county/curtis-arboretum-02000229/"}