{"nrhp_refnum":"04000885","name":"Downtown Altoona Historic District (Boundary Increase)","other_names":[],"category":"district","location":{"address":"1330-1410 and 1409-1431 11th Ave. and 1331-1429 Ave.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Altoona","county":"Blair County","state":"PA","lat":40.516368303000036,"lon":-78.40371920099994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2004-08-20","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Commerce","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A boundary increase to the Downtown Altoona Historic District, covering blocks along 11th and 12th Avenues in Altoona, Blair County, Pennsylvania. It includes eleven contributing buildings, mostly early 20th-century commercial blocks, plus one church.","why_significant":"The increase is argued to be significant for commerce and architecture. 11th Avenue was Altoona's main commercial street in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and the contributing buildings reflect prevalent early 20th-century commercial architecture. Businesses such as Aaron (later Penn) Furniture and the S. H. Kress 5 & 10 Cent Store are represented. The First Evangelical Lutheran Church is regarded as individually eligible for the Register.","narrative":"Along 11th and 12th Avenues in downtown Altoona, Blair County, this extension adds eleven contributing buildings to an existing district, most built in the 1920s. Eleventh Avenue was the city's main commercial street in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and was nicknamed the Great White Way after electric light posts were installed in 1910. The contributing buildings are mostly two- and three-story brick commercial blocks with large upper-story windows, some with tri-partite Chicago-style openings. The Aaron-Penn Furniture Building includes a five-story addition. The First Evangelical Lutheran Church, a sandstone building completed in 1896-97 at 12th Avenue and 14th Street, is the only non-commercial contributor. Gable's Department Store and its annex are counted as non-contributing because 1970s brick veneer hides their historic facades.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"D. G. Puderbaugh (buildings at 1409-13 11th Avenue); Charles M. Robinson (First Evangelical Lutheran Church)","architectural_style":"Late Gothic Revival (church); Commercial and Neo-Classical influences (commercial buildings)","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Some buildings have been rehabilitated since 1990, and the Gable's buildings are clad in brick veneer added in the 1970s or early 1980s; three vacant parcels are part of the boundary increase.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:10:27.586658-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/04000885.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/04000885/f9a4658089-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/04000885/f9a4658089-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"1ericmiller1","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Altoona_2.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">1ericmiller1</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:Altoona_2.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71994501","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downtown_Altoona_Historic_District","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5303347"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/blair-county/downtown-altoona-historic-district-boundary-increase-04000885/"}