{"nrhp_refnum":"10001070","name":"Rittenhouse Historic District (Boundary Increase)","other_names":[],"category":"district","location":{"address":"Roughly bounded by the Center City West Historic District, S 21st St, the Rittenhouse Historic District, and S 17th St","address_restricted":false,"city":"Philadelphia","county":"Philadelphia","state":"PA","lat":39.95320231000005,"lon":-75.17252062499995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2010-12-28","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Community Planning and Development","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A four-block area of Sansom Street between S. 17th and S. 21st streets, directly north of Rittenhouse Square in Center City Philadelphia, proposed as an addition to the Rittenhouse Historic District. It contains 88 resources, 84 buildings and 4 sites, with 71 buildings contributing; contributing buildings were constructed between 1830 and 1948.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the area shares the residential character, socio-economic mix and high quality of architectural design of the existing Rittenhouse district, and that its exclusion was arbitrary. It holds a concentration of late-19th and early-20th century architecture, including Italianate and Second Empire rows and architect-designed houses, and its working-class and elite history is presented as distinct from the commercial character of the adjacent Center City West Commercial Historic District.","narrative":"Brick rowhouses, speculatively built rows and architect-designed houses line four blocks of Sansom Street north of Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia. Most of the contributing buildings date from between 1830 and 1948, with the earliest surviving houses on Sansom and Moravian Streets built around 1850 to 1860 for workers employed in nearby brickyards and quarries. Italianate and Second Empire rows predominate, while larger houses from the 1880s onward were designed by prominent architects, including Cope and Stewardson, Frank Furness, John Windrim and Magaziner and Eberhard. The house at 131 South 18th Street, completed in 1895 by Washington Bleddyn Powell, is the area's main Romanesque Revival example. Its owners included wealthy professionals and at least one prominent contractor. The nomination proposes adding the area to the Rittenhouse Historic District on grounds of architecture and community planning, because its residential character and mix of working-class and elite residents match the existing district.","period_of_significance":"1830-1948","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Italianate, Second Empire, Romanesque Revival, Late Victorian, Colonial Revival, Art Deco, International Style","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":null,"vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:10:27.062835-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/10001070.pdf"},"photo":null,"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71997456","wikipedia":null,"wikidata":null},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/philadelphia/rittenhouse-historic-district-boundary-increase-10001070/"}