{"nrhp_refnum":"72001105","name":"Longwood Gardens District","other_names":["Longwood Gardens (of the Longwood Foundation,Inc.)"],"category":"district","location":{"address":"On U.S. 1, East Marlborough Township","address_restricted":false,"city":"Hamorton","county":"Chester County","state":"PA","lat":39.87317225400005,"lon":-75.6635971350003,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1972-10-18","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Landscape Architecture","Conservation","Agriculture","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"The Longwood Gardens District is a 1030-acre district in Chester County, Pennsylvania, centered on the Pierce House and Arboretum, Longwood Meeting, the Red Lion Inn, and the Conservatory and Fountains built by Pierre S. DuPont. It is in original site condition.","why_significant":"The district is significant for its historic house and early arboretum, the Longwood Meeting's role in a 1850s division over the treatment of runaway slaves, the Red Lion Inn as a former stop on Street Road, and the Conservatory and Fountains built by Pierre S. DuPont between 1919 and 1921, regarded as one of the country's finest private horticultural collections.","narrative":"Set on 1030 acres in Chester County, Pennsylvania, Longwood Gardens District brings together several buildings from different centuries. The Pierce House, a red brick Federal-style structure, began as a log house in 1709, with its first brick section built in 1730 by George Pierce. Nearby, the Pierce family's arboretum was started in 1800 by Joshua and Samuel Pierce and is described as the only one of its size in the United States to have operated continuously for over a century and a half. Longwood Meeting, a white frame meeting house from the mid-nineteenth century, marks a division within Kennett Meeting over how runaway slaves were treated during the 1850s. The Red Lion Inn, built in 1789, served travelers on Street Road and was a drover's station until about 1920. The district's best-known feature is the Conservatory and outdoor Fountains, built by Pierre S. DuPont between 1919 and 1921, which include 300,000 square feet of glass and an outdoor theatre.","period_of_significance":"1709-1921","architect_builder":"Pierre S. DuPont (Conservatory and Fountains, with his construction division and electrician R.P. Brewer)","architectural_style":"Federal","criteria":["A","B","C","D"],"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 17:11:28.820531-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/72001105.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/72001105/6f404a3ac8-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/72001105/6f404a3ac8-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"P. Hughes","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Longwood_Gardens_-_Exterior_view_of_Conservatory.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">P. Hughes</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Longwood_Gardens_-_Exterior_view_of_Conservatory.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71995742","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longwood_Gardens","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1129930"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/chester-county/longwood-gardens-district-72001105/"}