{"nrhp_refnum":"78002455","name":"Spring Garden District","other_names":["See Also:Bergdoll Mansion","Spring Garden District (Boundary I"],"category":"district","location":{"address":"Roughly bounded by Fairmount Ave., 15th, 24th, Mt. Vernon and Spring Garden Sts.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Philadelphia","county":"Philadelphia","state":"PA","lat":39.96617648150004,"lon":-75.16907918587093,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1978-12-21","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Community Planning and Development","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A residential historic district of about 1,100 buildings on the edge of Fairmount Park and Philadelphia's central business district, built mainly between about 1850 and 1900. It is mostly three-story brick attached rowhouses, with individually designed brownstone and stone houses and churches.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the district is the best remaining example in Philadelphia of middle-class speculative and individually designed residential neighborhoods of the mid to late 19th century. It contains unusually good examples of the mid-Victorian speculative rowhouse and works by most of the major Philadelphia architects of the period. It is also described as one of the city's earliest large-scale residential planning efforts.","narrative":"Spring Garden is a residential district on the edge of Fairmount Park and central Philadelphia, built largely between about 1850 and 1900. Its core is three-story brick rowhouses with pressed-brick facades, marble trim, flat bracketed cornices and distinctive cast ironwork, many put up by speculative builders in groups as large as a full block. Approximately 300 were built by one firm, Randolph and Parry, local lumber merchants. Later, wealthier residents commissioned individually designed brownstone houses and churches, including work by Willis G. Hale, James H. Windrim, Samuel Sloan, and Wilson Eyre, Jr. Interiors retain high ceilings, painted pine woodwork and gas lighting. The district is regarded as the best surviving example in Philadelphia of the neighborhoods that the expanding urban middle class created in the mid to late 19th century. It is also among the city's earliest large-scale residential developments, and it shows how rowhouse design could be varied for different households.","period_of_significance":"1800-1899","architect_builder":"Randolph and Parry (builders, local lumber merchants)","architectural_style":"Mid-Victorian row house with Renaissance Revival motifs; later individually designed houses in High Victorian and other late 19th-century styles","criteria":[],"status_note":"Most houses are restored or in good condition; the district remains primarily residential, with many owner-occupied restorations","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:30.031537-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/78002455.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/78002455/c0b428a666-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/78002455/c0b428a666-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Smallbones","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1900s_Nside_Wallace_Philly.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Smallbones</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1900s_Nside_Wallace_Philly.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71997206","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spring_Garden,_Philadelphia","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7580501"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/philadelphia/spring-garden-district-78002455/"}