{"nrhp_refnum":"79002318","name":"Druim Moir Historic District","other_names":["Houston Estate Historic District"],"category":"district","location":{"address":"Bounded by Fairmount Park, Cherokee St., Hartwell Lane and Valley Green Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Philadelphia","county":"Philadelphia","state":"PA","lat":40.05951686000003,"lon":-75.21377395997956,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1979-12-11","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Community Planning and Development","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A 47-acre former country estate in Philadelphia's Chestnut Hill, developed by Henry Howard Houston from the mid-1880s and continued by his son Samuel Frederic Houston in the early twentieth century. It includes the mansion Druim Moir, the Shingle Style house Brinkwood, outbuildings, a gate house, and formal gardens.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the estate is a rare, largely intact survivor of a late-nineteenth-century country seat and is the best surviving example of Henry Houston's role in shaping Chestnut Hill. Druim Moir is described as one of the largest suburban villas of its day, and its formal garden by Robert Rodes McGoodwin is called a well-designed, unusually well-preserved landscape. Brinkwood is cited as an excellent Shingle Style house.","narrative":"Druim Moir is a two-story schist house on a knoll above Fairmount Park in Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia. Henry Howard Houston, a financier and Pennsylvania Railroad director, had the house completed in 1886, when the architects G. W. and W. D. Hewitt rebuilt an earlier house designed by John Notman. Its picturesque massing, with cross-gables, a castellated tower and a turret, was typical of the period. Major alterations in 1942 removed upper elements, but the great hall and stairway, with oak wainscoting and carved balusters, remain intact. Robert Rodes McGoodwin designed the formal terraced gardens beginning in 1920, with sunken gardens, fountains and iron trellises. Nearby, Brinkwood, completed in 1887 for Samuel Frederic Houston, is regarded as an excellent Shingle Style house. The district is significant for its intact grounds and for its link to Houston's development of Chestnut Hill.","period_of_significance":"1886-1907","architect_builder":"G. W. and W. D. Hewitt (architects); Duhring, Okie and Ziegler (architects, 1907 remodeling of Heating House)","architectural_style":"Romanesque Revival; Shingle Style; picturesque eclecticism","criteria":[],"status_note":"Garages are vacant but in good condition; Tenant House is occupied; Springside School is in excellent condition; the Storage Shed and School Garage are in use by Springside School.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:32.948206-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/79002318.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/79002318/3959af8f9f-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/79002318/3959af8f9f-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Jerrye &amp; Roy Klotz, MD","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:DRUIM_MOIR_HISTORIC_DISTRICT,_CHESTNUT_HILL,_PHILADELPHIA.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Jerrye &amp;amp; Roy Klotz, MD</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:DRUIM_MOIR_HISTORIC_DISTRICT,_CHESTNUT_HILL,_PHILADELPHIA.jpg"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"72001151","name":"Fairmount Park","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/pennsylvania/fairmount-park-72001151/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71997234","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Druim_Moir_Historic_District","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5309005"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/philadelphia/druim-moir-historic-district-79002318/"}