{"nrhp_refnum":"83002291","name":"Wrightsville Historic District","other_names":[],"category":"district","location":{"address":"Roughly bounded by the Susquehanna River, Vine, 4th, and Willow Sts.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Wrightsville","county":"York County","state":"PA","lat":40.023582927000064,"lon":-76.52668910769773,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1983-09-12","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Industry","Military","Transportation","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A historic district of approximately 380 buildings in the borough of Wrightsville, York County, Pennsylvania, on the west bank of the Susquehanna River. It includes mostly 19th-century frame workers' houses, larger brick and stone houses on Front, Hellam and Locust Streets, and industrial buildings along Front Street.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the district is significant for its transportation role as a Susquehanna River crossing and terminus of the Monocacy Road, canal and railroad links, and its development as an industrial town from 1840 onward. It also cites architecture, including the only concentration in York County of corbelled brick cornice work and a large stock of mid-late 19th-century workers' housing, and a military role in a June 1863 Civil War skirmish when the bridge was burned.","narrative":"Wrightsville sits on a limestone valley above the Susquehanna River, laid out as two villages in 1811 to 1813 and incorporated as a borough in 1834. Its residential core is made up largely of two-and-a-half-storey frame workers' houses built for foundry, sawmill, canal, railroad, limekiln and quarry employees, many with rear shed-roofed extensions and central chimneys. Along Front, Hellam and Locust Streets stand larger brick and stone houses, including Georgian and Federal townhouses and Italianate examples with bracketed cornices and corbelled window hoods. The waterfront industrial area developed after the Susquehanna and Tidewater Canal and the York and Wrightsville Railroad opened in 1840, and lumber, metals and limeburning were its early mainstays. In June 1863 a Pennsylvania Militia unit skirmished with Confederate troops here and burned the bridge, making Wrightsville the farthest eastern point the Confederates reached during the war.","period_of_significance":"1790-1920","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Georgian/Federal, Greek Revival, Italianate, Mansard, Shingle Style/Queen Anne, vernacular workers' housing","criteria":[],"status_note":"The nomination notes that the Wrightsville Hardware Complex, McConkey Building, Wrightsville silk mill and limekilns retain a high degree of integrity, while some industrial buildings have been demolished or drastically altered, and the lime-quarry and some industries remain in operation.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:13:16.749059-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/83002291.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/83002291/6e09dc02b0-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/83002291/6e09dc02b0-1600.webp","licence":"CC0","author":"Smallbones","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wrightsville_PA_HD_Luthrn.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Smallbones</a>, <a href=\"http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wrightsville_PA_HD_Luthrn.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71998808","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wrightsville_Historic_District","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q8038321"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/york-county/wrightsville-historic-district-83002291/"}