{"nrhp_refnum":"83004257","name":"Wissahickon","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Schuyler & Queen Sts.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Philadelphia","county":"Philadelphia","state":"PA","lat":40.023156458000074,"lon":-75.17751302499994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1983-11-25","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Community Planning and Development","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"The Wissahickon is a four-story brick apartment building with a monumental column-fronted portico, located on a hilltop in the Queen Lane area of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was designed by architect W. Frisbey Smith and dates to 1911.","why_significant":"The building is described as the dominant architectural landmark of its region, visible from the principal streets and rising above the surrounding two- and three-story houses. It is presented as an important Philadelphia adaptation of the apartment block that combines Georgian country-house forms with the layout of multi-family residences, and as an increasingly rare survivor of an early 20th-century building type. The nomination also credits it as a significant work by Smith.","narrative":"Rising on a hilltop above the Queen Lane district of Philadelphia, the Wissahickon is a four-story brick apartment building designed in 1911 by W. Frisbey Smith. Its dominant feature is a grandiose portico carried on paired four-story plastered brick columns with Corinthian capitals, flanked by smaller two-story colonnades at the second and fourth floors. The building contains 32 apartments entered through four stair-served doorways, and each unit has its own front porch and front door, a layout that combines the amenities of a single-family house with the economy of a multi-family building. Its interiors include marble-wainscoted entrance halls, leaded glass fan- and side-lights, hardwood floors with walnut trim, and a round archway separating public and private rooms. Because of its size and visibility from major roads and the former railroad, it dominates the surrounding two- and three-story houses. Its importance rests on its scale and its early role in adapting Colonial forms to apartment living in Philadelphia.","period_of_significance":"1900-","architect_builder":"W. Frisbey Smith (architect)","architectural_style":"Colonial Revival","criteria":["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 17:11:34.30909-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/83004257.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/83004257/08db152d24-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/83004257/08db152d24-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Smallbones","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wissahickon_Apts_Philly.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Smallbones</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wissahickon_Apts_Philly.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/71997190","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wissahickon_(house)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q16903588"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/philadelphia/wissahickon-83004257/"}