{"nrhp_refnum":"88000453","name":"Mount Airy Historic District","other_names":["Mount Airy Park","Prospect Avenue"],"category":"district","location":{"address":"Roughly Prospect Ave. between Fifteenth and Eighth Aves.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Bethlehem","county":"Lehigh County","state":"PA","lat":40.619892438500045,"lon":-75.40297057538612,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1988-05-09","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Industry","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A residential historic district of large early 20th-century houses along Prospect Avenue between Eighth and 15th avenues in the Mount Airy area of Bethlehem, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania. It contains 27 contributing residential buildings and two non-contributing 1970s houses.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the district is the only extensive collection of early 20th-century large, high-style houses in Bethlehem and was the principal residential enclave of Bethlehem Steel executives during the company's peak period. It is significant for its association with those leading executives and for its architecture, which includes Colonial Revival, Tudor Revival, French Renaissance Revival, Spanish Revival and Queen Anne examples.","narrative":"Mount Airy is a residential district of large, ornately detailed houses on Prospect Avenue in Bethlehem, built mostly between 1910 and 1930, with earlier houses from 1895 to 1909. Its 27 contributing residences show a range of revival styles, including Colonial, Tudor, French Renaissance and Spanish Revival, built in brick, stone, shingle and stucco. The lots were laid out in the late 1890s and early 1900s on a high ridge west of the city center, and the district developed as a suburban setting with deep setbacks, plantings and circular drives. Its importance rests on its link to the executives of Bethlehem Steel, the city's major industry, who bought and built here after Charles Schwab took over the company in 1904. The district is also regarded as the city's only large collection of early 20th-century high-style houses. Most of the houses remain largely unaltered, and the district is valued for its architecture and its role in the city's industrial history.","period_of_significance":"1895-1930","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Colonial Revival, Tudor Revival, Queen Anne, Colonial, Dutch, French Renaissance, Spanish, Shingle style","criteria":["A","B","C"],"status_note":"Three contributing houses were altered for other uses (a nursing home, a priests' residence and a nunnery) while remaining contributing; the integrity of the district is described as high.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:35.637135-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/88000453.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/88000453/d58e9ba70b-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/88000453/d58e9ba70b-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"Wombat18252","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A_home_in_Mount_Airy_Historical_District.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Wombat18252</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:A_home_in_Mount_Airy_Historical_District.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71994644","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Airy_Historic_District_(Bethlehem,_Pennsylvania)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6919312"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/lehigh-county/mount-airy-historic-district-88000453/"}