{"nrhp_refnum":"88002188","name":"Westlawn","other_names":["Essing,Charles,House"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"123 N. Providence Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Wallingford","county":"Delaware County","state":"PA","lat":39.90645127700003,"lon":-75.37645609199996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1988-11-18","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A large two-and-one-half-story detached Queen Anne style dwelling built in 1882 in Wallingford, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, with a carriage house to the southwest and a faceted addition completed in 1895.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the house is an unusually intact example of the Queen Anne style in Nether Providence Township, with original interiors and landscape features largely preserved. It is also linked to the suburban development made possible by the railroad serving the Philadelphia area and to its first owner, a prominent Philadelphia dentist.","narrative":"Built in 1882 for Dr. Charles Essig, this asymmetrical Queen Anne house in Wallingford combines brick, clapboard, novelty shingles, half-timbering and stucco under a cross-gable roof with a turret, a square tower and corbelled chimneys. A faceted addition of 1895 extends the north end. Its interior keeps an unusual amount of original woodwork, including oak library paneling, a dining room with reeded Ionic columns, green glazed tile fireplaces and cast brass hardware. Essig, first Dean of the University of Pennsylvania's Department of Dentistry, held patents and kept a Philadelphia practice from 1876 to 1898. The house is significant as a rare survivor of the style in the township and as an expression of the upper-middle-class move to the suburbs after rail service reached the area. Carriage house, driveway, lampposts and iron fencing survive with it.","period_of_significance":"1882","architect_builder":"Essig, Charles (builder for Dr. Charles Essig); architect unknown","architectural_style":"Queen Anne","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 17:11:37.815594-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/88002188.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/88002188/9d862138c0-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/88002188/9d862138c0-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"User:Smallbones on English Wikipedia.","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WestLawnPA.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">User:Smallbones on English Wikipedia.</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WestLawnPA.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71998501","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westlawn_(Wallingford,_Pennsylvania)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7989034"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/delaware-county/westlawn-88002188/"}