Bennett, Abel, Tract Historic District

On Binghamton's west side, about a mile from the confluence of the Chenango and Susquehanna Rivers, a neighborhood of 23 blocks grew from the farm of Abel Bennett. Bennett and his heirs platted the land in 1887 and 1909, and the arrival of a streetcar line along Leroy Street in 1887 spurred building. The district holds roughly 1,050 contributing resources, mostly wood-frame houses, along with apartment buildings, carriage houses, garages and the 22-acre George F. Johnson Recreation Park. Early gabled cottages gave way to Queen Anne and Shingle style houses, followed by Colonial Revival, Craftsman, Dutch Colonial Revival and postwar Cape Cod homes, plus a 1952 Modern garden apartment complex. Lots are mostly 50 by 125 feet, with consistent setbacks, sidewalks and grass margins. The area was listed because it remains a highly intact streetcar suburb, keeping its street plan, scale and landscape features from its development between about 1882 and 1957.