Awbury Historic District

Awbury is a historic district in East Germantown, Philadelphia, made up of houses, outbuildings and designed grounds built by members of the Cope family between 1849 and the early twentieth century. The first house, built in 1849 for John S. Haines, was designed by Thomas U. Walter, the architect of the United States Capitol from 1850. Henry Cope, a Quaker merchant's son, built the house that gave the enclave its name, Awbury, in 1852-53. Later houses were designed by Addison Hutton and by Cope & Stewardson. The landscape began with a picturesque garden laid out by William Saunders in the 1850s. In 1916 the family donated land and funds to create the Awbury Arboretum, which is now the largest part of the district. The district is valued for the combination of architecture and landscape by notable designers, and for its surviving garden layout and conservation history.