Center City West Commercial Historic District (Boundary Increase)
The National Park Service has not published a boundary polygon for this district; the map shows the listed properties inside it and the district's reference point.
Why it's listed
Four commercial buildings at the southern edge of Center City West in Philadelphia make up this boundary increase to the Center City West Commercial Historic District. The group includes two small late-19th-century buildings on South 15th Street, one of them a Victorian brick building dating to about 1895 with a bay window and denticulated cornice, and two Locust Street buildings. The most prominent is 1501-1503 Locust Street, an eight-story Classical Revival commercial building designed in 1922 by Philadelphia architect LeRoy Rothschild for the Heymann Brothers, local real estate brokers. It has a steel frame clad in red-brown brick, with terra cotta cornices and Ionic capitals. The nomination lists the group for its role in the commercial development of the area and for the range of styles it shows, from late Victorian to Classical Revival. Building 222 S. 15th Street was altered after the period of significance and is classed as non-contributing.
Machine-generated summary. This summary was generated by a language model from the official nomination document and has not been reviewed line by line by an editor. It may contain errors. Check the source document before relying on any detail. Source: nomination document (PDF) · catalog entry. Generated October 2026 (model claude-haiku-5-5, prompt v1.1-2026-10-29).
| Period of significance | 1830-1941 |
|---|---|
| Styles | Classical Revival |
| Areas of significance | Architecture, Commerce |
| Acreage | 0.9 |
| Boundary source | not published |
| Full listing page | Center City West Commercial Historic District (Boundary Increase) (property record) |
What listing means for this property
This is a historic district. Buildings within its boundary are either contributing (they add to the district's significance) or non-contributing. Owners of contributing income-producing buildings can claim the 20% federal rehabilitation tax credit; homeowners should look at state credits. National Register districts impose no design review by themselves; a local historic district ordinance, if one exists, does (the difference explained).
General information, not legal or tax advice. Rules change; confirm with your State Historic Preservation Office or a qualified adviser.