East Lancaster Avenue Historic District

East Lancaster Avenue in Downingtown is a street of about 142 properties running 1.1 miles from the Brandywine Creek to the town's eastern boundary. Its buildings range from a round log house built c. 1700 beside the creek to Georgian stone houses dating from c. 1729 to 1804, Federal and Italianate commercial blocks of the 19th century, and bungalows built at the start of the 20th century. The George Washington Inn anchored the first commercial core, and the street grew up around its stagecoach traffic. Its position halfway between Lancaster and Philadelphia made it a stop on the route, and it supported the Philadelphia and Lancaster Turnpike in the 1790s. Local limestone quarried nearby was the principal building material for the Georgian and Federal houses. Most of the street's facades have been kept largely intact, which gives the district its unusually unchanged streetscape.