Harriman Historic District

Harriman is a planned residential district in the northernmost ward of Bristol, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, laid out within an oval plan around a tree-lined boulevard called Wilson Avenue. The Emergency Fleet Corporation financed its construction beginning in early 1918 to house workers at the nearby shipyard on the Delaware River. The district contains 109 residential buildings, most of them frame multi-family dwellings with steep slate roofs in Tudor Revival and Colonial Revival styles, along with thirteen bungalows for foremen. Blocks were arranged symmetrically, with identical buildings facing each other across the streets. The community was built as a self-sufficient town, with its own utilities, a central heating plant, police and fire departments. It was the largest single EFC housing project in the country, and it is significant for its link to the wartime shipbuilding effort and for its planned, worker-focused design. Many buildings have since been altered, but the district still conveys its original character.