Lower North Philadelphia Speculative Housing Historic District

Built mostly between 1868 and 1875, this district of roughly twenty-six blocks in Lower North Philadelphia is composed chiefly of brick row houses and paired double houses, many of them three stories high, interspersed with churches, neighborhood stores and schools. Its growth followed the extension of streetcar lines along Seventeenth and Nineteenth Streets, which made previously rural land attractive to builders. Speculative developers produced rows and double houses in a wide range of Victorian styles, from plain, modest buildings to elaborately ornamented examples, including Italianate, Second Empire, Queen Anne and Romanesque Revival designs. Columbia Avenue, now Cecil B. Moore Avenue, served as the principal commercial street, with stores on ground floors and living quarters above. The district is significant for documenting this building boom and for the variety of its architecture. Most of its 945 buildings date from the period of significance, and many retain their character-defining features.