N. Shippen-Tobacco Avenue Historic District

Red brick tobacco warehouses and cigar factories built about 1879 to 1905 line Tobacco Avenue and the blocks around it in Lancaster City. The buildings were erected for the storage and processing of cigar leaf tobacco, a major regional commodity, and they were positioned along a Pennsylvania Railroad right-of-way that carried tobacco and supplies to the district. By 1886 most of the warehouses stood along the avenue, and the A. B. Hess Cigar Factory was added by about 1905. Many buildings were later expanded, raised or combined to meet rising demand, so they show the shift from low end-gabled warehouses with moderately pitched roofs to four- and five-story structures with flat roofs and raised parapets. Their plain brick walls, stone or limestone foundations, high basements and sturdy post-and-beam construction typify Lancaster's industrial architecture. The district is regarded as a well-preserved concentration of tobacco industry resources, and its listing rests on its role in the city's industrial growth and on its representative buildings.