North Wayne Historic District

North Wayne is a residential district of roughly thirteen blocks in Wayne, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, about thirteen miles west of Philadelphia, lying north of the town and the Pennsylvania Railroad Main Line. Construction began in 1881 as part of the Wayne Estate, a railroad commuter suburb developed by Anthony J. Drexel and George W. Childs, who provided financing and utilities including water, sewer, telephone, electricity and central steam heat. Builders Herman J. Wendell and Walter Bassett Smith commissioned house designs from Philadelphia architects, chiefly Frank and William L. Price. The district is listed for its planning, which addressed the needs of professional and business families, and for its houses, which show the shift from Shingle Style and Queen Anne designs of the 1880s to Colonial Revival and related styles after 1895. Most blocks have matching houses on both sides of the street, and the district is regarded as an unusually intact example of a railroad suburb.