Northern Liberties Historic District

Centred on Fairmount Avenue in Philadelphia, the Northern Liberties district grew from a township incorporated in 1791 into a mix of houses, workshops, mills and churches. From about 1860 the area west of Second Street became a centre of German residence, craft industry and institutions, and by the 1870s small skilled businesses dominated its streets. The Salem German Reformed Church, erected in 1873, stands behind a row of Italianate brick townhouses on the 300 block of Fairmount and recreates the urban form of German communities. Other notable buildings include the Federal and Greek Revival rows on the 500 block, the 1911 Zimmerman meat packing building with terra cotta bull heads, and the Integrity Trust building. The district is valued for the way houses, shops and workplaces remained intertwined, and for surviving with more integrity than the large industrial corridors of the period.