Northwest York Historic District

Northwest York is a residential district of roughly four by six blocks, laid out on a grid set at about 45 degrees to the center of the city. Speculative developers began parceling its lots in the 1880s, and the West End Improvement Company, a division of the York Bank and Trust Company, was the prime developer of the eastern section. Lots were generous, with houses set back 10 to 25 feet behind green space and alleys at the rear for carriage houses. The eastern blocks hold 2½-story clapboarded Queen Anne and Eastlake houses with turrets, spindled porches and slate roofs. Westward, the houses become more modest semi-Bungalows and brick American Foursquares, built in rows on both sides of several blocks. Streetcar lines shaped the development, and prominent local businessmen and a judge built homes along them. Farquhar Park, given by A.B. Farquhar in 1897, anchors the district. The district is valued for its cohesive collection of houses from forty years of York's growth.