Rittenhouse Historic District (Boundary Increase)

Brick rowhouses, speculatively built rows and architect-designed houses line four blocks of Sansom Street north of Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia. Most of the contributing buildings date from between 1830 and 1948, with the earliest surviving houses on Sansom and Moravian Streets built around 1850 to 1860 for workers employed in nearby brickyards and quarries. Italianate and Second Empire rows predominate, while larger houses from the 1880s onward were designed by prominent architects, including Cope and Stewardson, Frank Furness, John Windrim and Magaziner and Eberhard. The house at 131 South 18th Street, completed in 1895 by Washington Bleddyn Powell, is the area's main Romanesque Revival example. Its owners included wealthy professionals and at least one prominent contractor. The nomination proposes adding the area to the Rittenhouse Historic District on grounds of architecture and community planning, because its residential character and mix of working-class and elite residents match the existing district.