Tamaqua Historic District

Tamaqua is a borough of tightly arranged buildings on narrow lots, centered on the Five Points intersection where Broad Street meets the railroad. Its built fabric dates mostly from the mid-nineteenth to early twentieth century, with a large number of buildings constructed between 1900 and 1925. The district holds commercial blocks of three and four stories, frame and brick residences, row houses, iron steps linking hillside neighborhoods to downtown, and five bridges. Its development followed the 1831 Little Schuylkill Railroad, which opened the eastern end of the southern anthracite field to the Philadelphia market. The borough became a center of mining, rail transport and manufacturing, with powder works and a major colliery. The nomination regards the district as an intact collection of nineteenth century residential, industrial and commercial architecture, in both vernacular and high style forms.