West Philadelphia Streetcar Suburb Historic District (Boundary Increase)

Mid-to-late nineteenth and early twentieth century brick and stone houses cover this district on the eastern side of West Philadelphia, next to the University of Pennsylvania campus. The district holds more than 3,500 buildings, mostly three-story semi-detached houses, rowhouses and single dwellings, along with schools, churches, a city park and two community gardens. Development ran from 1850 to 1930, beginning with Gothic Revival and Italianate villas such as the 1856 Hamilton Terrace designed by Samuel Sloan. Later blocks show Victorian, Colonial Revival and apartment buildings in later revival styles. Horsecar and streetcar lines made the area accessible to Center City, and the neighborhood grew around institutions including the Satterlee Civil War hospital site and the university. The district is listed for its community development history and for the concentration of residential architecture that it preserves largely intact across most of its streets and blocks.