Wyncote Historic District

Wyncote is a residential district of about 108 acres in Cheltenham Township, roughly ten miles north of central Philadelphia, built mostly between 1865 and 1934. Most of its roughly 178 contributing buildings are two and a half story stone and wood houses set back from tree-lined streets, many in the Queen Anne style. Development began in 1885 on farmland that had been acquired by wealthy Philadelphians after the North Pennsylvania Railroad reached the area in 1855. Several separate developers, including Bradley Redfield, Henry K. Walt and Edward Tyson, laid out small sections of the district. Deed requirements for minimum building costs and lot sizes, together with an improvement association, kept it an exclusive suburb. Many houses were designed by prominent Philadelphia architects such as Horace Trumbauer, Furness and Evans, and Heacock and Hokanson. The district is also notable for All Hallows Episcopal Church, built in 1898 in English Gothic style. Its houses are regarded as a significant collection of late Victorian suburban architecture.