Awbury Historic District
Why it's listed
Awbury is a historic district in East Germantown, Philadelphia, made up of houses, outbuildings and designed grounds built by members of the Cope family between 1849 and the early twentieth century. The first house, built in 1849 for John S. Haines, was designed by Thomas U. Walter, the architect of the United States Capitol from 1850. Henry Cope, a Quaker merchant's son, built the house that gave the enclave its name, Awbury, in 1852-53. Later houses were designed by Addison Hutton and by Cope & Stewardson. The landscape began with a picturesque garden laid out by William Saunders in the 1850s. In 1916 the family donated land and funds to create the Awbury Arboretum, which is now the largest part of the district. The district is valued for the combination of architecture and landscape by notable designers, and for its surviving garden layout and conservation history.
Significance in brief: The nomination argues the district is significant for its concentration of buildings and landscapes by designers of regional and national importance, and for the way buildings and landscape were conceived together as a single whole by a family sharing design and conservation interests. It also cites the early twentieth-century conservation of the enclave as the Awbury Arboretum, a publicly accessible arboretum established in 1916.
Machine-generated summary. This summary was generated by a language model from the official nomination document and has not been reviewed line by line by an editor. It may contain errors. Check the source document before relying on any detail. Source: nomination document (PDF) · National Archives catalog entry. NRHP reference 01000462, listed May 2, 2001. Summary generated October 2026 (model claude-haiku-5-5, prompt v1.1-2026-10-29, confidence high).
Key facts
| Address | Roughly bounded by Chew Ave., Avonhoe Rd., Devon PL., Haines and Ardleigh Sts. and Arboretum boundary, Philadelphia |
|---|---|
| County | Philadelphia |
| Listed | May 2, 2001 |
| Reference number | 01000462 |
| Resource type | District |
| Period of significance | 1849-1940 |
| Architectural style | Gothic Revival; Italian Villa; Queen Anne; Tudor Revival; Colonial Revival |
| Criteria |
|
| Areas of significance | Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Conservation |
| Level of significance | State |
| Status (as stated in the nomination) | Awbury Arboretum is run by the Awbury Arboretum Association, established in 1988, with a professional director and staff. |
| Acreage | 78 |
| Coordinates | 40.05182, -75.16938 (NPS GIS) |
What listing means for this property
This is a historic district. Buildings within its boundary are either contributing (they add to the district's significance) or non-contributing. Owners of contributing income-producing buildings can claim the 20% federal rehabilitation tax credit; homeowners should look at state credits. National Register districts impose no design review by themselves; a local historic district ordinance, if one exists, does (the difference explained).
General information, not legal or tax advice. Rules change; confirm with your State Historic Preservation Office or a qualified adviser.
Sources and further reading
- National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places database (snapshot May 2026), reference 01000462.
- Nomination form (PDF, National Archives) — catalog entry
- Wikipedia article (used for cross-checking only; text not reproduced here)
- Wikidata Q4829986
- This listing as JSON
Last updated October 2026. Found an error? See the editorial policy for how to report it.