Butterworth, H.W. and Sons Company Building
Why it's listed
Built in phases from 1870 to about 1925 on a city block in Kensington, this group of one-, two- and three-story brick and concrete buildings at 2410 E. York Street housed a textile machinery works. The earliest sections, designed in the Italianate style, contained a machine shop, a foundry and a blacksmith shop, while later additions of 1884, 1900, 1911 and about 1925 were built in the Commercial Style and held drafting, pattern, tinsmith and erecting shops, as well as storage. The H.W. Butterworth and Sons Company produced bleaching, printing, dyeing, drying and tentering machines, using cylinders of tinned sheet iron that the company made under patent. The business was run by the Butterworth family from its founding until a sale in 1955. The buildings are regarded as important for their link to Philadelphia's textile machinery industry, which the nomination describes as one of the city's leading manufacturing sectors in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The period of significance ends in 1942, when wartime production of anti-aircraft machine gun parts began.
Significance in brief: The nomination argues the complex is significant under Criterion A for industry as the site of H.W. Butterworth and Sons Company, a prominent Philadelphia maker of textile finishing machinery. Its tinned sheet iron cylinders are described as cheaper and more effective than copper ones, and the company is said to have been the oldest operating machinery manufacturer in Philadelphia by 1922.
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 10000406, listed June 28, 2010. Summary generated October 2026 (model claude-haiku-5-5, prompt v1.1-2026-10-29, confidence medium).
Key facts
| Address | 2410 E York St, Philadelphia |
|---|---|
| County | Philadelphia |
| Listed | June 28, 2010 |
| Reference number | 10000406 |
| Resource type | Building |
| Period of significance | 1870-1942 |
| Architectural style | Late Victorian Italianate; Commercial Style |
| Criteria |
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| Areas of significance | Industry |
| Level of significance | Local |
| Acreage | 0.9 |
| Coordinates | 39.97960, -75.12423 (NPS GIS) |
What listing means for this property
For an income-producing building, listing (individually or as a contributing building in a district) is the gateway to the 20% federal rehabilitation tax credit on qualified rehabilitation costs, often stackable with state credits. Work claiming the credit must follow the Secretary of the Interior's Standards and be approved in advance.
Listing does not restrict a private owner acting without federal money or permits; where federal funding or licensing is involved, Section 106 review applies.
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 10000406.
- Nomination form (PDF, National Archives) — catalog entry
- Wikipedia article (used for cross-checking only; text not reproduced here)
- Wikidata Q5628022
- This listing as JSON
Last updated October 2026. Found an error? See the editorial policy for how to report it.