Haddington Historic District
Why it's listed
Two blocks of West Philadelphia near the 60th Street station of the Market-Frankford Elevated Line were built mainly between 1909 and 1915 by investor William C. Smith, with E. Allen Wilson as architect for most of the work. The district holds two- and three-story brick and masonry buildings in colonial revival and classical revival styles, including a row of shop fronts with pressed metal bays and Flemish bond brickwork on Market Street, a bank with a terra cotta facade and Tuscan columns, and the Von Louhr apartment house, which is in a Mission style with a tiled overhanging cornice. Commercial buildings sit near the station, apartment houses at the far corner, and row houses and large double houses along Chestnut Street, with service garages on Ludlow Street. This arrangement shielded residences from the noise and traffic of the shopping strip. The district is regarded as the most consistent surviving example of E. Allen Wilson's work and of the commercial and housing mix that grew up around the Elevated stations.
Significance in brief: The district is argued to be the core of one of the subcenters that formed around the Market Street Elevated stations, and it survives with a higher degree of integrity than any other station neighborhood along that line. Its development was largely the work of a single investor and a single architect, E. Allen Wilson, which gives it unusual unity of style, material and scale. Its layout separates commercial, service and residential uses in a deliberate functional hierarchy, and the document describes it as the best preserved example of Elevated-line development.
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 88001832, listed September 29, 1988. Summary generated October 2026 (model claude-haiku-5-5, prompt v1.1-2026-10-29, confidence high).
Key facts
| Address | 6000 blks. of Market, Ludlow and Chestnut, Philadelphia |
|---|---|
| County | Philadelphia |
| Listed | September 29, 1988 |
| Reference number | 88001832 |
| Resource type | District |
| Period of significance | 1909-1925 |
| Architect / builder | E. Allen Wilson (architect) |
| Architectural style | Colonial Revival; Classical Revival; Mission |
| Criteria |
|
| Areas of significance | Community Planning and Development, Commerce |
| Level of significance | Local |
| Status (as stated in the nomination) | Largely intact, with most contributing buildings surviving; several lots are described as vacant and a few buildings as intrusions. |
| Acreage | 8 |
| Within district | Fairmount Park |
| Coordinates | 39.96123, -75.24207 (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 88001832.
- Nomination form (PDF, National Archives) — catalog entry
- Wikidata Q131397534
- This listing as JSON
Last updated October 2026. Found an error? See the editorial policy for how to report it.