1500 Block North Seventeenth Street (Houses), West side, Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, PA

Significance: The dwellings in the 1500 block of N. Seventeenth Street stand among the most lavish in North Philadelphia. Developed by streetcar barons Peter A. B. Widener and William L. Elkins and designed by Willis G. Hale the eccentric architect for the city's nouveaux riches, these semi-detached houses are larger and considerably freer in their exterior detailing than most other urban residences in the area. Despite not having high profile siting along N. Broad Street or any of the premier east-west avenues extending to Fairmount Park, their robust street presence was carefully thought-out and constructed. The twin residences were clearly meant for and ultimately inhabited (if only for a few decades) by families comprising the upper tier of the expanding post-Civil War bourgeoisie who settled in the area. Hale's eclectic exterior organization for the houses is representative of the high-Victorian fantasy common in Philadelphia buildings during the last quarter of the nineteenth century.
Survey number: HABS PA-6675