Llyswen Historic District

The story

Written by AI from this property's National Register nomination and the record above; every sentence is checked against its sources before it appears here. Corrections: privacy@treealive.com

The Llyswen Historic District is a residential district in Altoona, Blair County, along Coleridge, Logan and Aldrich streets, bounded by Mill Run and Ward. It covers 60 acres and includes 166 contributing buildings, listed in the National Register in 2002.

Why it's listed

It was listed under criterion C, with local significance in architecture, and under criteria consideration G for properties that gained significance within the past fifty years. The nomination gives its period of significance as about 1895 to 1940, matching the district's main building years such as a house built in 1920. Its houses range from Queen Anne and Colonial Revival to Craftsman, Foursquare and Bungalow.

Physical character

Walls are brick, clapboard, wood, stone or vinyl over stone foundations, under asphalt roofs. The district's school nearly doubled in size with an addition around 1930 and grew again in 1989, and one early building gained a steel-frame rear wing in 1959.

Historical context

The land was divided for development by the Baker heirs in 1870, and Altoona's streetcar line, opened in 1882, was electrified in 1891. In 1893 the Altoona & Logan Valley Electric Railway acquired the City Passenger Railway Company and the City & Park Railway; in 1894 the Altoona Suburban Home Company founded Llyswen. The company sold 27 lots in 1920, 49 in 1922 and 52 in 1923; by 1925 the lots west of Logan Boulevard were built on, and it dissolved in 1926.