National Register of Historic Places
Downtown Altoona Historic District (Boundary Increase)
Altoona, Blair County, Pennsylvania
The record
- Listed
- August 20, 2004
- Type
- Historic district
- Address
- 1330-1410 and 1409-1431 11th Ave. and 1331-1429 Ave., Altoona
- County
- Blair
- State
- Pennsylvania
- Period of significance
- 1850 to 1949
- Contributing resources
- 11 buildings
- Coordinates
- 40.51637, -78.40372
- Reference number
- 04000885
Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.
David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesPenn State University LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries
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 Downtown Altoona Historic District (Boundary Increase) is a district covering 3.9 acres along 11th Avenue in Altoona, Blair County. Its buildings went up between 1892 and 1926 in the Commercial and Neo-Classical styles, with architects Charles M. Robinson and D. G. Puderbaugh.
Why it's listed
It was listed under criteria A and C in 2004, with local-level significance in commerce and architecture. Its period of significance runs from about 1860 to 1941, spanning the district's 1892-1926 building campaign.
Physical character
Walls are brick, reinforced concrete and sandstone, with steel framing and stone or brick veneer, under flat roofs. Commercial buildings show tri-partite Chicago-style windows, brick parapets and a modillioned cornice; a cruciform-plan church has a rose window and Gothic stained glass windows in its transepts. First Evangelical Lutheran Church gained an Educational Building in 1970, and brick veneer was added to it in 1970-1972 and to Gable's Annex in 1977-1982.
Historical context
11th Avenue was macadamized in 1873, crossed by trolley tracks in 1882, paved with asphalt in 1889, and lit with electric posts in 1910. W. F. Sellers & Co. Jewelers went up in 1909-1910, and the Jones Building followed in 1922. Sears Roebuck first occupied its building in 1929, Aaron (later Penn) Furniture occupied a building there from 1932 to 1986, and Brett Brothers Department Store operated in the district in the 1940s, while WRTA Radio Station's building went up in 1970.