Downtown Altoona Historic District (Boundary Increase)

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.