Musser Park

Photo Courtesy Puffer Morris Real Estate

Northeast Quadrant

The Musser Park area is named for Musser Park, its primary focal point and major public open space.

Musser Park, located at the southwest corner of East Chestnut and North Lime Streets, forms the focal point of the Musser Park area. The area is separated from the East End by Plum Street, a very subtle boundary. See What's Here (and What's New)!

Much of the Musser Park area was densely developed prior to 1874 and much of the East End developed afterward. There is a noticeable, but equally subtle transition between the architectural character of the two areas. Generally, houses toward the center of town tend to be somewhat larger and more architecturally refined. East King Street, East Orange and East Chestnut Streets are the principal east-west thoroughfares through the area. North Duke, North Lime and North Shippen are the major north-south streets.

The southwestern portion of the Musser Park area was part of the original Hamilton town site and lots were laid out along East King, East Orange and East Chestnut Street, between North Duke and North Ann Streets, by 1790. By the time of Joshua Scott's 1824 map, houses had been developed extensively along East King Street and were scattered within the blocks northeast of the center of town.

The Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad traversed the northern block of the area by the time of Moody and Bridgen's 1850 map. Industries are shown along the railroad, with considerable additional residential development and the addition of several churches in the blocks to the south. Eight years later, when T. J. Kennedy published his map, the blocks west of North Shippen Street were densely developed and residential development was filling in the blocks to the east as far as North Plum Street. The Bridgens and Allen 1864 Atlas shows little additional infill.

By the time of the 1875 Atlas, however, additional industrial facilities are shown in the blocks surrounding the railroad line, including the boiler works, machine shop and foundry for the Lancaster Manufacturing Co. Works, the Allendale Cotton Mills and the H. F. Frankes Brewery. Industrial growth continued within the railroad corridor by 1887, with the addition of the Conestoga Cork Works and the Phoenix Cork Works, as well as several warehouses. Residential blocks were largely filled in as far east as North Plum Street. By 1899, the only substantial open space remaining within the Musser Park neighborhood was the lawn of the Grubb Mansion, which covered nearly a city block and later became Musser Park.

Musser Park possesses an interesting cross-section of middle-class housing of rather diverse quality and detailing, most dating circa 1870 through 1930. The area is characterized by numerous brick rowhouses, two stories in height, with gable roofs and two or three bay facade elevations. At least 75% of the structures in this zone are such rowhouses. About half of the rowhouses have front porches. Visually, the most diverse parts of this zone are the blocks of North Lime and North Duke Streets, the fine tobacco warehouses on Tobacco Avenue and the roughly triangular residential area between North Lime and North Shippen Streets, where East Walnut Street and the New Holland Pike converge.

For descriptive purposes, Musser Park has been divided into several sub-areas: the Lancaster Historic District, the North Duke Street Corridor, the Northeast Industrial Corridor and the North Lime/East Walnut Streets area.

The Lancaster Historic District was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on 15 November 1979. Its irregular boundaries are generally contained by East Chestnut, North Plum, East King and North Christian Streets. The Statement of Significance for the district states:
Within the Lancaster Historic District are some of the oldest sections of Colonial America's largest inland cities....By 1742, James Hamilton had numbered and sold numerous building lots with the stipulation that each owner must "make, erect, build and finish on each and every lot, at their own cost and charge, a sufficient dwelling house of the dimension 16 feet square at least, with a good chimney of brick or stone...." Lancaster quickly expanded...and became [the center of] agriculturally prosperous Lancaster County.

The nomination goes on to say that "although the origins of the district are in the 18th century, few structures from this period remain standing." Indeed, the largely residential character of this area is defined by mid to late nineteenth century buildings that reflect the wealthier and more prominent citizens of Lancaster of that time.

Among the notable landmarks within the Lancaster Historic District is the The Neff-Passmore House, 247 East Orange Street. The home of Lancaster's first mayor, John Passmore, the house was built circa 1785. The Rueben Baer Mansion (Snyder Funeral Home), 141 East Orange Street, was constructed circa 1877 for a partner in the publishing firm of John Baer's Sons and publisher of a noted almanac. This is the finest example of an asymmetrical Italianate villa in Lancaster City.

The Baker-Stauffer House, 235 East Orange Street, was built for coach maker John Baker about 1830. The house was substantially enlarged after its acquisition by David McNeely Stauffer in 1882. The house is a rare surviving example of a four-room Federal style house with sympathetic Victorian additions. Stauffer enjoyed a nationwide reputation as a noted civil engineer, author, editor, collector of antiquities and amateur artist.

The James E. Baker House at 204 North Lime Street was built in 1886-1888. This house is the only extant work in Lancaster City documented as having been designed by the nationally significant architect Frank Furness.

First Presbyterian Church, 140 East Orange Street, was constructed in 1851 and its steeple was added in 1877. It is one of several major church buildings that highlight their respective neighborhoods and are character defining elements of Lancaster's skyline. The Andrew Jackson Steinman Mansion, a fine Queen Anne style residence at 301 East Orange Street, was built in 1882 for Andrew Jackson Steinman and his wife Caroline Morgan Hale. Steinman was one of Lancaster's most prominent citizens.

The district includes much of the East King Street corridor through the Musser Park section. Added to the Lancaster Historic District in 1984, the 200 block of East King Street retains many notable buildings. Among these are the William Peiper Mansion, a three story, three bay dark brick Eastlake style house built for Colonel William Peiper, cashier of the Lancaster County National Bank, in 1879 to 1883. The house was sold to the Knights of Malta in 1915 for use as their temple and headquarters. It is a rare example of the Eastlake style in Lancaster County domestic architecture.

The North Duke Street Corridor through the Musser Park area represents the central portion of one of Lancaster City's principal approach boulevards. The 100 block is within the boundaries of the Lancaster Historic District. St. James Episcopal Church represents a major focal point at this end of the street, as does the former Catherine Haldeman Long Mansion. St. James Episcopal Church, at the northeast corner of East Orange and North Duke Streets, was constructed in 1820. The St. James congregation was established in 1744 and the present building replaced an earlier one that was demolished in 1818. The Catharine Haldeman Long Mansion, in the Chateauesque style, was constructed in 1891 for the daughter of wealthy Lancaster attorney and Judge Henry Long. Located at 106 East Orange Street, it now houses the prestigious Hamilton Club.

Located north of the National Register district, the Bowman Jewelry Building, 149 North Duke Street, was built in 1911 and enlarged and rebuilt in 1914 from designs by Melvern Evans of Lancaster. It retains the most intact early 1900s store interior in Lancaster City.

The Friendship Firehouse (Forney Apartments), 215 North Duke Street is an Italianate firehouse that has been converted into apartments. The building is one of the oldest firehouses in Lancaster, and one of the city's few extant asymmetrical Italianate structures. Friendship Fire Company ceased activity in 1882. Located at 247-249 North Duke Street, the Hamilton Apartments were built in 1906-1907 for developer Hamilton L. Miller as Lancaster's first structure built exclusively as an apartment building. First United Methodist Church, 302 North Duke Street, was built in the Second Gothic Revival style circa 1890, and rebuilt in 1948 for a congregation founded in 1842.

Mansion houses and series of upscale residences line the remainder of the corridor, which was known as Lancaster's "Fifth Avenue" around the turn of this century. Among the mansion houses along North Duke Street within the Musser Park area is 319 North Duke Street, which was built for Marietta/Lancaster merchant John Rohrer Diffenbach in 1882-1883. Designed by J. R. Morrow, the property retains a two story brick carriage house. The home of James Black, an unsuccessful candidate for the U. S. Presidency on the Temperance ticket, is located at 323 North Duke Street. Built circa 1860, the property now houses the Iris Club. The Queen Anne style H. B. Cochran House, 324 North Duke Street, was built in 1891-1892 for Henry Baumgardner Cochran, partner in firm of T. B. & H. B. Cochran, publishers of The Examiner, a Lancaster newspaper. Across the street, at 325 - 333 North Duke Street, is the Roland H. Brubaker House, built in the Second Empire style in 1870-1874. Designed by C. Emlen Urban designs, and located on the site of the Fulton Cotton Mill at 342 North Duke Street, which was razed in 1892, the John B. Oblinger Mansion was constructed in 1893-1894.

The Northeast Industrial Corridor, which extends to the northwest through the adjacent East Side area, reflects the historic path of the railroad cut through the city. Located within the area are a series of former tobacco warehouses along North Shippen Street and Tobacco Avenue, a former cork works on East Fulton Street, and a former tobacco warehouse on East Chestnut Street.

The Roland H. Brubaker Tobacco Warehouse, at North Shippen Street and Tobacco Avenue, was built circa 1880-1881 and is part of the city's most concentrated complex of buildings erected for use in the tobacco industry. Also in the complex is the Franklin H. Bare Tobacco Warehouse, constructed in 1880. These buildings were incorporated into North Shippen Place and adapted for use as residential apartments. The Conestoga Cork Works, at 215 East Fulton Street, was constructed as a cork factory and later used as a tobacco warehouse. It has also recently been converted into apartments.

The North Lime/East Walnut Streets area, which is generally bounded by North Duke, East Lemon, North Plum and East Chestnut Streets, contains a variety of mostly late-nineteenth century dwellings. The overall character of the area is defined by late-Victorian rowhouses, duplexes and detached houses of good architectural quality. The two brick houses at 123-125 East Chestnut Street were constructed for Samuel Slaymaker, one of the proprietors of a noted stage line, in 1829.