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The Overbrook Preserving and protecting the 6376 City Avenue .
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about us Overbrook Farms is a residential neighborhood in Philadelphia listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The neighborhood is located near the western border of the city, leading to Philadelphia 's famed Main Line .
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National Register of Historic Places
History Two prominent real estate developers, Herman Wendell and Walter Bassett Smith, were hired by Drexel & Co. to begin the planning of this commuter suburb. An 1893 announcement for the development proposed 500 homes and commercial, educational and religious facilities for the residents. An impressive list of architects, some of whom would become nationally known and respected after their work in Overbrook Farms, were commissioned to design residential and nonresidential buildings. The work of architects Charles Barton Keen, Westray Ladd, Walter Thomas, Horace Trumbauer, William L. Price, Chester Kirk, Walter F. Price, David K. Boyd, Lawrence Vischer Boyd, Joseph Huston, Angus Wade and others can be seen in the neighborhood. Magazines of the era extolled the virtues of leaving the city for the tranquility of the suburbs. At a time when nature had captured the fancy of the moneyed class, the pleasures of outdoor life, fresh air and exercise were a major promotional theme for Overbrook Farms. Wendell and Smith offered such amenities as sparkling water from underground springs, a central steam heat plant, modern plumbing, electric lighting and elegant homes a client could customize.
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