City of Lancaster - Self-guided Architectural Walking Tour

East King Street, extending from Penn Square eight blocks east to Reservoir Park, can be explored in a leisurely hour-long stroll beginning at Lancaster's commercial hub and culminating at the City's eastern boundary with Lancaster Township. These eight blocks span three centuries of Lancaster's history.

When the plan for Lancaster's streets and property lots was first laid out in 1730, East King Street was then known as High Street, referring in the English tradition to a main thoroughfare. The road was part of the "King's Highway" that connected Lancaster with Philadelphia, at a time when Lancaster was the county seat. Two centuries later, East King would become part of the "Lincoln Highway," established in 1913 as one of America's first transcontinental automobile roads reaching from New York to San Francisco.

The architecture along East King Street reflects three centuries of social history. The street has over the years featured a wide variety of building types, including modest rowhouses, fashionable one-of-a-kind residences, major commercial buildings, small neighborhood storefronts, hotels and taverns, breweries, a Victorian markethouse, a prison, firehouses, a church, gas stations, small industries and factories. The block culminates with a city park that once contained a major reservoir, and a trade school founded in 1905 from the legacy of congressman and abolitionist Thaddeus Stevens.

The western blocks, closest to the nucleus of Penn Square, contain some of the earliest buildings, several dating from the late 1700s. The eastern end of King Street remained largely rural and undeveloped through the end of the nineteenth century. During Lancaster's Victorian-era boom, the City's residential areas expanded as the population grew. By the 1850s, the blocks west of Shippen Street were densely built, with development continuing east to Plum Street. As you progress east along East King, note the increasing prevalence of late nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century buildings.

The modern neighborhoods explored in this walking tour were originally part of small towns that developed along the southeastern boundary of the emerging City of Lancaster known as Adamstown, Mussertown, and Churchtown.

Adamstown was formed from part of a 300-acre farm acquired in 1737 by Swiss immigrant Hans (John) Musser. The farm extended from John Street to the east, Church Street to the north, Strawberry Street to the west, and south to the Conestoga River. In 1744, Dr. Adam Simon Kuhn, a prominent local physician, purchased 15 acres from John Musser that were bounded by Church, John, Locust and Rockland Streets. On this tract, Dr. Kuhn laid out 46 lots along two streets, Church Street and Middle Street (renamed Howard Avenue in 1895).

Musser's son, John Musser Jr., began in 1760 to lay out Mussertown to the southwest of Adamstown, bounded by Church, South Queen, Strawberry, Locust and Rockland Streets. Rockland Street served as the boundary between Adamstown and Mussertown. Musser extended Church and Middle Streets west to East Strawberry Street.

Churchtown was established in 1762 by John Musser's brother Henry in an area southeast of Mussertown. He laid out North, Low (renamed Chester in 1888), High (which became Green in 1871) and South Streets (later renamed Woodward).

These small settlements were eventually incorporated into the City of Lancaster but developed their own identities. The area's early appearance was described by visitor John Pearson in 1801: "In one of the southern angular streets I counted 54 one-story houses and only one solitary two-story house in the streets; almost all of them were built on the south side of the street, consequently the fronts were extremely cold. In the next street in the same angular direction there were about 37 houses of the same kind and generally fronting in like manner, without a single two-story house among them."

Today, the architecture found in these neighborhoods reflects the historical patterns of building and rebuilding common to older urban areas. Eighteenth-century artisan crafts gave way to nineteenth-century industries and in turn influenced the historic building styles still in evidence today. Twentieth-century "urban renewal" also left its mark on these neighborhoods.

In the City of Lancaster, the long Victorian period, from 1840-1910, was a time of unprecedented growth. The industrial boom brought new wealth to increasing numbers of people and spurred a great demand for new housing. Lancaster's Victorian builders responded by creating new residential neighborhoods filled with eclectic architectural styles. Stroll through the Victorian neighborhoods of West Chestnut Street and experience the beauty and diversity of Lancaster's Victorian era.

Beginning at the intersection of North Queen and Chestnut Streets, walk west on West Chestnut Street. The first block of West Chestnut Street features fine Victorian and early twentieth century commercial buildings. As you walk west, the commercial nature of the streetscape begins to change and more residential buildings are seen.