Ardmore: The Main Street of the Main Line

The "Windows Into History" Ardmore StoryMap was created by Kathleen Abplanalp, Director of Historic Preservation at the Lower Merion Conservancy. It is brought to you by the Conservancy, Ardmore Initiative, Lower Merion Township, and the Lower Merion Historical Society. This StoryMap especially benefitted from the intellectual contributions and archival research of Greg Prichard, Historic Preservation Planner for Lower Merion Township.

The StoryMap, which can be used on a mobile device, tablet, or computer, employs images, interactive maps, and other historical sources to document the development history of downtown Ardmore over a period of approximately 125 years. The StoryMap complements Windows into History, an Ardmore Initiative project that has placed historic images of downtown Ardmore in unoccupied storefront windows.

Most of the buildings featured in this StoryMap are contained within the Ardmore Commercial Historic District -- the intent of which is to preserve the historic character of central Ardmore. The Historical Architectural Review Board (HARB), a Township advisory board, reviews proposed changes to buildings in the district. "Before and After" photos in this StoryMap document the role that HARB has played in helping both to preserve and to re-establish Ardmore's unique historic character.

Learn more about the HARB here:

• Scroll through the first series of Streetscape Photographs to see how Lancaster Avenue, the spine of Ardmore's commercial district, evolved from a railroad-oriented village of homes and small businesses in the nineteenth century to an important loci of commercial, residential, and industrial activity by the early twentieth century.

• Click on the "i" icon at the upper left of each image to view source information.

• Use the second series of photographs to take a Guided Tour of the commercial district. To go straight to the tour, click on "A Guided Tour of Ardmore" on the menu at the top of the page.

• The images in the tour allow you to view changes that have occurred to individual properties or groups of buildings over time.

• Each building on the tour is represented by multiple historic photos as well as by a present-day photograph. The present-day photos were taken in 2023. Click on the arrow on the right side of each image to progress from past to present.

Ardmore (called Athensville until 1873) is located along the original Lancaster Turnpike, a colonial-era road that linked Philadelphia to the interior of Pennsylvania.

The Lancaster Turnpike played a crucial role in the settlement and development of Ardmore. Initially, millers and farmers settled near Ardmore because of its proximity to transportation routes, including the turnpike. By the early-1800s, entrepreneurs also began to locate businesses in Ardmore, especially along the turnpike. Railroad traffic, which passed through the area by the 1830s, introduced additional activity to the village. By the third quarter of the nineteenth century, Ardmore was so well established that the Pennsylvania Railroad built one of its most impressive passenger stations in the village.

In Suburban Stations and Rural Homes on the Pennsylvania Railroad, marketing material published in 1875, the company exulted that,

"Ardmore has for many years been the business centre of a thickly populated neighborhood. There are extensive manufactories located in the vicinity, and the various branches of domestic merchandising, the ordinary mechanical trades, and the professions, are represented among its industries. Probably no station in the neighborhood of Philadelphia has greater promise than this..."

Yet, it was not until the turn of the century, when a dense collection of establishments, including banks, grocery stores, fraternal organizations, churches, and factories began to populate Lancaster Avenue, that Ardmore assumed its modern shape.

This StoryMap traces the history of Ardmore's growth.

This section of the StoryMap provides a general overview of development in the commercial district.

• This tour uses historic and contemporary images to illustrate the evolution of development in Ardmore's commercial district. It features buildings on both sides of Lancaster Avenue - the only area of the commercial district that has been well documented with photographs.

• Buildings on the tour are numbered, but may be visited out of sequence.

We hope you enjoyed this trip through Ardmore's history. For more information about the organizations that partnered to create this StoryMap, follow these links: