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Home | Calendar | Businesses | Sponsors | Search WayNet "Millionaires Row"
This information provided by: Wayne County Historical Society
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Home | Calendar | Businesses | Sponsors | Search WayNet "Millionaires Row"
This information provided by: Wayne County Historical Society
|
The East Main Street-Glen Miller Park
Historic District comprises an almost nine-tenths mile length of East Main Street between
18th and 30th Streets, including the 175 acres of Glen Miller Park. The overall
character of East Main Street is that of a broad tree-lined residential street. The
district recognizes the historical significance of East Main as a major entrance to
Richmond and pays tribute to the aesthetic character of this thoroughfare.
The early history
of East Main Street is linked with the National Road. That interstate route,
initiated by federal legislation in 1806, was surveyed through Richmond in 1827 and opened
to traffic across the state in 1835. Even during the later half of the 19th century,
when the road was controlled and operated by the Wayne County Turnpike Company with a toll
gate at 23rd Street, this remained the major eastern entrance and exit from the city.
Several brick houses constructed before 1880 reflect
the early existence of the street as part of the National Road. Larger and more
ornate residences such as those of architect John Hasecoster, piano and phonograph
manufacturer Henry Gennett, and lawn mower manufacturer Elwood W. McGuire attest to the
prominence of the street in the decades around the turn of the century. This
distinctive street has been refered to as "Millionaire's Row". Even the
more modest but well designed homes erected during the 'teens and 'twenties demonstrates
the continued attractiveness of this street for residential use.
Glen Miller Park
has been serving Richmond for over 100 years. The land was originally owned by John
F. Miller, an executive with the Pennsylvania Railroad. The city purchased the land
from Miller and named the park in his honor, opening it in 1880. The park is
significant as a public space which owed its initial popularity to the street railway
access. It has continued to be improved and cared for through city ownership.
The district confirms the relationship between the park and the development
of homes along the primary route which led to it from east to west. Thus two
features once characteristic of many American cities - the large outlying park, and the
grand residential street leading to and from the center of town - are here remarkably well
preserved, with only minor intrusions.
