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Spruce Street Houses

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c. 1880, Frank Furness and Levi Focht. 100 block of Spruce St.

A cluster of Victorian houses reveals the presence of Furness and his favorite builder, Birdsboro native Focht, who built many of Furness's Reading Railroad projects. Focht's own house is at 105 Spruce, and the house at number 101 shows a similar hand and palette of materials and textures. Focht's biography in Morton Montgomery's Historical and Biographical Annals of Berks County, Pennsylvania (1909) lists multiple projects by Focht for Furness including the stations for the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, the Gravers Lane Station ( PH170), the grammar school at Haverford College, and work for important Furness clients including A. J. Cassatt.

Writing Credits

Author: 
George E. Thomas
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Data

What's Nearby

St. Michael's Episcopal Church
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St. Gabriel's Episcopal Church
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Citation

George E. Thomas, "Spruce Street Houses", [Birdsboro, Pennsylvania], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/PA-02-BE4.

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