Millionaires Row

History, Travel 1 Minute

Whenever we travel home, we pass through Williamsport, PA.  It’s a larger city in PA with a lovely historic district, a vast commercial district and The Little League Museum.  The crown jewel of Williamsport was West Fourth Street in the 1800s. The city was home to more millionaires per capita than anywhere else in the country. This was due to the lumber business and the lumber barons that contributed to the boom in home and church construction. Many of these homes can still be seen today!

The A.D. Hermance House

The Rowley-Hermance Company manufactured woodworking machinery. This 20-room building is an example of the Richardsonian-Romanesque style of architecture.  The interior features beautiful cherry and oak hand-carved wood work by Giovanni Ferrari.

The Peter Herdic House

This home was built in 1854 and changed hands several times, but remained a single-family dwelling until 1957 when it was converted into apartments.  A fire destroyed portions of it in 1977, but it was renovated and restored and turned into a restaurant.  The home features ornate plaster moldings and arches, acanthus columns and a mahogany stairway that curves three floors to a cupola.

The Hiram Rhoads House

Designed by Eber Culver in the late 1880’s for Hiram Rhoads, the man responsible for bringing the telephone to Williamsport, this building is an example of the Queen Anne style. This house has many notable features such as an upstairs bathtub which is encased in mahogany, a solid pecan floor in the living room, and the most magnificent chandeliers in the city.

There are plenty more houses on Millionaire’s Row that have now been converted to apartment buildings and no detail is available about them.  But I have included a bunch of the pictures I could find.

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Published by pat frederick

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