The Lukens Historic District [†] consists of four buildings: Brandywine; Terracina; Graystone; and the Lukens Main Office Building. All lie on a one block stretch of First Avenue in Coatesville, Pennsylvania. The street is one of the city's main north‑south corridors which bisects its prominent east-west thoroughfare, Lincoln Highway, about one block north of the historic resources.
Brandywine Manor
Brandywine Manor, dating from the latter eighteenth century, is located on South First Avenue, and is nearly flush with the current thoroughfare. Its core construction consists of two sections: a 2=1/2 story, stucco-over-stone (east) section, two bays wide, built circa 1750-70, is attributed to William or Peter Fleming; and a 2-1/2 story (plus basement), stucco- over-stone (west) addition, three bays wide and slightly deeper, built 1788 by Moses Coates. Fronting these two early sections on the south is a two-level, shed-roofed porch (now enclosed). These elements comprise the house in which Rebecca Lukens lived.
Terracina
Terracina is located just north of Brandywine on a terraced embankment behind a cast-iron fence which borders the west side of South First Avenue. In addition to Terracina, four other structures on the site are contributing: a rustic-styled octagonal gazebo standing at the northwest corner of the lot; a brick-arched root cellar southwest of the house; a small, gabled, frame outhouse behind Terracina; and a 1-1/2 story, cross-gabled frame barn (converted to a garage) at the southwest corner. Although the date for the gazebo is not known, it is significant for its use of natural tree limbs for posts, rails, and trusses in the manner illustrated in A.J. Downing's (and other's) publications that are contemporary with the Gothic Revival style Terracina.
Graystone
The Abram Huston house, known as Graystone, sits in a park-like setting directly across First Avenue from the Lukens Main Office and rolling mills. From its construction in 1889 until the 1930s, it was the estate of the Abram Huston family, thereafter the Coatesville city hall and police station. Although the borough still owns Graystone, the offices recently moved to a new borough hall and the house stands vacant. Despite long governmental use, Graystone retains excellent original integrity and is in good condition.
Main Office Building
The Lukens Main Office Building is a textbook example of the Georgian Revival style as applied to a commercial building. It is situated just north of Terracina on the west sideo f South First Avenue. The 2/4-story, H-shaped structure was built in two sections: the front section (129 feet x 44 feet) and approximately two-thirds of the middle "hyphen" were completed in 1902 from the designs of the renown Philadelphia firm of Cope and Stewardson (1886-1912), and the remaining part of the hyphen and the rear section were completed in 1916 from the designs of Stewardson and Page (1912-1929), the firm that evolved from the original design team. Although Cope and Stewardson is best known as the nation's chief purveyors of the College Gothic, the Lukens Office Building is a superb example of that firm's adeptness with other styles and building types.
Nearby Neighborhoods
Street Names
1st Street South