The self-guided "Victorian West Chestnut Street Walking Tour" (PDF Document) showcases some of the City’s most beautiful nineteenth-century architecture. With commercial and residential buildings dating from the late 1800s through the early 1900s, the West Chestnut Street area contains a wide variety of beautiful Victorian details. Victorians were famously house proud, and took great delight in distinguishing their fashionable houses through the exuberant use of textures, materials, colors and ornamentation.

The West Chestnut Street area was chosen as the location for this self-guided tour because of its proximity to downtown Lancaster and for its concentration of well-preserved Victorian architecture. The tour is designed to allow visitors and residents of Lancaster to take a leisurely stroll through a century of Lancaster's economic growth and development. The nineteenth century's industrial boom created capital and new jobs, which brought an influx of new residents into the city who needed new homes in which to live. Industrialization produced new wealth for increasing numbers of people, while technological improvements made it possible to build larger homes equipped with the latest innovations. As the City's residential development moved westward, parts of the West Chestnut Street area were developed to meet the nineteenth century’s increasing demand for housing, particularly larger residences. Tour-goers will see elegant mansions, freestanding single homes, and blocks of refined rowhouses for which Lancaster is famous.

The West Chestnut Street area of the City is filled with a variety of building types, and reflect a range of architectural styles. From the monumental Lancaster Post Office building to the Queen Anne and Colonial Revival style houses in the 600 block of West Chestnut Street, this walking tour also includes churches, schools, and a small neighborhood cemetery.

Hard copies of the brochure are available at City Hall, the PA Dutch Convention and Visitor’s Bureau, and the Southern Market Visitor’s Center.