Credit: Scharf, Thomas J., and Thompson Westcott, History of Philadelphia. 1609-1884. Philadelphia. L.H. Everts and Co., 1884.
After purchasing 2,000 in Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania Railroad director Henry Howard Houston in the late 1800s built one of the region's most ambitious and successful real estate developments. To attract residents to his rental houses, Houston also constructed an Episcopal church, country club, and resort hotel, the Wissahickon Inn, which opened in 1884.
