Our neighborhoodDiscover Springdale

Springdale, in a walk.

Start at the traffic circle on Springdale Road and go in any direction. Within two blocks: a brick Colonial with a fanlight, a stucco house with a tile roof, a Tudor with a chimney taller than its trees deserve, and a porch with someone reading on it.

A quiet Springdale street under a canopy of mature trees, brick houses set back behind wide lawns — Under the canopyThe trees do most of the work in summer.

The facts

Springdale is a residential neighborhood inside the City of York, a few blocks south of downtown, bounded roughly by South George Street, South Queen Street, Lombardy Alley, and Rathton Road. It has been a National Register Historic District since 2001: about 55 acres, nearly two hundred contributing buildings, and one contributing site, the plan itself.

It was planned all at once in the 1920s on the grounds of a nineteenth-century estate, but it was not built all at once, and it was not built to a type. Each lot was sold with specifications for the house that could stand on it, and buyers hired their own architects. The 1930s were the busiest decade. By 1950 the neighborhood was essentially complete, and it has been maintained rather than remade ever since.

The lots are unusually deep for a city neighborhood, often around 150 feet, which is why there are real gardens behind the hedges and why the street trees had room to become what they are.

The housesArchitecture of Springdale

A red brick Colonial Revival house with a columned side porch and bay windows under broken pediments — Colonial RevivalSymmetry, brick, a classical entrance with fanlight or sidelights, shutters, multi-pane sash: the neighborhood's most common language, and rarely the same twice.

A Tudor Revival house in brick and siding, with a steep front gable and an arched stone door surround — Tudor RevivalSteep roofs, heavy masonry, prominent chimneys, picturesque massing. The houses that look older than they are.

A one-storey stucco house painted terracotta, with a red tile roof, a semicircular portico on four cream columns and a small iron balcony above it — Spanish EclecticStucco walls, red tile roofs, arched openings: details unusual in York and unmistakable when you find them.

A stucco and shingle bungalow with an arched entrance and a pergola, set above the sidewalk behind clipped hedges — Craftsman and Prairie influencesBroad eaves, deep porches, horizontal lines, and visible craftsmanship: the informal end of the neighborhood.

Where it sits

Inside the city, under the trees.

About a half-mile south of downtown York. York College is just across George Street, the hospital next door on former estate land, Penn State York half a mile east. Close to all of it without being any of it.

Historic district: what it means
Take the walking tour

The shaded area is the Springdale Historic District as drawn on the 2001 National Register nomination map, shown approximately. The association's own area isn't formally mapped. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors. Download the map.

Thinking of moving here?

Homes for sale in and around Springdale

Listings are on realtor.com, whose neighborhood outline is approximate. The association isn't affiliated with any agent or brokerage.

See listings

Come and see it.

The best way to know Springdale is to walk it: fifteen stops, about a mile and a quarter.

Take the walking tour