The west side of Chestnut Hill west of Germantown Avenue is the site of most of the more architecturally important houses. A walk along W. Chestnut Hill Avenue and then Seminole Avenue to St. Martin's Lane provides an overview of the best. Houses built of local Wissahickon schist are set in carefully conceived gardens that look back to English gardening traditions. Houses on the west side are usually a little later than those of the east side, reflecting the arrival of the Chestnut Hill Branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad in the 1880s. Generally, the farther removed they are from the avenue, the later they are.
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