The area's beginnings lie in a water-powered milling village operated by the family of Philadelphia's great mechanical engineer William Sellers. The mill was still in operation in 1901, but with the completion of the subway-elevated line to its terminal at 69th Street, a transit-linked shopping district developed that served transit riders as well as the new automobile market. The anchor was the brick and limestone-trimmed terminal and theater whose North Italian detailing and paired Flemish bond brickwork were derived from two slightly earlier Philadelphia landmarks, Wilson Eyre Jr.'s University of Pennsylvania Museum ( PH147.8) and William Price's Jacob Reed's Sons Store ( PH69).