The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Colonial Architecture of Philadelphia, by Frank Cousins and Phil M. Riley.

Nine hundred and seventy-five copies of The Colonial Architecture of Philadelphia, of which nine hundred and fifty are for sale, have been printed from type and the type distributed.

This copy is Number 201

Foreword

So many books have been published which are devoted wholly or in part to the fine old Colonial residences and public buildings of Philadelphia, including Germantown, that it might seem almost the part of temerity to suppose there could be a place for another one. A survey of the entire list, however, discloses the fact that almost without exception these books are devoted primarily to a picture of the city in Colonial times, to the stories of its old houses and other buildings now remaining, or to an account of the activities of those who peopled them from one to two centuries ago. Some more or less complete description of the structures mentioned has occasionally been included, to be sure, but almost invariably this has been subordinate to the main theme. The narrative has been woven upon a historical rather than an architectural background, so that these books appeal to the tourist, historian and antiquary rather than to the architect, student and prospective home builder.

Interesting as was the provincial life of this community; absorbing as are the reminiscences attaching to its well-known early buildings; important as vi were the activities of those who made them part and parcel of our national life, the Colonial architecture of this vicinity is in itself a priceless heritage—extensive, meritorious, substantial, distinctive. It is a heritage not only of local but of national interest, deserving detailed description, analysis and comparison in a book which includes historic facts only to lend true local color and impart human interest to the narrative, to indicate the sources of affluence and culture which aided so materially in developing this architecture, and to describe the life and manners of the time which determined its design and arrangement. Such a book the authors have sought to make the present volume, and both Mr. Riley in writing the text and Mr. Cousins in illustrating it have been actuated primarily by architectural rather than historic values, although in most instances worthy of inclusion the two are inseparable.

For much of the historic data the authors acknowledge their indebtedness to the authors of previous Philadelphia books, notably "Philadelphia, the City and Its People" and "The Literary History of Philadelphia", Ellis Paxon Oberholtzer; "Old Roads Out of Philadelphia" and "The Romance of Old Philadelphia", John Thomson Faris; "The History of Philadelphia" and "Historic Mansions of Philadelphia", T. Westcott; "The Colonial Homes of Philadelphia and Its Neighborhood", Harold Donaldson vii Eberlein and Horace Mather Lippincott; "Colonial Mansions ", Thomas Allen Glenn; "The Guide Book to Historic Germantown", Charles Francis Jenkens; "Germantown Road and Its Associations", Townsend Ward. Ph. B. Wallace, of Philadelphia, photographed some of the best subjects.

The original boundaries of Philadelphia remained unchanged for one hundred and seventy-five years after the founding of the city, the adjoining territory, as it became populated, being erected into corporated districts in the following order: Southwark, 1762; Northern Liberties, 1771; Moyamensing, 1812; Spring Garden, 1813; Kensington, 1820; Penn, 1844; Richmond, 1847; West Philadelphia, 1851; and Belmont, 1853. In 1854 all these districts, together with the boroughs of Germantown, Frankford, Manayunk, White Hall, Bridesburg and Aramingo, and the townships of Passyunk, Blockley, Kingsessing, Roxborough, Germantown, Bristol, Oxford, Lower Dublin, Moreland, Byberry, Delaware and Penn were abolished by an act of the State legislature, and the boundaries of the city of Philadelphia were extended to the Philadelphia county lines.

Such of these outlying communities as had been settled prior to the Revolution were closely related to Philadelphia by common interests, a common provincial government and a common architecture. For these reasons, therefore, it seems more logical viii that this treatise devoted to the Colonial architecture of the first capitol of the United States should embrace the greater city of the present day rather than confine itself to the city proper of Colonial times. Otherwise it would be a problem where to draw the line, and much of value would be omitted. The wealth of material thus comprehended is so great, however, that it is impossible in a single book of ordinary size to include more than a fractional part of it. An attempt has therefore been made to present an adequate number of representative types chosen with careful regard, first, to their architectural merit, and second, to their historic interest. Exigencies of space are thus the only reason for the omission of numerous excellent houses without historic association and others rich in history but deficient in architecture.

List of Plates

Page 1The Colonial Architecture
of Philadelphia

CHAPTER I

Philadelphia occupies a unique position in American architecture. Few of the early settled cities of the United States can boast so extensive or so notable a collection of dwellings and public buildings in the so-called Colonial style, many of them under auspices that insure their indefinite perpetuation. These beautiful old structures are almost exclusively of brick and stone and of a more elaborate and substantial character than any contemporary work to be found above the Mason and Dixon line which later became in part the boundary between the North and the South. Erected and occupied by the leading men of substance of the Province of Pennsylvania, the fine old countryseats, town residences and public buildings of the "City of Brotherly Love" not only comprise a priceless architectural inheritance, but the glamour of their historic association renders them almost2national monuments, and so object lessons of material assistance in keeping alive the spirit and ideals of true Americanism.

Much of the best Colonial domestic architecture in America is to be found in this vicinity, a great deal of it still standing in virtually its pristine condition as enduring memorials of the most elegant period in Colonial life. Just as men have personality, so houses have individuality. And as the latter is but a reflection of the former, a study of the architecture of any neighborhood gives us a more intimate knowledge of contemporary life and manners, while the history of the homes of prominent personages is usually the history of the community. Such a study is the more interesting in the present instance, however, in that not merely local but national history was enacted within the Colonial residences and public buildings of old Philadelphia. Men prominent in historic incidents of Colonial times which profoundly affected the destiny of the country lived in Philadelphia. The fathers of the American nation were familiar figures on the streets of the city, and Philadelphians in their native city wrote their names large in American history.

Philadelphia was not settled until approximately half a century later than the other early centers of the North,—Plymouth, New York, Salem, Boston and Providence. Georgian archi 3tecture had completely won the approval of the English people, and so it was that few if any buildings showing Elizabethan and Jacobean influences were erected here as in New England. Although several other nationalities were from the first represented in the population, notably the Swedish, Dutch and German, the British were always in the majority, and while a few old houses, especially those with plastered walls, have a slightly Continental atmosphere, all are essentially Georgian or pure Colonial in design and detail.

To understand how this remarkable collection of Colonial architecture came into being, and to appreciate what it means to us, it is necessary briefly to review the early history of Philadelphia. Although some small trading posts had been established by the Swedes and Dutch in the lower valley of the Delaware River from 1623 onward, it was not until 1682 that Philadelphia was settled under a charter which William Penn obtained from Charles II the previous year, providing a place of refuge for Quakers who were suffering persecution in England under the "Clarendon Code." The site was chosen by Penn's commission, consisting of Nathaniel Allen, John Bezan and William Heage, assisted by Penn's cousin, Captain William Markham, as deputy governor, and Thomas Holme as surveyor-general. The Swedes had established a settlement at the mouth of the Schuylkill River 4 not later than 1643, and the site selected by the commissioners was held by three brothers of the Swaenson family. They agreed, however, to take in exchange land in what is now known as the Northern Liberties, and in the summer of 1682, Holme laid out the city extending from the Delaware River on the east to the Schuylkill River on the west—a distance of about two miles—and from Vine Street on the north to Cedar, now South Street, on the south,—a distance of about one mile. Penn landed at New Castle on the Delaware, October 27, 1682, and probably came to his newly founded city soon afterward. A meeting of the Provincial Council was held March 10, 1683, and from that time Philadelphia was the capital of Pennsylvania until 1799, when Lancaster was chosen.

Not only did Penn obtain a grant of land possessed of rare and diversified natural beauty, extreme fertility, mineral wealth and richness of all kinds, but he showed great sagacity in encouraging ambitious men of education and affluence, and artisans of skill and taste in many lines, to colonize it. To these facts are due the quick prosperity which came to Philadelphia and which has made it to this day one of the foremost manufacturing centers in the United States. Textile, foundry and many other industries soon sprang up to supply the wants of these diligent people three thousand miles from the mother country and to provide a 5 basis of trade with the rest of the world. Shipyards were established and a merchant marine built up which soon brought to Philadelphia a foreign and coastwise commerce second to none in the American colonies. Local merchants engaged in trade with Europe and the West Indies, and these profitable ventures soon brought great affluence and a high degree of culture. By the time of the Revolution Philadelphia had become the largest, richest, most extravagant and fashionable city of the American colonies. Society was gayer, more polished and distinguished than anywhere else this side of the Atlantic.

Among the skilled artisans attracted by the promise of Penn's "Sylvania" were numerous carpenters and builders. Penn induced James Portius to come to the new world to design and execute his proprietary buildings, and Portius was accompanied and followed by others of more or less skill in the same and allied trades. While some of the building materials and parts of the finished woodwork were for a time brought from England, local skill and resources were soon equal to the demands, as much of their handiwork still existing amply shows. As early as 1724 the master carpenters of the city organized the Carpenters' Company, a guild patterned after the Worshipful Company of Carpenters of London, founded in 1477. Portius was one of the leading members, and on his 6 death in 1736 laid the foundation of a valuable builders' library by giving his rare collection of early architectural books to the company.

Toward the middle of the eighteenth century American carpenters and builders everywhere, Philadelphia included, were materially aided by the appearance of handy little ready reference books of directions for joinery containing measured drawings with excellent Georgian detail. Such publications became the fountainhead of Colonial design. They taught our local craftsmen the technique of building and the art of proportion; instilled in their minds an appreciation of classic motives and the desire to adapt the spirit of the Renaissance to their own needs and purposes. In those days some knowledge of architecture was considered essential to every gentleman's education, and with the aid of these builders' reference books many men in other professions throughout the country became amateur architects of no mean ability as a pastime. In and about Philadelphia their Georgian adaptations, often tempered to a degree by the Quaker preference for the simple and practical, contributed much to the charm and distinction of local architecture. To such amateur architects we owe Independence Hall, designed by Andrew Hamilton, speaker of the Pennsylvania Assembly, and Christ Church, designed mainly by Doctor John Kearsley.

During the whole of the eighteenth century 7 Philadelphia was the most important city commercially, politically and socially in the American colonies. For this there were several reasons. Owing to its liberal government and its policy of religious toleration, Philadelphia and the outlying districts gradually became a refuge for European immigrants of various persecuted sects. Nowhere else in America was such a heterogeneous mixture of races and religions to be found. There were Swedes, Dutch, English, Germans, Welsh, Irish and Scotch-Irish; Quakers, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Catholics, Reformed Lutherans, Mennonites, Dunkers, Schwenkfelders and Moravians. Until the Seven Years' War between France and England from 1756 to 1763 the Quakers dominated the Pennsylvania government, and Quaker influence remained strong in Philadelphia long after it had given way to that of the more belligerent Scotch-Irish, mostly Presbyterians, in the rest of Pennsylvania, until the failure of the Whiskey Insurrection in 1794. This Scotch-Irish ascendancy was due not only to their increasing numbers, but to the increasing general dissatisfaction with the Quaker failure to provide for the defense of the province. The Penns lost their governmental rights in 1776 and three years later had their territorial rights vested in the commonwealth.

Its central location among the American colonies, and the fact that it was the largest and most successful8 of the proprietary provinces, rendered Pennsylvania's attitude in the struggle with the mother country during the Revolution of vital importance. The British party was made strong by the loyalty of the large Church of England element, the policy of neutrality adopted by the Quakers, Dunkers and Mennonites, and the general satisfaction felt toward the free and liberal government of the province, which had been won gradually without such reverses as had embittered the people of Massachusetts and some of the other British provinces. The Whig party was successful, however, and Pennsylvania contributed very materially to the success of the War of Independence, by the important services of her statesmen, by her efficient troops and by the financial aid rendered by Robert Morris, founder of the Bank of North America, the oldest financial institution in the United States.

Meanwhile Philadelphia became the very center of the new republic in embryo. The first Continental Congress met in Carpenters' Hall on September 5, 1774; the second Continental Congress in the old State House, now known as Independence Hall, on May 10, 1775; and throughout the Revolution, except from September 26, 1777, to June 18, 1778, when it was occupied by the British, and the Congress met in Lancaster and York, Pennsylvania, and then in Princeton, New Jersey, Philadelphia was virtually the capital of the American colonies9 and socially the most brilliant city in the country.

In Philadelphia the second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence, which the whole Pennsylvania delegation except Franklin regarded as premature, but which was afterward well supported by the State. The national convention which framed the constitution of the United States sat in Philadelphia in 1787, and from 1790 to 1800, when the seat of government was moved to Washington, Philadelphia was the national capital. Here the first bank in the colonies, the Bank of North America, was opened in 1781, and here the first mint for the coinage of United States money was established in 1792. Here Benjamin Franklin and David Rittenhouse made their great contributions to science, and here on September 19, 1796, Washington delivered his farewell address to the people of the United States. Here lived Robert Morris, who managed the finances of the Revolution, Stephen Girard of the War of 1812 and Jay Cooke of the Civil War.

Not only in politics, but in art, science, the drama and most fields of progress Philadelphia took the lead in America for more than a century and a half after its founding. Here was established the first public school in 1689; the first paper mill in 1690; the first botanical garden in 1728; the first Masonic Lodge in 1730; the first subscription library in10 1731; the first volunteer fire company in 1736; the first magazine published by Franklin in 1741; the first American philosophical society in 1743; the first religious magazine in 1746; the first medical school in 1751; the first fire insurance company in 1752; the first theater in 1759; the first school of anatomy in 1762; the first American dispensary in 1786; the first water works in 1799; the first zoölogical museum in 1802; the first American art school in 1805; the first academy of natural sciences in 1812; the first school for training teachers in 1818; the first American building and loan association in 1831; the first American numismatic society in 1858. From the Germantown Friends' Meeting, headed by Francis Daniel Pastorius, came in 1688 the first protest against slavery in this country. In Philadelphia was published the first American medical book in 1740; here was given the first Shakespearean performance in this country in 1749; the first lightning rod was erected here in 1752; from Philadelphia the first American Arctic expedition set forth in 1755; on the Schuylkill River in 1773 were made the first steamboat experiments; the earliest abolition society in the world was organized here in 1774; the first American piano was built here in 1775; here in 1789 the Protestant Episcopal Church was formally established in the United States; the first carriage in the world propelled by steam was built here in 1804; the oldest American playhouse11 now in existence was built here in 1808; the first American locomotive, "Ironsides", was built here in 1827; and the first daguerreotype of the human face was made here in 1839. The Bible and Testament, Shakespeare, Milton and Blackstone were printed for the first time in America in Philadelphia, and Thackeray's first book originally appeared here.

During the latter half of the eighteenth century Philadelphia became noted throughout the American colonies for its generous hospitality of every sort, and this trait was reflected in the domestic architecture of the period, which was usually designed with that object in view. For the brilliance of its social life there were several reasons. Above all, it was the character of an ever-increasing number of inhabitants asserting itself. Moreover, the tendency was aided by the fact that as the largest, most important and most central city in the colonies, it became the meeting place for delegates from all the colonies to discuss common problems, and therefore it was incumbent upon Philadelphians to entertain the visitors. And this they did with a lavish hand. From the visit of the Virginia Commissioners in 1744 until the seat of the United States Government was moved to Washington in 1790, every meeting of men prominent in political life was the occasion of much eating, drinking and conviviality in the best Philadelphia homes and also in the inns, where it was the custom of that day to12 entertain considerably. The old Red Lion Inn at North Second and Noble streets, a picturesque gambrel-roof structure of brick with a lean-to porch along the front, is an interesting survival of the inns and taverns of Colonial days, as was also the old Mermaid Inn in Mount Airy, until torn down not long ago. At such gatherings were represented the most brilliant minds this side of the Atlantic, and scintillating wit and humor enlivened the festive board, as contrasted with the bitter religious discussions which had characterized American gatherings in the preceding century when tolerance had not been so broad.

But the brilliancy of social life in Philadelphia was by no means confined to the entertainment of visitors. Despite its importance, Philadelphia was a relatively small place in those days. Everybody knew everybody else of consequence, and social exchanges were inevitable among people of wealth and culture, prominent in public life and successful in commerce, of whom there were a larger number than in any other American city. While there were two separate and distinct social sets, the staid and sober Quakers and the gay "World's People", they were ever being drawn more closely together. The early severity of the Quakers had been greatly tempered by the increasing worldly influences about them. They were among the richest inhabitants and prominent in the government, holding the13 majority in the House of Assembly. This brought them into constant association with and under the influence of men in public life elsewhere, demonstrating the fact that, like the "World's People", they dearly loved eating and drinking. One has but to peruse some of the old diaries of prominent Friends which are still in existence to see that they occasionally "gormandized to the verge of gluttony", and even got "decently drunk."

Toward the outbreak of the Revolution, life among most Quakers had ceased to be as strict and monotonous as many have supposed. There were fox hunting, horse racing, assembly dances, barbecues, cider frolics, turtle and other dinners, tea parties and punch drinking, both under private auspices and among the activities of such clubs as the Colony in Schuylkill and the Gloucester Fox Hunting Club, in which the First City Troop originated. At the time of monthly, quarterly and yearly meetings whole families of Friends often visited other families for several days at a time, a custom which became an important element in the social intercourse of the province.

Cock fighting and bull baiting were among the frequent pastimes of Philadelphians, although frowned upon by the strict Quaker element. The same was true of theatrical entertainments, which began in 1754 and continued occasionally thereafter. Following the first Shakespearean performance14 in America at Philadelphia in 1749, a storehouse on Water Street near Pine Street, belonging to William Plumstead, was fitted up as a theater, and in April, 1754, the drama was really introduced to Philadelphia by a series of plays given by William Hallam's old American Company. In 1759 the first theater in Philadelphia purposely erected for the exhibition of plays was built at the southwest corner of Vernon and South (then Cedar) streets, and was opened by David Douglass, the manager of the company started by Hallam. A few years later, in 1766, was built the old Southwark or South Street Theater in South Street above Fourth, where Major John André and Captain John Peter De Lancy acted during the British occupation of the city, and which after twenty years of illegal existence was opened "by authority" in 1789. None of these now remains, but the Walnut Street Theater, erected in 1808, is said to be the oldest playhouse in the United States.

Taking all these facts into consideration, it is not surprising that, except for some of the earliest houses now remaining and others built with less ample fortunes, little difference is distinguishable between the homes of Quakers and "World's People", and that the distinctive characteristics of the Colonial architecture of Philadelphia are more or less common to all buildings of the period.

Shortly after the Revolution the built-up portion15 of the city was bounded by the Delaware River on the east and Seventh Street on the west, and by Poplar Street on the north and Christian Street on the south. While houses in blocks were the rule, numerous unoccupied lots made many trees and gardens in the rear and at the sides of detached houses quite common. This was regarded as not entirely sufficient by the wealthier families, which considered country living essential to health, comfort and pleasure, and so maintained two establishments,—a town house for winter occupancy and a countryseat as a summer retreat. Others desiring to live more nearly in the manner of their English forbears in the mother country chose to make an elaborate countryseat their year-round place of residence. Thus the surrounding countryside—but especially to the northwestward along the high, wooded banks of the Schuylkill River and Wissahickon Creek—became a community of great estates with elegant country houses which have no parallel in America other than the manorial estates along the James River in Virginia. The Philadelphia of to-day, therefore, has not only a distinctive architecture in its brick, stone and woodwork, but a diversified architecture embracing both the city and country types of design and construction.16

CHAPTER II

Throughout the Colonial period, and to a degree during the early years of the American nation, Philadelphia clung to the manners and customs of the mother country as did few other communities in the new world. In architecture, therefore, it is not surprising to find the oldest houses and public buildings of the American metropolis of those days reflecting the tendencies of the times across the water. Wood had already ceased to be a cheap building material in England, and although it was abundantly available in America, brick and stone were thought necessary for the better homes, despite the fact that for some years, until sources of clay and limestone were found, bricks and lime for making mortar had to be brought at great expense from overseas. So we find that in 1683, the year following the founding of the "City of Brotherly Love", William Penn erected for his daughter Letitia the first brick house in the town, which was for several years occupied by Penn and his family. It was located in Letitia Court, a small17 street running from Market to Chestnut streets between Front and Second streets. Although of little architectural value, it was of great historic interest, and when in 1883 the encroachments of the wholesale district threatened to destroy it, the house was removed to Fairmount Park by the city and rebuilt on Lansdowne Drive west of the Girard Avenue bridge. It is open to the public and contains numerous Penn relics.

Thus from the very outset brick construction has been favored in preference to wood in Philadelphia. Homes in the city proper were built of it chiefly, and likewise many of the elegant countryseats in the neighboring townships, now part of the greater Philadelphia of to-day. The wealthier residents very early set the fashion of both city and country living, following in this custom the example of William Penn, the founder, who not only had his house in town, but a country place, a veritable mansion, long since gone, on an island in the Delaware River above Bristol.

British builders had forsaken the Jacobean manner of the early Renaissance and come completely under the spell of the English Classic or so-called Georgian style. Correspondingly, American men of means were erecting country houses of brick, with ornamental trim classic in detail, and of marble and white-painted wood. Marked by solidity, spaciousness and quiet dignity, they are thoroughly Georgian in 18 conception, and as such reminiscent of the manorial seats of Virginia, yet less stately and in various respects peculiar to this section of the colonies. Like the bricks, the elaborate interior woodwork was at first brought from overseas, but later produced by resident artisans of whom there was an ever increasing number of no mean order.

Almost without exception the Colonial brickwork of Philadelphia was laid up with wide mortar joints in Flemish bond, red stretcher and black header bricks alternating in the same course. The arrangement not only imparts a delightful warmth and pleasing texture, but the headers provide frequent transverse ties, giving great strength to the wall. With this rich background the enlivening contrast of marble lintels and sills and white-painted wood trim, in which paneled shutters play a prominent part, form a picture of rare charm, rendered all the more satisfying by an appearance of obvious comfort, permanence and intrinsic worth which wood construction, however good, cannot convey.

Many of the splendid old pre-Revolutionary country houses of brick no longer remain to us. Some are gone altogether; others are remodeled almost beyond recognition; a few, hedged around by the growing city, have been allowed to fall into a state of hopeless decay. Woodford, however, located in the Northern Liberties, Fairmount Park, at York and Thirty-third streets, is fairly 19representative of the type of Georgian countryseat of brick, so many of which were erected in the suburbs of Philadelphia about the middle of the eighteenth century.

It is a large square structure, two and a half stories in height, with a hipped roof rising above a handsome cornice with prominent modillions and surmounted by a balustraded belvedere. Two large chimneys, much nearer together than is ordinarily the case, emerge within the inclosed area of the belvedere deck. A heavy pediment springs from the cornice above the pedimental doorway, and this repetition of the motive imparts a pleasing interest and emphasis to the façade. The subordinate cornice at the second-floor level is most unusual and may perhaps reflect the influence of the penthouse roof which became such a characteristic feature of the ledge stone work of the neighborhood. Few houses have the brick pilaster treatment at the corners with corresponding cornice projections which enrich the ornamental trim. Six broad soapstone steps with a simple wrought-iron handrail at either side lead up to a fine doorway, Tuscan in spirit, with high narrow doors. Above, a beautiful Palladian window is one of the best features of the façade. An interesting fenestration scheme, with paneled shutters at the lower windows only, is enhanced by the pleasing scale of twelve-paned upper and lower window sashes having broad white muntins throughout.20

Opening the front door, one finds himself in a wide hall with doorways giving entrance to large front rooms on each side. Beyond, a beautifully detailed arch supported by pilasters spans the hall. The stairway is located near the center of the house in a hall to one side of the main hall and reached from it through a side door. Interior woodwork of good design and workmanship everywhere greets the eye, especially noticeable features being the rounding cornices, heavy wainscots and the floors an inch and a half in thickness and doweled together. Each room has a fireplace with ornamental iron back, a hearth of square bricks and a well-designed wood mantel. In the south front room blue tiles depicting Elizabethan knights and their ladies surround the fireplace opening. Brass handles instead of door knobs lend distinction to the hardware.

Woodford was erected in 1766 by William Coleman, a successful merchant, eminent jurist and a friend of Franklin. He was a member of the Common Council in 1739, justice of the peace and judge of the county courts in 1751 and judge of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania from 1759 until his death ten years later.

Coleman's executors sold the place to Alexander Barclay, comptroller of His Majesty's Customs at Philadelphia, and the grandson of Robert Barclay of Ury, the noted Quaker theologian and "Apologist."

On Barclay's death in 1771, Woodford became the21 home of David Franks, a wealthy Jewish merchant and one of the signers of the Non-Importation Resolutions of 1765 by which a large body of leading American merchants agreed "not to have any goods shipped from Great Britain until after the repeal of the Stamp Act." He was prominent both socially and politically, a member of the Provincial Assembly in 1748 and the register of wills. Prior to the outbreak of the Revolution, he was the agent of the Crown in Philadelphia and was then made commissary of the British prisoners in the American lines. In 1778, however, he was arrested by General Benedict Arnold for attempting to transmit a letter harmful to the American cause, deprived of his commission and property, and obliged to remove to New York two years later.

One of Franks' daughters, Abigail, married Andrew Hamilton of The Woodlands, afterwards attorney-general of Pennsylvania. Another daughter, Rebecca, married General Sir Henry Johnson, who was defeated and captured by General Anthony Wayne at Stony Point. Rebecca Franks was one of the most beautiful and brilliant women of her day. Well educated, a gifted writer and fascinating conversationalist, witty and winsome, she was popular in society and one of the belles of the celebrated "Mischianza", which was given May 18, 1778, by the British officers in honor of General Lord Howe upon his departure for England. This22 was a feast of gayety with a tournament somewhat like those common in the age of chivalry, and was planned largely by Major John André, who was later hanged by order of an American military commission for his connection with the treason of General Benedict Arnold.

Following the confiscation of Franks' property in 1780, Woodford was sold to Thomas Paschall, a friend of Franklin. Later it was occupied for a time by William Lewis, a noted advocate, and in 1793 was bought by Isaac Wharton, son of Joseph Wharton, owner of Walnut Grove in Southwark at about Fifth Street and Walnut Avenue, where the "Mischianza" was held. A son, Francis Rawle Wharton, inherited the place on his father's death in 1798 and was the last private owner. In 1868 the estate was made part of Fairmount Park, and since 1887 it has been used as a guardhouse.

A country house typical of the time, though unlike most other contemporary buildings in the details of its construction, is Hope Lodge in Whitemarsh Valley on the Bethlehem Pike just north of its junction with the Skippack Pike. It is thoroughly Georgian in conception, and most of the materials, including all of the wood finish, were brought from England. The place reached a deplorable state of decay several years ago, yet the accompanying photograph shows enough remaining to be of considerable architectural interest.23

It is a large, square house two and a half stories high, its hipped roof broken by handsome pedimental dormers with round-topped windows. The front is of brick laid up in characteristic Flemish bond, while the other walls are of plastered rubble stone masonry, the brickwork and stonework being quoined together at the front corners. A broad plaster coving is the principal feature of the simple molded cornice, and one notes the much used double belt formed by two projecting courses of brick at the second-floor level. The fenestration differs in several respects from that of similar houses erected a quarter century later. The arrangement of the ranging windows is quite conventional, but instead of marble lintels above them there are nicely gauged flat brick arches, while the basement windows are set in openings beneath segmental relieving arches with brick cores. The latter are reflected in effect by the recessed elliptical arches above all the windows in the walls of plastered rubble masonry. The windows themselves, with nine-paned upper and lower sashes having unusually heavy muntins, likewise the shutters on the lower story and the heavy paneled doors, are higher and narrower than was the rule a few years later. The entrance, with its characteristic double doors, is reached by a porch and four stone steps, its low hip roof with molded cornice being supported by two curious, square, tapering columns. Porches were an unusual 24circumstance in the neighborhood, and this one is so unlike any others of Colonial times which are worthy of note as to suggest its having been a subsequent addition. Above, a round-arched recess with projecting brick sill replaces the conventional Palladian window.

Indoors, an exceptionally wide hall extends entirely through the house from front to back, opening into spacious rooms on both sides through round-topped doorways with narrow double doors heavily paneled. An elliptical arch supported by fluted pilasters spans the hall about midway of its length, and a handsome staircase ascends laterally from the rear part after the common English manner of that day. Throughout the house the woodwork is of good design and execution, the paneled wainscots, molded cornices, door and window casings all being very heavy, and the broad fireplaces and massive chimney pieces in complete accord. Deep paneled window seats, very common in contemporary houses, are a feature of the first-floor rooms. The kitchens and the servants' quarters are located in a separate building to the rear, a brick-paved porch connecting the two. This custom, as in the South, was characteristic of the locality and period.

Hope Lodge was erected in 1723 by Samuel Morris, a Quaker of Welsh descent, who was a justice of the peace in Whitemarsh and an overseer of Plymouth Meeting. Morris built it expecting to marry a 25 young Englishwoman to whom he had become affianced while on a visit to England with his mother, Susanna Heath, who was a prominent minister among the Friends. The wedding did not occur, however, and Samuel Morris died a bachelor in 1772, leaving his estate to his brother Joshua, who sold Hope Lodge in 1776 to William West. In 1784 West's executors conveyed it to the life interest of Colonel James Horatio Watmough with a reversion to his guardian, Henry Hope, a banker. It was Colonel Watmough who named the place Hope Lodge as a compliment to his guardian. One of his daughters married Joseph Reed, son of General Joseph Reed, and another married John Sargent, the famous lawyer. Both the Reeds and Sargents occupied Hope Lodge at various times, and it eventually passed into the Wentz family.

No other Colonial country house of brick that now remains holds an interest, either architectural or historic, quite equal to that of Stenton, which stands among fine old oaks, pines and hemlocks in a six-acre park, all that now remains of an estate of five hundred acres located on Germantown Avenue on the outskirts of Germantown near the Wayne Junction railroad station. One of the earliest and most pretentious countryseats of the neighborhood, it combines heavy construction and substantial appearance with a picturesque charm that is rare in buildings of such early origin. This is due in26 part to the brightening effect of the fenestration, with many small-paned windows set in white-painted molded frames, and quite as much to the slender trellises between the lower-story windows supporting vines which have spread over the brickwork above in the most fascinating manner. Both features impart a lighter sense of scale, while the profusion of white wood trim emphasizes more noticeably the delightful color and texture of the brickwork.

The house is a great, square, hip-roofed structure two and a half stories high with two large square chimneys and severely plain pedimental dormers. Servants' quarters, kitchens and greenhouses are located in a separate gable-roof structure a story and a half high, extending back more than a hundred feet from the main house, and connected with it by a covered porch along the back. In the kitchen the brick oven, the copper boiler and the fireplace with its crane still remain.

The walls of the house consist of characteristic brickwork of red stretchers and black headers laid up in Flemish bond, with square piers at the front corners and on each side of the entrance, and there is the more or less customary projecting belt at the second-floor level. On the second story the windows are set close up under the heavy overhanging cornice, with its prominent modillions, while on the lower story there are relieving arches with cores of brick instead of stone lintels so common on houses27 a few decades later. There are similar arches over the barred basement windows set in brick-lined areaways. Interesting indeed is the scheme of fenestration. Although formal and symmetrical on the front, the windows piercing the other walls frankly correspond to the interior floor plan, although ranging for the most part. Unlike the usual arrangement, there are two widely spaced windows above the entrance, while the narrow flanking windows either side of the doorway may be regarded as one of the earliest instances of side lights in American architecture. The severely simple entrance with its high narrow paneled doors without either knob or latch is reached from a brick-paved walk about the house by three semicircular stone steps such as were common in England at the time, the various nicely hewn pieces fastened securely together with iron bands.

The front door opens into a large square hall with a brick-paved floor and walls wainscoted to the ceiling with white-painted wood paneling. There is a fireplace on the right, and beyond an archway in the rear a staircase ascends to the second floor. To the right of the hall is the parlor, also with paneled walls, and a fireplace surrounded by pink tiles. In the wainscoted room back of this the sliding top of a closet offers opportunity for a person to conceal himself and listen through a small hole to the conversation in the adjoining hall. To the 28 left of the hall is the dining room, beautifully wainscoted and having a built-in cupboard for china and a fireplace faced with blue tiles. The iron fireback bears the inscription "J. L. 1728." Back of this through a passageway is a small breakfast room, whence an underground passage for use during storms or sieges leads from a trap door in the floor to the barns.

The second-story floor plan is most unusual. The library, a great long room, extends entirely across the front of the house, with its range of six windows and two fireplaces on the opposite wall, one faced with blue tiles and the other with white. Here, with the finest private collection of books in America at that time, the scholarly owner spent his declining years, the library going to the city of Philadelphia on his death. Two small bedrooms, each with a fireplace, were occupied by his daughters. A little back staircase leads to the third floor, where the woodwork of the chambers was unpainted.

Stenton was erected in 1728 by James Logan, a scholar, philosopher, man of affairs, the secretary and later the personal representative of William Penn, the founder, and afterwards chief justice of the colony. Descended from a noble Scottish family, his father a clergyman and teacher who joined the Society of Friends in 1761, James Logan himself was for a time a teacher in London, but soon engaged in the shipping trade. In 1699 he29 came to America with William Penn as his secretary, and on Penn's return to England he was left in charge of the province. Thereafter Logan became a very important personage, much liked and fully trusted by all who knew him, including the Indians, with whom he maintained friendly relations. For half a century he was a mighty factor in provincial affairs, and to read his life is to read the history of Pennsylvania for that period, for he was chief justice, provincial secretary, commissioner of property, surveyor-general and president of the council. His ample fortune, amassed in commerce with Edward Shippen, in trade with the Indians, and by the purchase and sale of lands, enabled him to live and entertain at Stenton in a princely manner many distinguished American and European personages of that day.

When Logan died in 1751, he was succeeded by his son William, who continued faithful to the proprietary interests and carried on the Indian work. His son, Doctor George Logan, was the next proprietor during the Revolutionary period. Educated in England and Scotland, he traveled extensively in Europe; after his return to America he became a member of the Agricultural and Philosophical Societies and was elected a senator from Pennsylvania from 1801 to 1807.

During Doctor Logan's occupancy Washington, Jefferson, Franklin and many other distinguished30 American and European personages were entertained at Stenton. It was Washington's headquarters on August 23, 1777, while he was on his way to the Brandywine from Hartsville. Ten years later, on July 8, 1787, he came again as President of the Constitutional Convention, then sitting in Philadelphia, to see a demonstration of land plaster on grass land that had been made by Doctor Logan.

Sir William Howe occupied Stenton as his headquarters during the battle of Germantown, October 4, 1777, and on November 22 ordered it destroyed, along with the homes of other "obnoxious persons." The story of its narrow escape is interesting. Two dragoons came to fire it. Meeting a negro woman on their way to the barn for straw, they told her she might remove the bedding and clothing. Meanwhile a British officer and several men happened along, inquiring for deserters, whereupon the negro servant with ready wit said that two were hiding in the barn. Despite their protests, the men were carried away and the house was saved, as the order to fire it was not repeated.

After Doctor Logan's death in 1821, Stenton was occupied by his widow, Deborah Logan, until her death in 1839, when it passed to her son Albanus, an agriculturalist and sportsman. His son Gustavus was the last private owner, as the house was acquired by the city and occupied as their headquarters by31 the Colonial Dames, the descendants of the Logan family removing to Loudoun near by.

No account of the Colonial houses of Philadelphia would be reasonably complete which failed to include the home of Stephen Girard. Although of scant architectural distinction, it is of interest through its association with one of the chief outstanding figures of a city noted for its celebrated residents. It is a two-story hip-roofed structure, rather narrow but of exceptional length, taking the form of two plaster-walled wings on opposite sides of a central portion of brick having a pediment springing from the main cornice and a circular, ornamental window. As at Hope Lodge a broad plaster coving is the principal feature of the simple cornice. The windows and chimneys differ in various parts of the house, and the doors are strangely located, all suggesting alterations and additions. The central part of the house has casement sashes with blinds as contrasted with Georgian sashes with paneled shutters elsewhere, and all second-story windows are foreshortened.

Stephen Girard, a wealthy and eccentric Philadelphia merchant, financier, philanthropist and the founder of Girard College, was born near Bordeaux, France, in 1750, the son of a sea captain. He lost the sight of his right eye when eight years old and had only a meager education. Beginning a seafaring life as a cabin boy, he in time became master32 and part owner of a small vessel trading between New York, New Orleans and Port au Prince. In May, 1776, he was driven into the port of Philadelphia by a British fleet and settled there as a merchant. Gradually he built up a fleet of vessels trading with New Orleans and the West Indies, and by the close of the Revolution, Girard was one of the richest men of his time, and he used his wealth in numerous ways to benefit the nation and humanity. In 1810 he utilized about a million dollars deposited with the Barings of London to purchase shares of the much depreciated stock of the Bank of the United States, which materially assisted the government in bolstering European confidence in its securities. When the bank was not rechartered, Girard bought the building and cashier's house for a third of their original cost, and in May, 1812, established the Bank of Stephen Girard. In 1814, when the government needed money to bring the second conflict with England to a successful conclusion, he subscribed for about ninety-five per cent of the war loan of five million dollars, of which only twenty thousand dollars besides had been taken, and he generously offered to the public at par shares which, following his purchase, had gone to a premium.

Girard showed his public spirit personally as well as financially. During the yellow fever epidemic in Philadelphia in 1793 and in 1797-1798 he took the lead in relieving the poor and caring for the sick.33 He volunteered to act as manager of the hospital at Bush Hill and with the assistance of Peter Helm he cleansed the place and systemized the work.

On his death in 1831, Girard's estate, the greatest private fortune in America, was valued at about seven and a half million dollars, and his philanthropy was again shown in his disposition of it. Being without heirs, as his child had died soon after its birth and his beautiful wife had died after many years in an insane asylum, his heart went out to poor and orphan children. In his will he bequeathed $116,000 to various Philadelphia charities; $500,000 to the city for improvement of the Delaware River front, streets and buildings; $300,000 to Pennsylvania for internal improvements, especially canals, and the bulk of the estate to Philadelphia, chiefly for founding and maintaining a non-sectarian school or college, but also for providing a better police system, making municipal improvements and lessening taxation. The college was given for the support and education of poor white male orphans, of legitimate birth and character, between the ages of six and ten; and it was specified that no boy was to be permitted to stay after his eighteenth year, and that as regards admission, preference was to be shown, first to orphans born in Philadelphia, second to orphans born in any other part of Pennsylvania, third to orphans born in New York City, and fourth to orphans born in New Orleans.34

Work upon the buildings was begun in 1833, and the college was opened with five buildings in 1848. The central one, an imposing structure in the Corinthian style of architecture designed by Thomas Ustick Walter, has been called "the most perfect Greek temple in existence." To it in 1851 were removed the remains of Stephen Girard and placed in a sarcophagus in the south vestibule. The college fund, originally $5,260,000, has grown to more than thirty-five million dollars; likewise the college has become virtually a village in itself. Some twenty handsome buildings and residences, valued at about three and a half million dollars, and more than forty acres of land accommodate about two thousand students, teachers and employes.

Under the provisions of the Girard trust fund nearly five hundred dwelling houses have been erected by the city in South Philadelphia, all heated and lighted by a central plant operated by the trustees, and more than seventy million tons of coal have been mined on property belonging to his estate. Few philanthropists have left their money so wisely or with such thoughtful provisions to meet changing conditions.

Perhaps the brick mansion most thoroughly representative of the type of Georgian country house, of which so many sprang up about Philadelphia from 1760 to 1770, is Port Royal House on Tacony Street between Church and Duncan streets35 in Frankford. This great square, hip-roofed structure with its quoined corners and projecting stone belt at the second-floor level; its surmounting belvedere, ornamental dormers and great chimney stacks; its central pediment springing from a heavy cornice above a projecting central portion of the façade in which are located a handsome Palladian window and characteristic Doric doorway; its large, ranging, twenty-four-paned windows with keyed stone lintels and blinds on the lower story, is in brick substantially what Mount Pleasant is in plastered stone, as will be seen in Chapter V. As in the latter, a broad central hall extends entirely through the house, and the staircase is located in a small side hall. The rooms throughout are large and contain excellent woodwork and chimney pieces.

Port Royal House was erected in 1762 by Edward Stiles, a wealthy merchant and shipowner, who like many others emigrated from Bermuda to the Bahama island of New Providence and thence to Philadelphia about the middle of the eighteenth century, to engage in American commerce. He was the great-grandson of John Stiles, one of the first settlers of Bermuda in 1635, and the son of Daniel Stiles, of Port Royal Parish, a vestryman and warden of Port Royal Church and a member of the Assembly of Bermuda in 1723. Commerce between the American colonies and Bermuda and the West Indies was extensive, and Stiles' business 36 prospered. He had a store in Front Street between Market and Arch streets, and a town house in Walnut Street between Third and Fourth streets. In summer, like other men of his station and affluence, he lived at his countryseat, surrounded by many slaves, on an extensive plantation in Oxford township, near Frankford, that he had purchased from the Waln family. To it he gave the name Port Royal after his birthplace in Bermuda.

To Edward Stiles in 1775 befell the opportunity to carry relief to the people of Bermuda, then in dire distress because their supplies from America had been cut off by the Non-Importation Agreement among the American colonies. In response to their petition to the Continental Congress, permission was granted to send Stiles' ship, the Sea Nymph (Samuel Stobel, master), laden with provisions to be paid for by the people of Bermuda either in gold or arms, ammunition, saltpeter, sulphur and fieldpieces.

During the occupation of Philadelphia by the British in 1777 and 1778, Frankford became the middle ground between the opposing armies and subject to the depredations of both. Port Royal House, like many other estates of the vicinity, was robbed of its fine furniture, horses, slaves and provisions.

Under the will of Edward Stiles his slaves were freed and educated at the expense of his estate.37 In 1853 the Lukens family bought Port Royal House and for several years a boarding school was conducted there. As the manufacturing about Frankford grew, the locality lost its desirability as a place of residence. The house was abandoned to chance tenants and allowed to fall into an exceedingly delapidated condition. The accompanying photograph, however, depicts enough of its former state to indicate that in its day it was among the best brick country residences of the vicinity.38

CHAPTER III

As the city of Philadelphia grew and became more densely populated, land values increased greatly, and the custom developed of building brick residences in blocks fronting directly on the street, the party walls being located on the side property lines. Like the country houses already described, these were laid up in Flemish bond with alternating red stretcher and black header bricks, and thus an entire block presented a straight, continuous wall, broken only by a remarkably regular scheme of doorways and fenestration, and varied only by slight differences in the detail of doors and windows, lintels, cornices and dormers. These plain two-or three-story brick dwellings in long rows, in street after street, with white marble steps and trimmings, green or white shutters, each intended for one family, have been perpetuated through the intervening years, and now as then form the dominant feature of the domestic architecture of the city proper.

For the most part these were single-front houses, that is to say, the doorway was located to the right39 or left with two windows at one side, while on the stories above windows ranged with the doorway, making three windows across each story. There were exceptions, however, the so-called Morris house at Number 225 South Eighth Street being a notable example of a characteristic double-front house of the locality and period. They were gable-roof structures with high chimneys in the party walls, foreshortened, third-story windows and from one to three dormers piercing the roof.

At the end of the block the wall was often carried up above the ridge between a pair of chimneys and terminated in a horizontal line, imparting greater stability to the chimney construction and lending an air of distinction to the whole house, which was further enhanced by locating the entrance directly beneath in the end wall rather than in the side of the building. The famous old Wistar house at the southeast corner of Fourth and Locust streets is a case in point.

Pedimental dormers were the rule, sometimes with round-headed windows. Elaborate molded wood cornices were a feature, often with prominent, even hand-tooled modillions. Slightly projecting belts of brick courses, marble or other stone marked the floor levels, and keyed stone lintels were customary, although in some of the plainer houses the window frames were set between ordinary courses of brickwork, without decoration of any sort. Most of40 the windows had either six-or nine-paned upper and lower sashes with third-story windows foreshortened in various ways. There were paneled shutters at the first-story windows and often on the second story as well, although blinds were sometimes used on the second story and rarely on the third. The high, deeply recessed doorways, with engaged columns or fluted pilasters supporting handsome entablatures or pediments, and beautifully paneled doors, often with a semicircular fanlight above, were characteristic of most Philadelphia entrances. Before them, occupying part of the sidewalk, was a single broad stone step, or at times a stoop consisting of a flight of three or four steps with a simple wrought-iron handrail, sometimes on both sides, but often on only one side. Other common obstructions in the sidewalk were areaways at one or two basement windows and a rolling way with inclined double doors giving entrance from the street to the basement.

Many of these city residences were of almost palatial character, built by wealthy merchants and men in political life who thought it expedient to live near their wharves and countinghouses or within easy distance of the seats of city, provincial and later of national government. Beautiful gardens occupied the backyards of many such dwellings, affording veritable oases in a desert of bricks and mortar, yet many of the more affluent citizens41 maintained countryseats along the Schuylkill or elsewhere in addition to their town houses.

The location of many of these early city dwellings of brick was such that as the city grew they became undesirable as places of residence. Business encroached upon them more and more, so that, except for houses which have remained for generations in the same family or have historic interest sufficient to have brought about their preservation by the city, relatively few still remain in anything like their original condition. Of the quaint two-and three-story dwellings of modest though delightfully distinctive character, which once lined the narrow streets and alleys, most have become squalid tenements and small alien stores, or else have been utilized for commercial purposes. To walk through Combes Alley and Elfret Alley is to sense what once was and to realize the trend of the times, but there is much material for study in these rapidly decaying old sections that repay a visit by the architect and student.

Happily, however, one of these typical little streets is to be perpetuated in something like its pristine condition. Camac Street, "the street of little clubs", has become one of the unique features of the city,—a typically American "Latin Quarter." To enter this little, narrow, rough-paved alley, running south from Walnut Street between Twelfth and Thirteenth streets, is like stepping back a42 century or more. The squatty little two and a half story houses with picturesque doorways and dormer windows have become the homes of numerous clubs representing the best art interests of the city. Poor Richard Club, Plastic Club, Sketch Club, Coin d'Or and Franklin Inn are among the names to be seen painted on the signs beside the doors. The houses and their gardens in the rear have been restored and provide excellent club, exhibition and lecture rooms, at the same time preserving some fine examples of a rapidly passing type of early American architecture. Would that a similar course might be taken by local societies in every large American city where a wealth of Colonial architecture exists!

Among the fine old single-front houses of particular interest which have suffered through the encroachment of business upon the former residential sections of the city are the Blackwell house, Number 224 Pine Street, and the Wharton house, Number 336 Spruce Street.

The former was in many respects the most elegant residence in Philadelphia, built almost without regard to cost by a man of great wealth, whose taste and refinement called for luxurious living and a beautiful home. The interior woodwork surpassed in design and execution anything to be found elsewhere in the city. Many of the doorways had fluted pilasters, heavily molded casings and carved43 broken pediments. The doors were of mahogany as was likewise the wainscoting of the staircases. The sides of the rooms where fireplaces were located were completely paneled to the ceiling, and above the fireplace openings were narrow panels on which were hunting scenes done in mastic. Some years ago much of this beautiful woodwork was removed, and to-day, despoiled of its former architectural splendor, dingy and dilapidated, the shell of the building is used as a cigar factory.

The house was built about 1765 by John Stamper, a wealthy English merchant, who had been successively councilman, alderman and finally mayor of Philadelphia in 1759. He bought the whole south side of Pine Street from Second to Third from the Penns in 1761, and for many years the house was surrounded by a garden containing flowers, shrubs and fruit trees. Later the house passed into the hands of Stamper's son-in-law, William Bingham, Senior, and afterwards to Bingham's son-in-law, the Reverend Doctor Robert Blackwell.

Doctor Blackwell was the son of Colonel Jacob Blackwell, of New York, who owned extensive estates on Long Island along the East River, Blackwell's Island being included. After graduating from Princeton, Robert Blackwell studied first medicine and then theology. After several years of tutoring at Philipse Manor, he was ordained to the ministry and served the missions at Gloucester and44 St. Mary's, Colestown, New Jersey. When both congregations were scattered by the Revolution, he joined the Continental Army at Valley Forge as both chaplain and surgeon. In 1870 he married Hannah Bingham, whose considerable fortune, added to the estate of his father which he soon after inherited, made him the richest clergyman in America and one of the richest men in Philadelphia. The following year he was called to assist Doctor White, the rector of Christ Church and St. Peter's, and to the latter Doctor Blackwell chiefly devoted himself until his resignation in 1811 due to failing health. It was the services of these united parishes which Washington, his Cabinet and members of Congress attended frequently. On Doctor Blackwell's death in 1831 the house passed into the Willing family and has since changed owners many times.

The Wharton house, Number 336 Spruce Street, was built in 1796 by Samuel Pancoast, a house carpenter, who sold it to Mordecai Lewis, a prominent merchant in the East India trade, shipowner, importer and one-time partner of William Bingham, the brother-in-law of Doctor Blackwell, and whose palatial mansion in Third Street above Spruce was one of the most exclusive social centers of the city. Mordecai Lewis was a director of the Bank of North America, the Philadelphia Contributorship for the Insurance of Houses from Loss by Fire, the Philadelphia Library, and the treasurer of the Penn45sylvania Hospital. Much of the currency issued by the Continental Congress of 1776 bore his name. Although a member of the volunteer military company, he was never in active service.

Following his death in 1799 the house was sold by his executors in 1809 to his son, Samuel N. Lewis, also a successful merchant of great public spirit. In 1817 the younger Lewis sold the house to Samuel Fisher, another merchant and prominent Friend noted for his hospitality and his charity, especially toward negroes and Indians. Because of his neutrality during the Revolution, he was exiled to Virginia from 1777 until 1779, when he was arrested because of a business letter to his partner in New York which was regarded as antagonistic to the government. He was committed to the "Old Gaol", and after refusing bail was tried and because of the clamor of the mob was sentenced to imprisonment for the duration of the war. Soon afterward, however, a pardon was offered him, which he refused, and two years later he left prison by invitation without terms, his health broken. His wedding gift to his daughter, Deborah, on her marriage to William Wharton in 1817, was the Spruce Street house, which has ever since borne Wharton's name.

William Wharton was the son of Charles Wharton, who, with his wife, Hannah, devoted themselves to a religious life among the Friends. Deborah Wharton, William Wharton's wife, became a prominent46 minister of the Society of Friends, traveling extensively in the interests of Indian welfare and giving generously of her ample means to various philanthropic causes. She was one of the early managers of Swarthmore College, as has been a descendant in each generation of the family since that time. Of her ten children, Joseph Wharton, also a prominent Friend, was owner of the Bethlehem Steel Works and one of the most successful ironmasters in the country. A liberal philanthropist, he founded the Wharton School of Finance and Economy at the University of Pennsylvania and was for many years president of the board of managers of Swarthmore College. On his mother's death in 1888 the Spruce Street house came into his possession and is still owned by his estate. Although rented as a rooming house, it remains in a fair state of preservation.

The Wistar house, at the southwest corner of Fourth and Locust streets, to which architectural reference has previously been made, was built about 1750 and for nearly three quarters of a century thereafter was the scene of constant hospitality and lavish entertainment. Here lived Doctor William Shippen, whose marriage to Alice, the daughter of Thomas Lee, of Virginia, and the sister of Richard Henry and Arthur Lee, was one of the numerous alliances which drew the county families of Virginia and Maryland into close relationship with47 Philadelphia families. Doctor Shippen's home quickly became the resort of the Virginia aristocracy when visiting the national capital, and in consequence there was a constant succession of balls and dinners during the winter season.

In 1799 the house was occupied by Doctor Caspar Wistar, the eminent anatomist, known to the élite of the city and nation for his brilliant social gatherings and as the man for whom that beautiful climbing plant, the Wistaria, was named. Doctor Wistar's geniality, magnetism, intellectual leadership and generous hospitality made his home a gathering place for the most distinguished personages of his day in the professions, arts, sciences, letters and politics. Since he held a chair at the University of Pennsylvania and carried on an extensive private practice, the demands upon his time were great, but Sunday evenings, and later on Saturday evenings, he was at home to his friends, who formed the habit of calling regularly in numbers from ten to fifty and often bringing new-found friends, sure of a hearty welcome, brilliant conversation and choice refreshments. And so began one of the cherished institutions of Philadelphia, the Wistar Parties, which were continued after the doctor's death in 1818 by Wistar's friends and their descendants. The Civil War brought an interruption, but in 1886 the gatherings were again resumed; few of the distinguished visitors to the city failed to be48 invited to attend, and, having attended, to praise most highly the exceptional hospitality shown them. During Doctor Wistar's lifetime the personnel of the parties gradually became substantially the membership of that world-famous scientific organization, the Philosophical Society, and later membership in that society became requisite to eligibility for the Wistar Parties.

By far the handsomest old city residence of brick that remains in anything like its original condition is the so-called Morris house at Number 225 South Eighth Street between Walnut and Spruce streets. Although not built until very shortly after the struggle for American independence had been won, it is pre-Revolutionary in character and Colonial in style throughout. In elegance and distinction the façade is unexcelled in early American city architecture. Unlike most houses of the time and locality, it has a double front with two windows each side of a central doorway, a range of five windows on the second and third floors and three simple dormers in the gable roof above. The windows have twelve-paned upper and lower sashes with paneled shutters on the first and second stories, and foreshortened eight-paned upper and lower sashes without shutters on the third story.

The brickwork is of characteristic Flemish bond with alternating red stretcher and black header bricks. Two slightly projecting courses, two courses49 apart, form horizontal belts at the second-and third-floor levels, while the first thirteen courses above the sidewalk level project somewhat beyond the wall above and are laid up in running bond, every sixth course being a tie course of headers. Beautifully tooled, light stone lintels with fine-scale radial scorings greatly enhance the beauty of the fenestration. Each lintel appears to consist of seven gauged or keyed pieces each, but is in reality a single stone, the effect being secured by deep scorings. A heavy molded cornice and handsome gutter spouts complete the decorative features apart from the chaste pedimental doorway with its fluted pilasters and dainty fanlight, which is mentioned again in another chapter. A rolling way and areaways at the basement windows pierce the wall at the sidewalk level after the manner of the time. Indoors, the hall extends entirely through the house to a door in the rear opening upon a box-bordered garden with rose trees and old-fashioned flowers. There is a parlor on the right of the hall and a library on the left. Back of the latter is the dining room, while the kitchen and service portion of the house are located in an L extension to the rear.

As indicated by two marble date stones set in the third-story front wall just below the cornice, this house was begun in 1786 and finished in 1787 by John Reynolds. Some years later it was purchased at a sheriff's sale by Ann Dunkin, who sold it in50 1817 to Luke Wistar Morris, the son of Captain Samuel Morris. Since that time it has remained in the Morris family, and its occupants have maintained it in splendid condition. Much beautiful old furniture, silver and china adorn the interior, most of the pieces having individual histories of interest; in fact, the place has become a veritable museum of Morris and Wistar heirlooms. Within a few years the two old buildings that formerly adjoined the house to the right and left were removed so that the house now stands alone with a garden space at each side behind a handsome wrought-iron fence.

An enthusiastic horseman and sportsman, Samuel Morris was until his death in 1812 president of the Gloucester Fox Hunting Club in which originated in November, 1774, the Philadelphia Troop of Light Horse, better known as the City Troop, the oldest military organization in the United States. In 1775 Morris was a member of the Committee of Safety, and throughout the Revolution he served as captain of the City Troop and as a special agent for Washington, in whose esteem he stood high. Later he was a justice of the peace and a member of the Pennsylvania assembly from 1781 to 1783. A handsome china punch bowl presented to Captain Samuel Morris by the members of the Gloucester Fox Hunting Club is one of the most prized possessions in the Morris house.51

Any book devoted to the Colonial houses of Philadelphia might perhaps be considered incomplete that failed to include the quaint little two and a half story building at Number 229 Arch Street, with its tiny store on the street floor and dwelling on the floors above. Devoid of all architectural pretension and showing the decay of passing years, it is nevertheless typical of the modest shop and house of its day, and it interests the visitor still more as the home of Betsy Ross, who for many years was popularly supposed to have made the first American flag. Betsy Ross was the widow of John Ross, a nephew of one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, who had conducted an upholsterer's business in the little shop. For a time after his death she supported herself as a lace cleaner and by continuing the business of her husband.

The romantic tradition goes, unsupported by official record, that, Congress having voted in June, 1777, for a flag of thirteen stripes, alternate red and white, with thirteen white stars in a blue field, the committee in charge consulted with Washington, then in Philadelphia, concerning the matter. Knowing Mrs. Ross, Washington led the way to her house and explained their mission. In her little shop under their eyes she cut and stitched together cloths of the three colors we love so well and soon produced the first version of the Stars and Stripes.52

The tale is a pretty one, and it is a pity that it should not be based on some good foundation, especially as the records show that subsequently Betsy Ross did make numerous flags for the government. How the story started is unknown, but none of the historians who have given the matter any attention believe it. John H. Flow in "The True Story of the American Flag" condemns it utterly, and the United States Government refused to adopt the Betsy Ross house as a national monument after a thorough investigation. Notwithstanding the facts, however, this ancient little building still continues to be a place of interest to many tourists every year.

CHAPTER IV

The use of natural building materials available on or near the site, when they are suitable or can be made so, always elicits hearty commendation; it gives local color and distinctive character. And so we look with particular admiration at the fine old countryseats of local rock-face and surfaced stone which abound in the neighborhood of Philadelphia, especially at Germantown, finding among them the most homelike and picturesque stone dwellings of the past and the best prototypes for present-day adaptation. Nowhere can one discover better inspiration for rock-face stonework, and nowhere have the architects of to-day more successfully preserved and developed the best local traditions of Colonial times.

Wherein lies the superlative picturesque appeal of the typical ledge stonework of Germantown? As distinguished from surfaced stonework, it possesses that flexibility in use so essential to the many and varied requirements of domestic architecture54 imposed by the personality and mode of living of the owner. In a measure this ready adaptability is due to the irregular lines and rock face of the stone itself, so pleasing in scale, color and texture, and so completely in harmony with the natural landscape. But to a far greater extent it is due to the fact that its predominant lines are horizontal, the line of repose and stability. Ledge stone, long and narrow, laid up in broken range, with the top and bottom beds approximately level, but with end joints as the stone works naturally, has an even more marked horizontal effect than brick, clap-boarded or shingled walls that tends to a surprising degree to simulate the impression of greater breadth of the entire mass.

Such matters as color, surface texture and the bond or pattern formed by the shape of the stones and their arrangement in the wall are the refinements of stonework; the essentials are strength and durability of the stone itself and stability of the wall. And this stability should be apparent as well as actual. The integrity of stonework depends upon its ability to stand alone, and nothing except high-cost surfaced stone is so readily conducive to handsome, honest masonry as the natural ledge stone of greater Philadelphia. A consistent wall should be of sound construction without the aid of mortar, the mission of which is to chink the joints and make the structure weather-tight.55

Many different examples of stonework, both the pointed and unpointed, stand virtually side by side for comparison about Philadelphia. Several methods of pointing have been employed. There is the flush pointing and the ridge or weathered type commonly known as Colonial or "barn" pointing. Of them all, however, a method of laying and pointing generally referred to as the Germantown type has been most widely favored. It lends itself particularly well to the Colonial style of house now so popular, the broad lines of the white pointing bringing the gray stone into pleasing harmony with the white woodwork.

The pointing itself is much like the Colonial or "barn" pointing already referred to,—the wide open joints being filled with mortar brought well to the surface of the stones and smoothed off by the flat of the trowel with little regard to definiteness of line, after which about one-fourth of the width of the pointing is cut sharply away at the bottom so as to leave a sloping weathered edge considerably below the center of the joint. This is sometimes left as cut, in order to preserve a difference in texture, or is gone over with a trowel, either free hand or along a straightedge, to give a more finished appearance or more pronounced horizontal line effect.

Generally gray in effect, a ledge-stone wall provides a delightful neutral background against which trellises of roses, wistaria, honeysuckle and other56 flowering climbers delight the eye, and to which the spreading English ivy clings in the most charming intimacy. White-painted woodwork, however, furnishes its prime embellishment,—doors, windows, porches, dormers and such necessary appurtenances of comfortable living punctuating its various parts with high lights which brighten the effect, balance the form and mass and lend distinctive character. One has but to examine the accompanying illustrations of a few notable homes of the Colonial period to appreciate the undeniable charm of white-painted woodwork in a setting of ledge stone.

In the midst of virgin forest at the end of Livezey's Lane in Germantown on the banks of Wissahickon Creek, stands Glen Fern, more commonly known as the Livezey house, with numerous old buildings near by which in years past were mills, granaries and cooper shops. The house is of typically picturesque ledge-stone construction and interesting arrangement, consisting of three adjoining gable-roof structures in diminishing order, each with a single shed-roof dormer in its roof. It is located on a garden terrace with ledge-stone embankment wall and steps leading up to the door, which originally had seats at each side, while a balcony above was reached by the door in the second story. Two and a half stories high and having a chimney at each end, the main house attracts attention chiefly for its quaint fenestration, with two windows on57 one side of the door and one on the other, the foreshortened twelve-paned windows of the second story placed well up under the eaves, the first-story windows having six-paned upper and nine-paned lower sashes. As usual, there are shutters for the first-and blinds for the second-story windows.

A winding stairway leads upward from a rather small hall. White-paneled wainscots and fireplaces surrounded by dark marble adorn each of the principal rooms, while the great kitchen fireplace, in an inglenook with a window beside a seat large enough to accommodate several persons, was the "courtin' corner" of three generations of the Livezey family.

The old grist mill on Wissahickon Creek, originally a considerable stream, was built by Thomas Shoemaker, and in 1747 conveyed by him to Thomas Livezey, Junior, who operated it the rest of his life and lived at Glen Fern near by. The builder's father, Jacob Shoemaker, who gave the land upon which the Germantown Friends' Meeting House stands at Coulter and Main streets, came to this country with Pastorius in the ship America in 1682 and became sheriff of the town in 1690. Thomas Livezey, the progenitor of the Livezey family, and the great-grandfather of Thomas, Junior, came from England in 1680, and the records show that he served on the first grand jury of the first court held in the province, January 2, 1681.

Thomas Livezey, Junior, the miller, was a public-spirited58 and many-sided man. Something of a wag and given to writing letters in verse, his life also had its more serious side. Besides being one of the founders and a trustee of the Union Schoolhouse of Germantown, now Germantown Academy, he was a justice of the peace and a provincial commissioner in 1765. Being a Friend, he took no part in the struggle for independence, although his provocation was great.

For safety's sake the girls of the family, with the eatables and drinkables, were often locked up in the cellars during the occupancy of Germantown by the British. On one occasion British soldiers came to the house and demanded food, and being told by one of the women that after cooking all day she was too weary to prepare it, one of the soldiers struck off the woman's ear with his sword. An officer appeared presently, however, demanded to know who had done so dastardly a thing and instantly split the culprit's head with his saber.

Livezey cultivated a large farm on the adjoining hillsides, and a dozen bottles of wine from his vineyard, forwarded by his friend Robert Wharton, elicited praise from Benjamin Franklin.

Farmers brought their grain hither for miles around, and the mill prospered. Gradually a large West Indian trade was built up in flour contaminated with garlic and unmarketable in Philadelphia, the ships returning with silk, crêpes and beautiful china,59 so that Livezey's son John became a prominent Philadelphia merchant. Another son, Thomas, continued to run the mill, which about the time of the Civil War was converted to the manufacture of linseed oil. In 1869 the entire property was purchased for Fairmount Park, and Glen Fern is now occupied by the Valley Green Canoe Club, which has restored it under the direction of John Livezey.

Opposite the famous Chew house on Germantown Avenue, amid a luxurious setting of splendid trees, clinging ivy and box-bordered gardens, stands Upsala, one of the finest examples of the Colonial architecture of Philadelphia. A great, square two and a half story house with a gable roof, three handsome dormers in front, a goodly sized chimney toward either end, and an L in the rear, it speaks eloquently of substantial comfort. Like many houses of the time and place, the façade is of faced stone carefully pointed, while the other walls are of exceptionally pleasing ledge stone, the two kinds of masonry being quoined together at the corners.

The pointing of the stonework is a very informal variation of the modern Germantown type,—flat-trowel pointed with little regard to definiteness of line. The wide joints are more appropriate in scale and taste than the ridge or weathered type, in that they harmonize better with the generally broad effect of the house and the white-painted wood trim of numerous windows and doors.60

Keyed lintels and window sills of marble accentuate the fenestration, and the façade is further enriched by a handsome cornice and marble belt at the second-floor level. Four marble steps give approach to the high, pedimental porch before a door of delightful grace and dignity. As was often the case, there are white-painted shutters at the lower windows and green-painted blinds at the upper.

The gable ends of the house are interesting in their fenestration, with a fanlight of delightful pattern above and between two ordinary windows; one notices with interest that the returns of the eaves are carried entirely across the ends of the house from front to back, after the manner of the characteristic penthouse roof.

Within, a broad hall extends through the house, an archway at the foot of the winding staircase being its most striking feature. Two rooms on each side contain handsome mantels, paneled wainscots and other beautiful wood finish.

As indicated by the date stone in one of the gables, Upsala was begun in 1798 by John Johnson, Junior, who inherited the land from his grandfather, also named John Johnson, and was some three years in the building. It is located near the corner of Upsal Street on part of a tract of land that originally extended from Germantown Avenue, then Germantown Road, to the township line at Wissahickon Avenue. The house stands on the spot61 where the Fortieth Regiment of the British Army was encamped, and where later General Maxwell's cannon were planted to assail the Chew house at the Battle of Germantown. It has been successively occupied by Norton Johnson, Doctor William N. Johnson and Miss Sallie W. Johnson, all descendants of the builder.

Like Upsala, Grumblethorpe, at Number 526 Main Street, Germantown, opposite Indian Queen Lane, displays ledge-stone walls except for its façade, which is plastered, and it has the same returns of the eaves like a penthouse roof across the gables. This large two and a half story house stands directly on the sidewalk and has areaways at the sunken basement windows like many modern houses. A sturdy chimney at either end and two dormers with segmental topped windows are the features of the roof. The high recessed doorway, with its broad marble lower step in the brick sidewalk, is located so that there are three windows to the left and only two to the right. An interesting feature of the fenestration is the use of wide twelve-paned windows on the first story and of narrower and higher eighteen-paned windows on the second. Again there are shutters on the lower story and blinds above. This variation in the windows of different stories is by no means an uncommon feature of Philadelphia houses, and, as in this instance, often came about as the result of alterations.62

Grumblethorpe was built in 1744 by John Wister, who came to Philadelphia from Germany in 1727 and developed a large business in cultivating blackberries, making and importing wine in Market Street west of Third. "Wister's Big House" was the first countryseat in Germantown. Originally it differed materially from its present outward appearance. There were no dormers, and the garret was lighted only at the ends. Across the front and sides of the house the second-floor level was marked by a penthouse roof, broken over the entrance by a balcony reached by a door from the second story. To the right of the entrance there were two windows, as at present; to the left there was a smaller door with a window at each side of it. Both doors were divided into upper and lower sections and had side-long seats outside. In the course of repairs and alterations in 1808 the penthouse roof and balcony, also the front seats, were removed, the upper and smaller lower doors were replaced by windows, and the front of the house was pebble dashed.

A long wing extends back from the main house, and beyond is a workshop with many old tools and a numerous collection of interesting clocks in various stages of completion. Still farther back is an observatory with its telescope, also a box-bordered formal garden in which still stands a quaint rain gauge. Indoors, the hall and principal rooms are spacious but low studded, with simple white-painted 63 woodwork, and in the kitchen a primitive crane supporting ancient iron pots still remains in the great fireplace. Much fine old furniture, many rare books and numerous curios enhance the interest and beauty of the interiors.

Many men illustrious in art, science and literature shared Wister's hospitality. His frequent visitors included Gilbert Stuart, the artist; Christopher Sower, one of the most versatile men in the colonies; Thomas Say, the eminent entomologist and president of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences; Parker Cleveland, author of the first book on American mineralogy; James Nichol, the celebrated geologist and writer, and many other famous personages. Quite as many unknown persons came to Grumblethorpe, however, for bread was baked every Saturday for distribution to the poor.

During the Battle of Germantown, Grumblethorpe was the headquarters of General Agnew of the British Army, and in the northwest parlor he died of wounds, staining the floor with his blood, the marks of which are still visible. In the same room Major Lenox, who occupied the house in 1779, was married. Major Lenox was at various times marshal of the United States for the District of Pennsylvania, director and president of the United States Bank, and the representative of the United States at the Court of St. James.

John Wister's eldest son, Daniel, a prosperous 64 merchant, inherited the property, and it was his daughter who wrote Sally Wister's well-known and charming "Journal", the original manuscript of which is among the many treasures of this charming old house.

It was Daniel Wister's son, Charles J. Wister, who built the observatory and developed the beautiful formal garden back of the house. Upon retiring from business in 1819 he devoted himself to science, notably botany and mineralogy, upon which subjects he lectured at the Germantown Academy, of which he was secretary of the board of trustees for thirty years.

In 1865 the place came into the hands of Charles J. Wister, Junior, an artist, writer and Friend of high repute, who, like his father, was for many years identified with Germantown Academy. On his death in 1910 Grumblethorpe was shared by his nephews, Owen Wister, the novelist, and Alexander W. Wister, neither of whom resides there.

One of the noblest old ledge-stone mansions of the vicinity is The Woodlands, located on high ground along the bank of the Schuylkill River in Blockley Township, West Philadelphia. It was formerly the countryseat of the Hamilton family, from which a district of West Philadelphia east of Fortieth Street and south of Market Street took the name of Hamilton Village. Many years ago the grounds of The Woodlands became a cemetery, 65 and the house is now occupied by the superintendent and contains the cemetery offices. While the gay society of a century and a quarter ago is lacking the place still retains much of its former beauty and state.

Of essentially Georgian character, the house is still more strongly reminiscent of many plantation mansions of the South. It has an entrance front to the north and a river or garden front to the south, while the kitchen arrangements are well concealed. Between two semicircular bays that project from the ends of the building on the entrance front, six Ionic pilasters support a broad and elaborately ornamented pediment, its chief features being the notching of the shingles, the circular window and the frieze with groups of vertical flutings in alternation with large round flower ornaments. A broad paved terrace three steps above the drive extends across the front from one bay to the other and gives approach to a round-arched central doorway with handsome leaded fanlight beneath a segmental hood supported by round engaged Ionic columns. This doorway leads into the hall.

On the river front a lofty pedimental-roofed portico centrally located and supported by six great smooth pillars is of distinctly southern aspect. Another round-arched doorway flanked by two round-topped windows opens directly into an66 oval-shaped ballroom. The beautiful Palladian windows on either side of this façade and recessed within an arch in the masonry are among the chief distinctions of the house. An examination of them indicates as convincingly as any modern work the delightful accord that may exist between gray stone and white woodwork, and draws attention to the masonry itself. The use of relatively small stones has resulted in an unconventional though pleasing wall effect, due to the prominence and rough character of the pointing which has been brought well out to the edges of the stones.

A word may well be said in passing in regard to the stable at The Woodlands, which, while rightly unassuming, lives in complete accord with the house, as every outbuilding should. A hip-roofed structure with lean-to wings, it is essentially a Georgian conception. Its walls are of ledge stone like the house, broken by a symmetrical arrangement of recessed arches in which the various doors and windows are set, and further embellished by a four-course belt of brick at the second-floor level.

The Woodlands was built in 1770 by William Hamilton on an estate purchased in 1735 by his grandfather, Andrew Hamilton, the first of that name in America. It is the second house on the site, the first having made way for the present spacious structure which was designed to give expression67 to the tastes and desires of its builder. William Hamilton was one of the wealthiest men of his day and loved display and the rôle of a lavish host. Maintaining a large retinue of servants and living in a style surpassing that of most of his neighbors, his dinner parties and other social gatherings were attended by the most eminent personages of the time. A man of culture and refinement, he accumulated many valuable paintings and rare books, and his gardens, greenhouse and grounds were his particular pride and joy. To a large collection of native American plants and shrubs he added many exotic trees and plants. To him is credited the introduction of the Ginkgo tree and the Lombardy poplar to America.

William Hamilton was a nephew of Governor James Hamilton, by whose permission, granted to William Hallam and his Old American Company of strolling players, the drama was established in Philadelphia in 1754, despite the strong opposition of the Friends. William Hamilton raised a regiment in his neighborhood to assist in the Revolution, but being opposed to a complete break with the mother country, resigned his commission upon the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Following the evacuation of Philadelphia by the British he was arrested, charged with assisting the British forces and tried for high treason, but was acquitted and allowed to retain possession of 68 his estates, which were duly inherited by his family on his death in 1811.

These charming old ledge-stone mansions, and others of lesser architectural merit and historical association, too numerous for description here, constitute the chief distinction of Philadelphia architecture. Whereas the city residences of brick differ little from those of several other not far distant places, and the country houses of that material recall many similar ones in Delaware, Maryland and even Virginia, the ledge-stone house of greater Philadelphia is a thing unto itself. It has no parallel in America. Of substantial character and possessed of rare local color, it combines with picturesque appearance those highly desirable qualities of permanence and non-inflammability. It is the ideal construction for suburban Philadelphia where the necessary building material abounds and new homes can live in accord with the old.

CHAPTER V

It is quite possible to preserve random shapes and rock faces in stonework that is structurally good, yet still fail in a measure to please the eye and satisfy the artistic sense. A house built of stones which, although irregular and of variable size, are generally cubical in shape and set with obvious painstaking to simulate a casual yet remarkably systematic arrangement, never fails to be clumsy and patchy. A case in point is Waynesborough in Easttown Township, Chester County, erected in 1724 by Captain Isaac Wayne. Greame Park, erected in Horsham Township, Montgomery County, by Sir William Keith five years after he was appointed governor of Penn's Colony in 1717, instances another unsuccessful use of stonework and effectively explodes the pet notion of the indiscriminate that everything which is old is therefore good. The promiscuous use of rough, long, quarried stones, square blocks and narrow strips on end results in an utterly irrational effect, a confusing medley of short lines.70

Going to the other extreme, the use of stones so small and irregular as to suggest a "crazy-quilt" mosaic rather than structural stonework is equally displeasing. This scheme unquestionably lends texture to the wall, but it attracts too much attention to itself to the detriment of such architectural features as doors, windows and other wood trim intended to provide suitable embellishment as well as to fulfill the practical requirements of daily use. Inasmuch as rubble used in this manner becomes merely an aggregate in a concrete wall, the consistent thing to do is to consider it as such and give the wall an outside finish or veneer of rough plaster. This fact was recognized and often acted upon by the early Philadelphia builders wherever the stone readily available did not make an attractive wall. A few of the best examples extant serve to indicate that houses of this sort have all the charm of the modern stucco structure built over hollow tile.

Perhaps the most picturesque of the old houses of this type is Wyck at Germantown Avenue and Walnut Lane, Germantown, a long, rambling structure of rubble masonry with an outside veneer of rough white plaster standing end to the street. Although Colonial in detail and partaking to a degree of the general character of its neighbors, the ensemble presents a rare blending of European influences with American construction. Vine-clad trellises on the entrance front, a long arbor on the71 garden front, box-bordered flower beds and a profusion of shade trees and shrubs all help to compose a picture of rare charm in which leading American architects have often found inspiration for modern work.

Wyck is probably the oldest building in Germantown and certainly quaint of appearance, considering its age, for it has been preserved as nearly as possible in its early condition. The oldest part was built about 1690 by Hans Millan. Later another house was built near by on the opposite side of an old Indian trail, and subsequently the two were joined together, a wide, brick-paved wagon way running beneath the connecting structure. This passage has since been closed in to form a spacious hallway with wide double doors and a long transom above, the outer doors being wood paneled and the inner ones glazed.

Of romantic interest is the use of this great hall of Wyck as a hospital and operating room after the Battle of Germantown, and later, in 1825, as the scene of a reception tendered to La Fayette, following his breakfast at Cliveden, when the townspeople were presented to him by Charles J. Wister. The doorway to the right, with its molded jambs, plain, four-paned transom and paneled door divided in the middle like many of the neighborhood, is of the most modest order, yet its simple lines and good proportions, together with the green of the72 climbing vines about it, in contrast with the white plaster walls, makes a strong appeal to everybody of artistic appreciation. The position of the knob indicates the size of the great rim lock within, while the graceful design of the brass knocker is justly one of the most popular to-day.

Wyck has never been sold, but has passed from one owner to another by inheritance through the Jansen and Wistar families to the Haines family, in which it has since remained. One of its owners, Caspar Wistar, in 1740 established the first glassworks in America at Salem, New Jersey.

The most notable house of plastered stone masonry, and one of the noblest countryseats in the vicinity of Philadelphia, is Clunie, later and better known as Mount Pleasant, located in the Northern Liberties, Fairmount Park, on the east bank of the Schuylkill River only a little north of the Girard Avenue bridge. To see it is to appreciate more fully the princely mode of country living in which some of the most distinguished citizens of the early metropolis of the colonies indulged.

Standing on high ground and commanding broad views both up and down the stream, the house is of truly baronial mien and Georgian character. Two flanking outbuildings, two and a half stories high, hip-roofed and dormered, some forty feet from each end of the main house and corresponding with it in character and construction, provide the73 servants' quarters and various domestic offices. Beyond the circle formed by the drive on the east or entrance front of the house and at some distance to either side are two barns. Thus the house becomes the central feature in a strikingly picturesque group of buildings having all the manorial impressiveness of the old Virginia mansions along the James River.

The main house rises two and a half stories above a high foundation of hewn stone with iron-barred basement windows set in stone frames. It is of massive rubble-stone masonry, coated with yellowish-gray rough-cast and having heavy quoined corners of red brick, also a horizontal belt of the same material at the second-floor level, the keyed lintels of the large ranging windows, however, being of faced stone.

Above a heavy cornice with prominent modillions springs the hipped roof, pierced on both sides by two handsome dormers and surmounted by a long, beautifully balustraded belvedere. Two great brick chimney stacks, one at each end of the building, with four arched openings near the top, lend an aspect of added dignity and solidity. The principal feature of the façade on both the east and west or river front is the slightly projecting central portion with its quoined corners, surmounting corniced pediment springing from the eaves, ornate Palladian windows in the second story and superb pedimental doorway in harmony with the pedimental motive74 above. Although the detail is heavy, and free use has been made of the orders, the work is American Georgian at its best and altogether admirable. The doorways of the two sides are similar but not the same, and a comparison, as found in another chapter, is most interesting.

Within, a broad hall extends entirely through the house from one front to the other, as likewise does a spacious drawing-room on the north side with an elaborate chimney piece in the middle of the outside wall. The dining room occupies the west front, and back of it, in an L extension from the hall, a handsome staircase with gracefully turned balustrade leads to the bedrooms on the second floor. Throughout the interior the wood finish is worthy of the exterior trim. Beautifully tooled cornices, graceful pilasters, nicely molded door and window casings, heavy pedimental doorheads,—all are of excellent design and more carefully wrought than in average Colonial work. Finest of all, perhaps, is a chamber on the second floor overlooking the river that must, according to the very nature of things, have been the boudoir of the mistress of Mount Pleasant. The architectural treatment of the fireplace end of this room, with exquisite carving above the overmantel panel and above the closet doors at each side, is greatly admired by all who see it.

The erection of Mount Pleasant was begun late in 1761 by John Macpherson, a sea captain of75 Clunie, Scotland, who amassed a fortune and lost an arm in the adventurous practice of privateering. Here he lived in manorial splendor, entertaining the most eminent personages of the day with munificent hospitality and employing himself with numerous ingenious inventions, notably a practical device for moving brick and stone houses intact. He wrote on moral philosophy, lectured on astronomy and published the first city directory in 1785, a unique volume giving the names in direct house-to-house sequence and having such notations as, "I won't tell you", "What you please", and "Cross woman" against street numbers where he found the occupants suspicious or unresponsive to his queries.

Meeting reverses in some of his financial affairs and longing for further adventures at sea, Macpherson sought the chief command of the American Navy at the outbreak of the Revolution. This being denied him he leased Mount Pleasant to Don Juan de Merailles, the Spanish ambassador. But to be near General Washington, Merailles had to remove to Morristown and there he soon died.

In the spring of 1779 Macpherson sold Mount Pleasant to General Benedict Arnold, of unhappy memory, whose remarkable and traitorous career is known to every American. Arnold had been placed in command of Philadelphia by Washington, following its evacuation by the British, and in acquiring the most palatial countryseat in the vicinity76 he gratified his fondness for display and apparently saw in it a means of retaining or increasing his influence and power. It was his marriage gift to his bride, Peggy Shippen, the daughter of Edward Shippen, a moderate Loyalist, who eventually became reconciled to the new order and was chief justice of the State from 1799 to 1805. At Mount Pleasant Arnold and his wife remained for more than a year, living extravagantly and entertaining lavishly. Arnold's financial embarrassments and bitter contentions with persistent enemies became ever more deeply involved. Here in bitterness, and not without some provocation, he conceived the dastardly plan of obtaining from Washington command of West Point, the key to the Hudson River Valley, in order that he might betray it to the British.

Following the discovery of the plot and Arnold's flight to the British lines, his property was confiscated, and Mount Pleasant was leased for a short period to Baron von Steuben, after which it passed through several hands to General Jonathan Williams, of Boston, in whose family the place remained until the middle of the nineteenth century, when it was acquired by the city as a part of Fairmount Park.

At Number 5442 Germantown Avenue, standing directly on the sidewalk as was often the case, and with a beautiful box-bordered garden of old-fashioned flowers about one hundred by four hundred feet along the south end, is one of the most interesting77 old plastered houses in Philadelphia. Well known in history, it is no less notable architecturally. In general arrangement it differs little from numerous other gable-roof structures of the vicinity, two and a half stories high with chimneys at each end and handsome pedimental dormers with round-topped windows between. It is in the excellent detail and nice proportion of the wood trim, both without and within, that this house excels. Interest focuses upon the deeply recessed doorway with its sturdy Tuscan columns and pediment, and the great, attractively paneled door. The fenestration is admirable with twenty-four-paned windows set in handsome frames with architrave casings and beautifully molded sills, the lower windows having shutters and the upper ones blinds. A notable feature is the heavy cornice with large modillions, and beneath a relatively fine-scale, double denticulated molding or Grecian fret.

Within, a wide hall extends through the middle of the house, widening at the back where a handsome winding staircase with landings ascends to the floor above. Opposite the staircase is a breakfast room overlooking the garden. The parlor and dining room on opposite sides of the hall, the bedrooms above and also the halls all have beautifully paneled wainscots. There are handsome chimney pieces in each room with dark Pennsylvania marble facings about the fireplaces and ornamental panels78 so nicely made that no joints are visible. Throughout the house the woodwork is of unusual beauty and unexcelled in workmanship.

The house was built in 1772 by David Deschler, a wealthy West India merchant, the son of an aide-de-camp to the reigning Prince of Baden, and Margaret, a sister of John Wister and Caspar Wistar. After the retreat of the American forces at the conclusion of the Battle of Germantown, Sir William Howe, the British commander, moved his headquarters from Stenton to the Deschler house. While there he is said to have been visited by Prince William Henry, then a midshipman in the Royal Navy, but afterward King William IV of England.

Upon Deschler's death in 1792 the house was bought by Colonel Isaac Franks, a New Yorker who had served his country well in the Continental Army and filled several civil commissions after the conclusion of peace with England. He it was who rented the house to Washington for a short period in the early winter of 1793 and again for six weeks in the following summer because of the yellow fever epidemic in Philadelphia. Here met the President's cabinet—Jefferson, Hamilton, Knox and Randolph—to discuss the President's message to Congress and the difficulties with England, France and Spain. Aside from Mount Vernon, it is the only dwelling now standing in which Washington lived for any considerable time.

In 1804 the property was purchased by Elliston and John Perot, two Frenchmen who conducted a prosperous mercantile business in Philadelphia. On the death of the former in 1834, the place was purchased by his son-in-law, Samuel B. Morris, of the shipping firm of Waln and Morris, in whose family it has since remained. The interiors remain as in Washington's time, and much of the furniture, silver and china used by him are still preserved, together with his letter thanking Captain Samuel Morris for the valuable services of the First City Troop during the Revolution.

Although not erected until a few years after the treaty of peace following the Revolution, Vernon is so thoroughly Colonial in architecture and of such merit as to warrant mention here. It stands in extensive grounds on the west side of Germantown Avenue, Germantown, above Chelton Avenue. The main house is a hip-roofed structure two and a half stories in height of rubble masonry, the front being plastered and lined off to simulate dressed stone and the other walls being pebble dashed. A wing in the rear connects the main house with a semi-detached gable-roof structure in which were located the kitchen and servants' rooms. The principal features of the symmetrical façade with its ranging twelve-paned windows, shuttered on the lower story, are the central pediment with exquisite fanlight between flanking chimneys and handsomely80 detailed dormers, and a splendid doorway alluded to later in these pages. A fine-scale denticulated molding in the cornice, repeated elsewhere in the exterior wood trim, lends an air of exceptional richness and refinement.

Vernon was built in 1803 by James Matthews, a whipmaker of the firm of McAllister and Matthews. In 1812 it was purchased by John Wistar, son of Daniel Wistar, and a member of the countinghouse of his uncle, William Wistar. Upon his uncle's death he conducted the business with his brother Charles and became well known in mercantile circles and prominent in the Society of Friends. A bronze statue of him in Quaker garb has been erected in front of the house. Some years after his death in 1862 the place passed under the control of the city for a park and was occupied for a time by the Free Library. Since the erection of a building near by for this latter purpose, it has housed the museum of the Site and Relic Society, and contains much of interest to the student of early Germantown.

Another house in the Colonial spirit erected shortly after the close of the Revolution is Loudoun, at Germantown Avenue and Apsley Street, Germantown, its grounds embracing the summit of Neglee's Hill. The house is two and a half stories high with additions which have somewhat altered its original appearance; it has a gambrel roof, hipped at one end after the Mansard manner with excellent81 dormers on both the front and end just mentioned. Its plastered rubble masonry walls are clothed with clinging ivy. The architectural interest centers chiefly in the fenestration and the pillared portico reminiscent of plantation mansions farther south. This portico, with its simple pediment and wooden columns surmounted by pleasingly unusual capitals of acanthus-leaf motive, was added some thirty years after the house was erected. The great twenty-four-paned ranging windows have heavy paneled shutters on the first floor and blinds on the second. Tall, slender, engaged columns supporting a nicely detailed entablature frame a typical Philadelphia doorway, the paneled door itself being single with a handsome leaded fanlight above.

Loudoun was built in 1801 by Thomas Armat as a countryseat for his son, Thomas Wright Armat. The elder Armat originally settled in Loudoun County, Virginia, and hence the name of the estate. Coming to Philadelphia about the time of the Revolution, his family moved to Germantown during the yellow fever epidemic of 1793 and found it such a pleasing place of residence that the building of Loudoun some years later came as a natural consequence. It stands at the very outskirts of Germantown, now the twenty-second ward of Philadelphia, where Germantown Avenue starts its winding course toward Chestnut Hill. At the original lottery distribution of the land of the Frankford82 Company in the cave of Francis Daniel Pastorius, there being no permanent houses at that time, the site fell to Thomas Kunders, in whose house at Number 5109 Germantown Avenue the first meeting of Friends was held in Germantown. After the Battle of Germantown the hill was used as a hospital, and many dead were buried there. From 1820 to 1835 Loudoun was rented to Madam Greland as a summer school for young women, and it was during this period, probably about 1830, that the pillared portico was added.

A successful Philadelphia merchant and well-known philanthropist, Thomas Armat, gave the site for St. Luke's Church in Germantown and assisted in its erection, also setting aside a chamber at Loudoun which was known as the minister's room. He was among the first to suggest the use of coal for heating, and one of the early patentees of a hay scales. Armat's daughter married Gustavus Logan, great-great-grandson of James Logan and grandson of John Dickinson, whose "Farmer's Letters", addressed to the people of England, are said to have brought about the repeal of the Stamp Act. Loudoun still remains in the Logan family.

No stranger house can be found in all Philadelphia than Solitude on the west bank of the Schuylkill in Blockley Township, Fairmount Park. It is a boxlike structure of plastered rubble masonry twenty-six feet square and two and a half stories high, with83 a hip roof having simple pedimental dormers and two oppositely disposed chimneys. The wood trim is severely simple throughout, from the heavy molded cornice under the eaves to the pedimental recessed doorway with its Ionic columns and entablature. Two slightly projecting courses of brick, one some ten inches or so above the other, form an unusual belt at the second-floor level, while a distinctive feature of the fenestration is seen in the fact that most of the windows have nine-paned upper and six-paned lower sashes.

Within, the entrance doorway leads into a hall some nine feet wide and extending entirely across the house from side to side. The remainder of the first floor consists of a large parlor with windows opening on a portico overlooking the river. A beautiful stucco cornice and ceiling and a carved wood surbase are its best features. In one corner a staircase with wrought-iron railing rises to the second floor, where there is a library about fifteen feet square with built-in bookcases, two connecting bedrooms, one with an alcove and secret door where the owner might shut himself away from intrusive visitors, and a staircase leading to more bedrooms on the third floor. The cellar is deep and roomy, with provision for wine storage, and an underground passage communicates with the kitchen located in a separate building about twenty-five feet distant.

Solitude was built in 1785 by John Penn, a grandson84 of William Penn, the founder of Philadelphia, and a son of Thomas Penn, whose wife was a daughter of the Earl of Pomfret. A much traveled, scholarly man, poet, idealist and art patron, he came to Philadelphia in 1783 to look after proprietary interests in Pennsylvania and intending to become an American. But his claims were made under hereditary rights, and as the State was not disposed to honor them he concluded to remain an Englishman. Vexed with the perversity of human nature, he built Solitude and named it for a lodge belonging to the Duke of Württemburg. There he lived somewhat the life of a recluse with his books and trees for three years. He was on friendly terms with his neighbors, however, who included his cousin, Governor John Penn, and Judge Richard Peters. Gay week-end parties also came in boats to enjoy his hospitality, and Washington once spent a day with him during the sitting of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia.

In 1788 Penn suddenly returned to England, built a handsome residence at Stoke and embarked on a notable career in public life, becoming sheriff of Bucks in 1798, a member of Parliament in 1802, and royal governor of the island of Portland in Dorset for many years after 1805. The University of Cambridge made him an LL.D. in 1811, and he won promotion to a lieutenant-colonelcy in the Royal Bucks Yeomanry. Later in his declining85 years he formed the Outinian Society to encourage young men and women to marry, although he inconsistently died a bachelor in 1834.

Solitude then passed by inheritance to Penn's youngest brother, Granville, and on his death ten years later to a nephew, Granville John Penn, great-grandson of William Penn, and the last Penn at Solitude. Coming to Philadelphia in middle life about 1851 he was lionized by society and in acknowledgment gave a grand "Fête Champêtre" and collation. Following his death in 1867, Solitude and its grounds were made part of Fairmount Park, and after several years without tenancy the house in its original condition was made the administration building of the Zoölogical Society.

The fine old plastered stone houses of Philadelphia comprise one of the distinctive and most admired types of its Colonial architecture. Those with pebble-dashed walls which seek to simulate no other building material or form of construction possess the added charm of frank sincerity. Fire-proof in character, pleasing in appearance, and readily adaptable to varied home requirements, they point the way wherever rubble stone incapable of forming an attractive wall is cheaply available. Many modern dwellings in the Colonial spirit are being built in this manner.86

CHAPTER VI

Cost was not an object in building many of the larger old countryseats about Philadelphia, for their owners were men of wealth and station, prominent in the affairs of the province and sharing its prosperity. Influenced by the builders of the Georgian period in England, and often under their personal supervision, the buildings on numerous great estates about the early metropolis of the American colonies were constructed of quarried stone, whether sawed in the form of "brick" stone or hammered to a relatively smooth surface.

Surfaced stone, however, especially when cut into rectangular blocks, is to be recommended only for public work or for very large and pretentious residences of formal character and arrangement. In small buildings, and unless handled with skill and discretion in larger work, its psychological effect upon the mind is that of uncompromising and somewhat repellent austerity; it suggests the prison-like palace rather than the domestic atmosphere of a true home,—an atmosphere to be had in stone only by preserving the greater spontaneity of 87irregular shapes and rock faces characteristic of Germantown ledge stone.

That the early builders of this vicinity were skilled stone masons and employed this form of building construction with sympathy and intelligence is indicated by the splendid old mansions that still remain as monuments to their genius,—stately, elegant, enduring, yet withal pleasing, comfortable and eminently livable. The use of "brick" stone for several of them has given a lighter scale, and by repetition of many closely related and prominent horizontals has simulated a greater breadth of façade and a lesser total height, both beneficial to the general appearance. As in ordinary brickwork, the vertical pointing is as wide as the horizontal, but the joints break, whereas the course lines are continuous, thus emphasizing the horizontals of light mortar.

Unquestionably the most notable mansion of hewn stone in Greater Philadelphia is Cliveden, the countryseat of the Chew family, located in extensive grounds at Germantown Avenue and Johnson streets, Germantown. One of the most substantial and elaborate residences of that day, it is two and a half stories in height and built of heavy masonry, the front illustrating well the pleasing use of surfaced Germantown stone, flush pointed, the other walls being of rubble masonry, plastered and marked off to simulate dressed stone.88 Two wings, one semi-detached and the other entirely so, extend back from the main house and contain the kitchen, servants' quarters and laundry. The classic front entrance opens into a large hall with small rooms on each side which were originally used as offices. Beyond and above are many spacious rooms with excellent woodwork and handsome chimney pieces.

No handsomer Colonial façade is to be found in America. Classic in feeling and symmetrical in arrangement, it is excellently detailed in every particular. Above a slightly projecting water table the repeated horizontals of the limestone belt at the second-floor level, the heavy cornice with prominent modillions and the roof line impart a feeling of repose and stability quite apart from the character of the building material itself. The ranging windows, shuttered on the lower floor, are distinguished by their keyed limestone lintels and twelve-paned upper and lower sashes, while the roof is elaborated by two great chimney stacks, a like number of well-designed dormers with round-topped windows, and five handsome stone urns mounted on brick piers at the corners and over the entrance. The central portion of the façade projects slightly under a pediment in harmony with the splendid Doric doorway beneath, of which more elsewhere.

Cliveden was erected in 1761 by Benjamin Chew, a friend of Washington and a descendant of one of 89 the oldest and most distinguished Virginia families, his great-grandfather, John Chew, having settled at James Citie about 1621, and, like Benjamin Chew's grandfather and father, who resided in Maryland, having been prominent in the courts and public affairs generally. Benjamin Chew studied law with Andrew Hamilton, and at the age of nineteen entered the Middle Temple, London, the same year as Sir William Blackstone. Removing to Philadelphia in 1754, he was provincial counselor in 1755, attorney general from 1755 to 1764, recorder of the city from 1755 to 1774, a member of the Pennsylvania-Maryland Boundary Commission in 1761, register general of the province in 1765, and in 1774 succeeded William Allen as chief justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. Following the Revolution he served as a judge and president of the High Court of Errours and Appeals until it was abolished in 1808.

Justice Chew was brought up a Quaker and his attitude coincided with that of many others who manifested sympathy for the American cause, yet hesitated at complete independence. In defining high treason to the April Grand Jury of 1776, the last held under the Crown, he stated that "an opposition by force of arms to the lawful authority of the King or his Ministry is high treason, but in the moment when the King, or his Ministers, shall exceed the authority vested in them by the 90 Constitution, submission to their mandate becomes treason." It is not surprising, therefore, that in August, 1777, Judge Chew and John Penn, the late proprietary, were arrested by the City Troop and on refusing parole were imprisoned at the Union Iron Works until sometime in 1778.

With fourteen attractive and accomplished children, two sons and twelve daughters, things were always lively at Cliveden, and it was the scene of lavish entertainment of Washington, Adams and other members of the first Continental Congress. Around its classic doorway the Battle of Germantown raged most fiercely. The house had been occupied by the British under Colonel Musgrave, the Chew family being away at the time; and so effective a fortress did it prove that the center of Washington's advance was checked and the day lost to the American arms. Great damage was done inside and out by cannon balls, some of it being still visible, although several workmen spent the entire following winter putting the house in order. During his triumphal farewell tour of the twenty-four American States in 1825, a breakfast was tendered to La Fayette at Cliveden on the day of his reception at Wyck.

In 1779, Justice Chew sold Cliveden to Blair McClenahan, a director of the Bank of Pennsylvania, for nine thousand dollars, but bought it back again in 1787 for twenty-five thousand dollars.91 Since that time it has remained in the family and is still occupied part of the year. Chew's Woods, formerly part of the estate, have been presented to the city as a public park, but the stable behind the house, and connected with it by an underground passage, still remains much as ever; and therein reposes the curious old family coach.

Second only to Cliveden in architectural interest is The Highlands, located on the Skippack Pike overlooking the Whitemarsh Valley from a lofty site among giant old oaks, pines and sycamores. It is a splendid example of American architecture after the late Georgian manner, and although not built until after the Revolution, its character is such that it deserves to be included among the Colonial houses of the vicinity. The south or entrance front is built of squared and nicely surfaced stones laid up with joints breaking much like brickwork, the pointing being of the ridge or weathered type. The sides are of ordinary rubble but plastered and lined off to simulate hewn stone. The central section of the façade projects slightly, two Ionic pilasters of white marble supporting a pediment within which a semicircular fanlight ventilates and lights the attic. Marble belts at the first-and second-floor levels, marble window sills and keystones in the lintels relieve and brighten the effect, while an unusual diamond fret lends distinction to the cornice. The windows have six-paned upper and lower sashes92 with blinds on all stories, as in the case of most of the later Colonial houses. Ornamental wrought-iron fire balconies at the second-story windows are a picturesque feature. The entrance porch, one of the few of consequence in Philadelphia, is characterized by its chaste simplicity, the fine-scale reeded columns and wrought-iron balustrade of the marble steps being its chief features. But for the double doors characteristic of Philadelphia, the doorway itself, of excellent proportions and having a handsome elliptical fanlight and side lights with leaded glass, would suggest Salem design.

Within, a great hall extends through the house to a wide cross hall at the rear, where a broad and handsome staircase with wing flights above a gallery landing is located. A beautiful Palladian window in the west end of the house lights this landing and the entire cross hall. Much excellent woodwork adorns the spacious rooms, but the splendid Adam mantels with their delicate applied stucco designs were long ago replaced by less pleasing creations of black marble.

The Highlands was completed in 1796 by Anthony Morris, son of Captain Samuel Morris, and a friend of Jefferson, Monroe and Madison, and was some two years in the building. Morris was admitted to the bar in 1787 and soon went into politics, later engaging extensively in the East India trade. Representing the city of Philadelphia in the State Senate,93 he was in 1793, at the age of twenty-seven, elected speaker, succeeding Samuel Powel. In this capacity he signed a bill providing for troops to suppress the Whiskey Rebellion, for which act he was disowned by the Friends' Meeting of which he was a member. Dolly Madison makes friendly references to Morris in her memoirs and letters, and for nearly two years during Madison's administration Morris represented the United States at the Court of Spain. Through his efforts an adjustment was effected in the boundary dispute over the Florida cession.

In 1808 Morris sold The Highlands to one Hitner, who conveyed it in 1813 to George Sheaff, in whose family it has since remained.

Nothing quite like Bartram House is to be found anywhere in America. Situated on the Schuylkill River at Kingsessing, West Philadelphia, just to the south of what was once the lower or Gray's Ferry, this curious structure was begun in 1730, and the main part of it was completed the following year, as indicated by a stone in one of the gables bearing the inscription in Greek, "May God save", followed in English by "John and Ann Bartram, 1731." Successive additions and alterations have changed the inside arrangement more than the exterior appearance, and it can hardly be said that the house now has any particular floor plan. Probably the latest important changes were made when94 a stone bearing the following inscription was placed over the study window:

In outward appearance Bartram House is a simple gable-roof structure two and a half stories in height, of large, roughly hewn stones with east and west fronts and three dormers lighting the attic. The east or entrance front has a characteristic trellis-shaded doorway with quaint Dutch seats at each side, while the west front has an odd, recessed porch between rude Ionic columns of native stone, the same as the walls and built up like them. Crudely chiseled, elaborately ornamental window casings, lintels and sills form a curious feature of this façade. Clothed as it is with clinging ivy and climbing roses, the house suggests an effect of both stateliness and rusticity.

Bartram was a farmer, but his interest in plants, shrubs and trees was such that he became one of the greatest botanists of his day. In autumn, when his farm labors were finished for the year, he journeyed extensively about the colonies, gathering specimens with which to beautify his grounds. His greatest enjoyment in life was to make his collection of rare species ever more complete, and his remarkable accomplishments in this direction,95 despite many handicaps, entitle him to be known as the father of American botanists. After Bartram's death his son William, also an eminent botanist, carried on the work, and later his son-in-law, Colonel Carr, did likewise until the place became one of the most interesting botanical gardens in the country. In 1851 the estate was purchased by Andrew Eastwick, a railway builder just returned from an extended commission in Russia, who erected a large residence in another part of the grounds. In 1893 the city bought Bartram House and its immediate grounds and in 1897 acquired the balance of the estate, the whole being converted into a public park and the old house being furnished and put in excellent condition by the descendants of the Bartram family.

Undoubtedly the most notable instance of the use of "brick" stone with the so-called Colonial or "barn" pointing is the Johnson house at Number 6306 Germantown Avenue, Germantown. Typical of the first homes that lined the street of this historic old town for nearly two miles, it is solidly built of dark native ledge stone, the front being of dressed rectangular blocks considerably smaller, somewhat rougher and hence less formal than the surfaced blocks of Cliveden, for example. It is a single gable-roofed structure two and a half stories high with ranging windows throughout, a large chimney at each end and two dormers in the front96 between them. Like many others of the time it had a small penthouse roof at the second-floor level which, with the overhanging eaves of the roof above, afforded protection from rainy weather for the joints of the stonework which was at first laid up in clay. Lime for making more permanent mortar was far from plentiful for many years after America was first settled, and numerous makeshifts had to be resorted to unless the builder could afford to import lime from England at great expense. Over the doorway, with its simple flanking seats, there is the familiar pedimental and slightly projecting hood, while the door itself is of the quaint divided type, permitting the upper half to be opened while the lower half is closed. On the first floor the windows have nine-paned sashes, both upper and lower, together with nicely paneled shutters, while on the second floor the upper sashes are foreshortened to six panes, and there are neither shutters nor blinds.

This excellent example of the Pennsylvania farmhouse type was built by Dirck Jansen, one of the original settlers of Germantown, for his son John Johnson at the time of his marriage to Rachael Livezey. The work was begun in 1765 and completed in 1768, as indicated by a date stone in the peak of one of the gables. It was one of the largest and most substantial residences in the town and for that reason gave much concern to the Society of Friends of which the Johnsons were members.97 During the Battle of Germantown it was in the thick of the fight, and following the warning of an officer John Johnson and his entire family took refuge in the cellar. Bullet holes through three doors are still visible, also the damage done to the northwest wall by a cannon ball. The backyard fence, riddled with bullets, was removed in 1906 to the Museum of the Site and Relic Society at Vernon.

Since the death of John Johnson in 1805, the house has passed through many hands, all descendants of the builder, however. During the Civil War it became a station of the "underground railway" for conducting fugitive slaves to Canada, and Mrs. Josiah Reeve, a great-great-granddaughter of the builder, used to tell how, when a child, she often wondered why so many colored people lived in the attic, staying only a day or so, when others would appear.

Generally similar to the Johnson house is the old Green Tree Inn, Number 6019 Germantown Avenue, Germantown, erected in 1748. Its principal distinctions lie in the three small, plain dormers with segmental topped windows; the coved cornice; the elliptical carving in the pediment of the hood over the door; the enriched ovolo molding of the penthouse roof, consisting of a ball and disk in alternation, and the arched openings of the basement windows.

In this building on December 6, 1759, then the98 home of Daniel Mackinett, the public school of Germantown, the Germantown Academy, was organized, its building being erected the following year. In Revolutionary times this old house was known as "Widow Mackinett's Tavern", and it was a famous resort for driving parties from the city. Many persons of note were entertained at the Green Tree Inn, and when La Fayette visited Germantown in 1825 it was the intention to tender him a dinner there. It was concluded, however, that the tavern could not accommodate the party, and a breakfast at Cliveden was given instead, to which reference has already been made.

The old Billmeyer house, also on Germantown Avenue, Germantown, interests the student of architecture primarily as a rare instance of the early Germantown two-family house. Apart from its two front entrance doorways and the absence of a hood in the penthouse roof, it is much like the Johnson house in general arrangement. The "brick" stones are larger and less pleasing, however, and the high elevation of the structure is evidently due to a subsequent change in the grade of the street. This, however, has given opportunity for a quaint double flight of wing steps with simple wrought-iron balustrades in the characteristic Philadelphia manner. The seats, back to back, one for each doorway, recall those of the Johnson house. One notices with admiration the beautifully detailed99 pedimental dormers with their round-topped windows, and with interest the unusual use of shutters on both the first and second stories. Both upper and lower sashes on the first floor are twelve-paned, as are also the upper sashes on the second floor, the foreshortening of these upper windows being accomplished by means of eight-paned lower sashes.

Erected in 1727 as a single dwelling, this house was occupied during the battle by the widow Deshler and her family. At that time there was no building of any sort between the Billmeyer and Chew houses. It was in front of this house that Washington stopped in his march down Germantown Avenue on October 4, 1777, having discovered that the Chew house was occupied by the British. There he conferred with his officers, ordered the attack and directed the battle. The tradition is that Washington stood on a horse block, telescope in hand, trying in vain to penetrate the smoke and fog and discover the force of the enemy intrenched within the Chew mansion. The stone cap of the horse block is still preserved, and the telescope is in the possession of Germantown Academy. The house suffered greatly at the hands of the British soldiers who were quartered there, and its woodwork still bears the marks of bullets and attempts to set it on fire. In 1789 it became the home of Michael Billmeyer, a celebrated German printer who carried on his trade there. 100

Homes such as the Johnson and Billmeyer houses and numerous similar ones, two and a half stories high with gable roofs, dormer windows and a penthouse roof at the second-floor level, are characteristic examples of the best Pennsylvania farmhouse type which architects of the present day are perpetuating to a considerable extent. Whether of dressed local or ledge stone, they are distinct from anything else anywhere that comes within the Colonial category. In their design and construction sincerity of purpose is manifest; their sturdy simplicity and frank practicability give them a rare charm which appeals strongly to all lovers of the Colonial style in architecture.101

CHAPTER VII

Invariably one associates a house with its front entrance, for the doorway is the dominant feature of the façade, the keynote so to speak. Truly utilitarian in purpose, and so lending itself more logically to elaboration for the sake of decorative effect, the doorway became the principal single feature of a Colonial exterior. When designed in complete accord with the house it lends distinction and charm to the building as a whole.

Like men, doorways have character and individuality. Indeed, in their individuality they reflect the character of those who built them. They symbolize the house as a whole and usually the mien of its occupants; they create the first impressions which the guest has of his host, and foretell more or less accurately the sort of welcome to be expected.

The houses of Philadelphia and vicinity, perhaps more than those of any other American city, possess the charm of architectural merit combined with historic interest. To appreciate more fully the important part played by Philadelphians in early102 American affairs, we study their houses and home life, and as the primary index to the domestic architecture of the vicinity we direct our attention to the doorways and porches.

Like the houses, the doorways range in architectural pretension from the unaffected simplicity of Wyck to the stately elaboration of Cliveden and Mount Pleasant, and possess distinctive characteristics not seen elsewhere. Wealth made Philadelphia the most fashionable American city of the time, with all the attendant rivalries and jealousies of such a condition. Desiring to put the best foot foremost, elaboration of the doorway provided a ready means to display the self-esteem, affluence and social position of the owner. Naturally the Quaker severity of former years was reflected in many of these outward manifestations of home life, and it is a study of absorbing interest to note the proportions and resulting spirit, so unlike New England doorways, which the local builders gave to their adaptations from the same Renaissance motives. Summed up in a sentence, the high, narrow doorways of Philadelphia, for the most part without the welcoming side lights of New England, speak truly of Quaker severity and the exclusiveness of the old aristocratic families.

As to the doors themselves, four distinct types were common throughout the Colonial period. Single and double doors were equally popular, high,103 narrow double doors being favored for the more pretentious houses, although instances are not lacking of single doors in the mansions of Colonial times. With very few exceptions molded and raised panels with broad bevels were used in all, and it is according to the arrangement of these panels that the different types of doors are best classified.

One of the earliest and simplest was the six-panel single door with three stiles of about equal width, top and frieze rail about the same, bottom rail somewhat wider and lock rail about double the width of the frieze rail. The upper pair of panels were not quite high enough to be square, while the middle and lower pairs were oblong in shape, the middle one being higher than the lower. Rarely this relation was reversed, and the lower pair was higher than the middle pair, the door at Number 6504 Germantown Avenue being an example. As found in the farmhouses of Germantown and thereabouts, notably Wyck, Glen Fern, the Green Tree Inn and the Johnson and Billmeyer houses, these six-panel doors were split horizontally through the lock rail, dividing them into an upper and lower part. This arrangement made it possible to open the upper part for ventilation while keeping the lower part closed to prevent stray animals and fowls from entering the house. Numerous examples of undivided six-panel doors are shown by accompanying illustrations and referred to in detail in104 succeeding paragraphs. Of these the door of Grumblethorpe is unique in having a double stile in the middle, giving almost the appearance of double doors.

Three-panel double doors, such as those of Mount Pleasant, Solitude and Port Royal House, were less common than any of the four principal types mentioned, and were little used except for a few decades after the middle of the eighteenth century. Like six-panel single doors, the upper panel was often almost square, and the middle oblong panel higher than the bottom one of the same shape. At Mount Pleasant the middle and lower panels were of the same size.

Eight-panel single doors were employed extensively throughout the eighteenth century, and this is one of the most picturesque and distinctive of Philadelphia types. For the most part the panels were arranged as shown by the doors of the Perot-Morris, Powel and Wharton houses with a pair of small and large panels in alternation. Other notable instances are to be seen at Loudoun, Chalkley Hall and the Blackwell house. The top or first and third pairs were about half as high as their width, while the second and fourth pairs were oblong and usually of the same size, their height about one and one-half times their width. The door at Upsala is a rare instance of the fourth pair of panels lower than the second, whereas that at Number 301105 South Seventh Street shows this type with molded flat panels. As is well shown by the door of the Perot-Morris house, the fourth rail was the broad lock rail, and as in those days the latch was often separate, it was frequently placed on the rail above, and hence often referred to as the latch rail.

Another less common type of eight-panel single door is shown in accompanying illustrations by doors at Number 4908 Germantown Avenue, Number 39 Fisher's Lane, Wayne Junction and Number 224 South Eighth Street. The panel arrangement consisted of three pairs of nearly square panels above the lock rail and one pair twice as high below. Of the doors mentioned, that at Wayne Junction is unique in its flat molded panels.

A corresponding panel arrangement of double doors is to be seen at The Highlands. Usually, however, four-panel double doors took the alternate small and large panel arrangement and were virtually halves of the more common type of eight-panel single door. Such doors at Stenton, Cliveden and the Morris house are illustrated in detail, and similar ones gave entrance to Hope Lodge, Woodford and Vernon. The Woodford doors are interesting for their glazed quatrefoil openings in the top pair of panels, the Vernon doors for a handsome brass knocker on the second panel of each one.

For the most part Philadelphia doorways were deeply recessed in connection with stone construction106 because of the great thickness of the walls. Paneled jambs were let into the reveals of the opening, and whatever the panel arrangement of the door, a corresponding arrangement was followed in paneling the jambs and the soffit of the arch or flat lintel above. Such a distinctive and pleasing feature did this become that it was widely adapted to brick construction, the outward projection of pilasters and engaged columns, often both, supporting pediments and entablatures which had the effect of increasing the depth of brick walls.

The simplest type of Philadelphia doorway is that common to the ledge and "brick" stone farmhouses of Germantown, of which the doorway of the Johnson house is perhaps the best example. These houses usually had a penthouse roof along the second-floor level, and as in this instance a pediment springing from this roof usually formed a hood above the doorway. Although this doorway with its molded casings, four-paned horizontal transom and single door with six molded and raised panels is of the most modest character, its simple lines and good proportions present an effect of picturesque charm. The door is divided horizontally into two parts, after the Dutch manner, like many farmhouse doors of the neighborhood. The position of the drop handle replacing the usual knob indicates the size of the great rim lock within, and the graceful design of the brass knocker is justly one of the107 most popular to-day. The seats flanking the entrance are unique and unlike any others in Philadelphia, although those between the two doors of the Billmeyer house near by are similar.

Substantially the same sort of doorway without the seats is to be seen at the old Green Tree Inn, Number 6019 Germantown Avenue, Germantown, erected in 1748. Here, however, the effect is slightly enriched by a nicely hand-tooled ovolo molding in the cornice of the penthouse roof that is repeated with an elliptical fan design in the pediment of the hood.

Another type of Philadelphia doorway only a little more elaborate than the foregoing is well illustrated at Number 114 League Street and Number 5933 Germantown Avenue. Above the architrave casing across the lintel of these deeply recessed doorways a frieze and pediment form an effective doorhead. The pedimental League Street doorhead is supported by hand-carved consoles at opposite ends, that of the Germantown Avenue doorhead by fluted pilasters. An oval shell pattern adorns the frieze of the former, while a denticulated molding enriches the latter. As contrasted with the plain cased frame of the former, the latter has paneled jambs and soffit, the spacing corresponding with that of the door. Both doors are of the popular six-panel type with nicely molded and raised panels, and both doorheads are elaborated by short, broader sections of the vertical casings near the top. In108 refinement of detail and proportion, and in precision of workmanship the Germantown Avenue doorway surpasses that on League Street.

But the characteristic type of pedimental door trim in Philadelphia takes a different form. About the middle of the eighteenth century the plain horizontal transom above outside doors was generally replaced by the more graceful semicircular fanlight, the glass area of which was divided by sash bars or leaded lines into numerous radiating patterns of more or less grace and beauty. By omitting the entablature of the common horizontal doorhead and breaking the base of the pediment, the round arch of the fanlight was made to fit very nicely within the sloping sides of the pediment, the keystone of the arched casing occupying the upper angle beneath the peak of the gable. Pilasters or engaged columns support the pediment, their upper molded portion above the necking being carried across the horizontal lintel of the door frame. From the capitals up to the short cornice returns, replacing the usual base of the pediment, the spirit of the entablature is retained by pilaster projections molded after the manner of cornice, frieze and architrave.

Excellent doorways such as this with fluted pilaster casings, single doors with six molded and raised panels of familiar arrangement and paneled jambs and soffit to correspond are to be seen at Number 5011 Germantown Avenue, Germantown,109 and Number 247 Pine Street. The former is of considerable breadth, as Philadelphia doorways go, and the fanlight is of rather too intricate pattern and heavy scale. The latter is exceptionally narrow, with pilasters in accord and a fanlight of chaste simplicity. Like many others the door itself is dark painted and in striking contrast to the other white wood trim. One notices at once the strange placing of the knob at the top rather than in the middle of the lock rail, and the footscraper in a separate block of marble in the sidewalk at one side of the marble steps, the inference being that one should scrupulously wipe his feet before approaching the door.

Similar to these, but showing better proportion and greater refinement of detail, is the entrance to the Morris house, one of the best known doorways in Philadelphia and notable as one of the relatively few pedimental doorways of this type having the high four-panel double doors. The pediment framing the simple but very graceful fanlight is enriched by cornice moldings, hand-tooled to fine scale, the soffit of the corona being fluted, the bed-molding reeded and the dentil course being a familiar Grecian fret. Flutings also adorn the short architraves each side of the fanlight, and the abacus of the pilaster columns which is carried across a supplementary lintel in front of the lintel proper, the latter being several inches to the rear because of110 the deeply recessed arrangement of the door. The detail combines Doric and Ionic inspiration. An attractive knocker, simple brass knob and exceptionally large key plate indicating the great rim lock within, lend a quaint charm to a doorway distinctly pleasing in its entirety.

Two excellent doorways of this general type having paneled instead of fluted pilaster casings may be seen at Number 6504 Germantown Avenue, Germantown, and Number 701 South Seventh Street. The former is broad and has a six-panel door much like that at Number 5011 Germantown Avenue, but the fanlight is of simpler pattern and withal more pleasing. A fine-scale dentil course lends interest to the pedimental cornice, while the frieze portions of the entablature section of the pilasters are elaborated by flutings and drillings, the latter suggestive of a festoon. A knocker of slender grace is the best feature of the hardware. The South Seventh Street entrance, higher and narrower, presents another example of the dark-painted door rendered the more interesting by reason of its eight-panel arrangement, the spacing being that usually employed for double doors. The wood trim, molded but nowhere carved, commends itself for effective simplicity. Two marble steps, the upper one very deep, with an attractive iron rail on the buttresses at each side, complete a doorway picture that is typically Philadelphian.

Surpassing both of the foregoing, however, is the doorway at Number 709 Spruce Street. Indeed, it is among the best of its type in the city. It has the simple excellence in detail of the South Seventh Street doorway, with better proportion, less height of pediment and greater apparent breadth, owing to the six-panel arrangement of the door and the fact that it is white like the wood trim about it. The only carved molding is the Grecian fret of the dentil course in the pedimental cornice. Here again another favorite knocker pattern greets the eye.

Engaged round columns, usually smooth and standing in front of wide pilasters, were often pleasing features of these pedimental doorways. In such instances the projection was so great that the entablature sections above the columns were square, and the soffit of the corona in the pediment was paneled. Two notable instances may be cited at Number 5200 Germantown Avenue, Germantown, and Number 4927 Frankford Avenue. Both have the familiar six-panel doors with corresponding paneled jambs and arch soffit, attractively simple fanlights and much fine-scale hand carving in the pedimental cornice and architrave casing of the keyed arch. The former displays better taste. Effective use is made of a reeded ovolo, and the fascia of the architrave bears a pleasing hand-tooled band of vertical flutes with a festooned flat fillet112 running through it. The most distinctive feature, however, is the double denticulated molding of the pedimental cornice with prominent drilled holes in each dentil alternately at top and bottom.

Although representing a high degree of the wood-carvers' art, the other doorway is rather over-ornate in its detail. The reeded ovolo is again prominent, and the fascia of the architrave of the arch bears a familiar decorative motive consisting of groups of five flutes in alternation with a conventionalized flower. The dentil course of the pedimental cornice takes the form of a peculiar reeded H pattern which is repeated in much finer scale on the edge of the corona, the abacus of the capitals and its continuation across the lintel of the door. Least pleasing of all is the fluting of the frieze portion of the entablature sections with three sets of drillings suggestive of festoons.

Another admirable type of doorway, of which there are many examples in Philadelphia, frames the high, round-headed arch of the doorway with tall, slender engaged columns supporting a massive entablature above the semicircular fanlight over the door. Almost without exception the entablature is some variation of the Ionic order with denticulated bed-mold in the cornice, plain flat frieze and molded architrave, the latter sometimes enriched by incised decorative bands. The columns are Doric and smooth. They stand in front of more widely113 spaced pilasters, which are virtually a broadening of the casings of the door frame, and which support a second entablature back of the first and somewhat wider. The two combined form a doorhead with projection almost equal to a hood, but the effect is far more stately.

Such a doorway in its simplest form, with columns tapering considerably toward the top, in accordance with a prevalent local custom of the time, is to be seen on the Powel house, Number 244 South Third Street. The sash divisions of the fanlight are unique, suggesting both Gothic tracery and the lotus flower. The single, high eight-panel door recalls many having a similar arrangement of molded and raised panels, but differs from most of them in that the lock rail is about double the width of the two rails above.

Narrower, with more slender columns, and thus seemingly higher, is the doorway of the Wharton house, Number 336 Spruce Street. While the entablature is generally similar, the moldings adhere less closely to the classic order, and the same is true of the exceptionally slender columns. An enriched ovolo suggesting a quarter section of a cylinder and two disks in alternation lends added refinement to the paneled jambs and the architrave casing of the arch with its hand-carved keystone. The fanlight is of simple but pleasing pattern, and the eight-panel door is of characteristic design.114

At Number 301 South Seventh Street the doorway itself strongly resembles that of the Powel house, except that it is higher, narrower and rather lighter in scale. However, the wing flights of stone steps on the sidewalk leading to a broad landing before the door and the handsome wrought-iron rail lend individuality and rare charm to this notable example of a familiar type.

The doorway of Grumblethorpe, Number 5621 Germantown Avenue, Germantown, differs little in general appearance, if considerably in detail, from that of the Powel house. One notices first how deeply recessed it is because of the thickness of the stone walls. With the projecting entablature it affords almost as much shelter as a porch. The single door next attracts attention. Of six-panel and familiar arrangement, it differs from most of this sort in having a double stile in the middle, the effect simulating double doors. A simple, hand-tooled ovolo ornaments the jambs and architrave casings of the keyed arch. It is also repeated above the double denticulated member of the cornice, the latter enriched by a hole drilled in each dentil alternately above and below. Daintiness and simplicity characterize the fanlight pattern set in lead lines.

The doorway at Number 6105 Germantown Avenue, Germantown, may be regarded as one of the best of the more ornate examples of this type.

It has fluted columns, an intricately hand-tooled dentil course in the cornice, richly incised architraves and carved ovolo moldings. The denticulated molding has fluted dentils with horizontal connecting members forming a sort of continuous H pattern. An incised band of dainty grace adorns the architrave of the entablature. It consists of groups of five vertical flutes in alternation with drillings forming upward and downward arcs or double festoons. The architrave of the arch and lintel has a slightly different incised pattern. There are the same fluted groups with oval ornaments composed of drillings between. The door itself is of the regulation six-panel arrangement.

Few doorways in the Corinthian order are to be found in what may properly be termed the Colonial architecture of Philadelphia, for this order was little used by American builders until early in the nineteenth century. The doorway of Doctor Denton's house in Germantown instances its employment in a somewhat original manner. The entablature follows the classic order closely, except for the tiny consoles of the dentil course and the incised decoration of the upper fascia of the architrave, consisting of a band of elongated hexagons which is repeated across the lintel of the door and the imposts of the arch. A Latin quotation, "Procuc este profans", meaning "Be far from here that which is unholy", is carved in the architrave casing116 over the fanlight. The columns are fluted, but have the Doric rather than the usual Corinthian capitals. Double blind doors such as are a feature of this entrance were the predecessor of the modern screen door. Arbor vitæ trees in square wooden tubs on the broad top step each side of the doorway complete a formal treatment of dignity and attractiveness.

Rarely occurred a doorway having a complete entablature above a fanlight surmounted by a pediment. The east and west entrances of Mount Pleasant offer two splendid examples, massive and dignified. While much alike in several respects, they differ sufficiently in detail to afford an interesting comparison. In size and general arrangement in their double three-panel doors and smooth columns, they greatly resemble each other. Although not pure, the doorway of the west or river front is essentially Tuscan and of the utmost simplicity. Its chief distinction lies in the rustication of the casings, jambs and soffit, simulating stonework, and the heavy fanlight sash with its openings combining the keystone and arch in outline. The doorway of the east front, which is the entrance from the drive, is Doric and has the customary triglyphs, mutules and guttæ. There is the same rustication of casings and jambs up to the height of the doors, but molded spandrils occupy the spaces each side of the round arch with its wide ornate keystone. Exceptionally broad tapering and fluted mullions117 lend distinction to the heavy fanlight sash with its round-ended openings. Neither of these doorways has the double projection of those previously described. The background pilasters are omitted, and the engaged columns stand directly against the stone masonry. A beautiful Palladian window in the second-story wall above each doorway forms a closely related feature, the two being virtually parts of the same effect.

Oftener, where an entablature supported by engaged columns was surmounted by a pediment, the fanlight over the door was omitted. Of the several instances in Philadelphia, the best known is undoubtedly the classic doorway of Cliveden, about which the Battle of Germantown raged most fiercely. The damage done by cannon balls to the stone steps may still be plainly seen. This doorway is one of the finest specimens of pure mutulary Doric in America, very stately and somewhat severe. Every detail is well-nigh perfect, and the proportions could hardly be better. A similar arrangement of the high, narrow, four-panel double doors is found elsewhere in Philadelphia, while the blinds used instead of screen doors recall those of Doctor Denton's house, although divided by two rails respectively toward the top and bottom into three sections, the middle section being the largest. Two small drop handles with pendant rings comprise the entire visible complement of hardware on the doors.118

As compared with the east entrance of Mount Pleasant, the Cliveden detail is richer in the paneled soffits of the corona and the paneled metopes in alternation with the triglyphs of the frieze. One notices also that it is not deeply recessed according to the prevailing custom in the case of stone houses.

Another doorway of this general character and having double doors is the entrance to Solitude. Conventionally Ionic in detail, with smooth columns and voluted capitals, it pleases the eye but lacks the impressiveness of the doorway at Cliveden. The three-panel double doors are narrower, and this fact is emphasized by the deep recess with paneled jambs. There is but one broad step, which also serves as the threshold.

The doorway of the Perot-Morris house, deeply recessed because of the thick stone walls, presents at its best another variation of this sturdiest of Philadelphia types with a single, eight-panel, dark-painted door and a very broad top stone step before it. Virtually a pure Tuscan adaptation, it differs in a few particulars from others of similar character, notably in the pronounced tapering of the columns toward the top and the recessing of the entablature above the door to form pilaster projections above the columns. In other words, the recessed entablature of this doorhead replaces the fanlight of another type already referred to and of which the doorways at Number 5200 Germantown119 Avenue and Number 4927 Frankford Avenue are examples. The brass knob, the heavy iron latch and fastenings inside are the ones Washington, Jefferson, Hamilton, Knox and Randolph handled in passing in and out during Washington's occupancy.

Above the pediment is to be plainly seen the picturesque, cast-iron, hand-in-hand fire mark about a foot high, consisting of four clasped hands crossed in the unbreakable grasp of "My Lady Goes to London" of childhood days. This ancient design, to be seen on the Morris, Betsy Ross and numerous other houses, was that of the oldest fire insurance company in the United States, organized in 1752 under Franklin's leadership. This and other designs, such as the green tree, eagle, hand fire engine and hose and hydrant still remain on many old Philadelphia buildings, indicating in earlier years which company held the policy. For a long time it was the custom to place these emblems on all insured houses, the principal reason for doing so being that certain volunteer fire companies were financed or assisted by certain insurance companies and consequently made special efforts to save burning houses insured by the company concerned.

Porches were the exception rather than the rule in the early architecture of Philadelphia. Only a few old Colonial houses now remaining have them, and for the most part they are entrances to120 countryseats in the present suburbs rather than to residences in the city proper. The Highlands and Hope Lodge have such porches to which reference has already been made in connection with the houses themselves. Of scant architectural merit, the porch at Hope Lodge may possibly be of more recent origin than the house. Except for the narrow double doors the entrance to The Highlands is strongly reminiscent of New England doorways and porches. Both have hipped roofs so low as to be almost flat.

A splendid example of the gable roof or pedimental porch more typical of Philadelphia architecture is that at Upsala. Although displaying free use of the orders, it is regarded as one of the best in America. On a square stone platform reached by three broad stone steps, slender, fluted Doric columns, with engaged columns each side of the doorway, support a roof in the form of a pediment of generally Ionic character, the architrave and cornice being notable for fine-scale hand tooling. It will be noticed that the motive of the cornice with its jig-sawed modillions, rope molding and enriched dentil course suggests Ionic influence; that of the architrave, with its groups of five vertical flutings in alternation with an incised conventionalized flower, Doric. The same entablature is carried about the inside of the roof, projecting over the doorway to form a much favored Philadelphia doorhead121 supported by flanking engaged columns. The doorway itself is distinctly of Philadelphia type, high, relatively narrow, and deeply recessed, with the soffit of the arch and the cheeks of the jambs beautifully paneled and a handsome semicircular fanlight above the single eight-panel door but with no side lights. The effect of the keystone and imposts, also the enrichment of the semicircular architrave casings are characteristic. The paneling of the door consists of pairs of small and large panels in alternation, the upper pair of large panels being noticeably higher than the lower pair.

Of far more modest character is the porch of the old Henry house, Number 4908 Germantown Avenue, long occupied by Doctor W. S. Ambler. It is much smaller, extremely simple in its detail and of generally less pleasing proportions. Two slender, smooth columns and corresponding pilasters on the wall of the house support a pediment rather too flat for good appearance. Except for the Ionic capitals, the detail is rather nondescript as to its order. The round-arched, deeply recessed doorway has the usual paneled jambs and soffit, but the reeded casings and square impost blocks are of the sort that came into vogue about the beginning of the nineteenth century. The single door with its eight molded and raised panels is of that type, having three pairs of small panels of uniform size above a single pair of high panels, the lock rail being more122 than double the width of the rails above and wider than the bottom rail. Unlike the usual fanlight, this one is patterned after a much used Palladian window with sash bar divisions suggested by Gothic tracery.

At Number 39 Fisher's Lane, Wayne Junction, in connection with a doorway much like the above, is an elliptical porch much like those of Salem, Massachusetts, although devoid of their excellent proportion and nicety of detail. Both the porch platform and steps are of wood, but the slender, smooth columns supporting the roof, which takes the form of an entablature, stand on high stone bases. Only simple moldings have been employed, and the detail can hardly be said to belong to any particular order of architecture. The door itself is unusual in having molded flat rather than raised panels, while the fanlight is of more conventional pattern than that of the Henry house.

Side lights and elliptical fanlights, so characteristic of New England doorways, are as rare as porches in the Colonial architecture of Philadelphia. The entrance of The Highlands is thus unique in combining the three. The doorway at Number 224 South Eighth Street has the New England spirit in its breadth and general proportion; in the beauty of its leaded side lights and fanlight, but the broad stone steps on the sidewalk and the iron rails are typically Philadelphian. So, too, is the paneling123 of the wide single door. The ornate woodwork of the frame and casings, however, especially the frieze across the lintel, with its oval and elliptical fluted designs elaborately hand-tooled, suggests the Dutch influence of New York and New Jersey. The iron rails of the steps present an interesting instance of the adaptation of Gothic tracery, arches and quatrefoils.

The front doorway at Stenton may be regarded as the earliest instance of side lights in Philadelphia, and one of the earliest in America. The width of the brick piers or munions is such, however, that there are virtually two high narrow windows rather than side lights in the commonly accepted sense of the term. Indeed, they are treated as such, being divided into upper and lower sashes like those of the other windows, only narrower. Neither door nor windows have casings, the molded frames being let into the reveals of the brickwork and the openings, as in most early Colonial structures, having relieving arches with brick cores. A six-paned, horizontal toplight above the doors corresponds in scale with the windows. This simple entrance, with its high, narrow, four-panel doors having neither knob or latch, is reached from a brick-paved walk about the house by three semicircular stone steps, such as were common in England at the time, the various nicely hewn pieces being fastened securely together with iron bands. Severity is written in every line, yet124 there is a picturesque charm about this quaint doorway that attracts all who see it. In this the warmth and texture of the brickwork play a large part, but much is also due to the flanking slender trellises supporting vines which have spread over the brickwork above in the most fascinating manner.

Toward the beginning of the nineteenth century and for a few decades thereafter, under the influence of the Greek revival, a new type of round-arched doorway was developed in Philadelphia,—broader, simpler, heavier in treatment than most of the foregoing. There were no ornamental casings, the only woodwork being the heavy frame let into the reveals of the brick wall. Above a horizontal lintel treated after the manner of an architrave the semicircular fanlight was set in highly ornamental lead lines forming a decorative geometrical pattern. Double doors were the rule, most of them four-panel with a small and large panel in alternation like many earlier doors, but the panels were molded and sunken rather than raised. In a few instances there was a single vertical panel to each door, sometimes round-topped as on the doors of the Randolph house, Number 321 South Fourth Street.

The most distinctive of these doorways is that at the southeast corner of Eighth and Spruce streets, where elliptical winding flights lead to a landing before the door. The ironwork is undoubtedly among the most graceful and best preserved in the125 city. This low, broad entrance resembles Southern doorways rather than the Philadelphia type, although there are a few others of similar character near by. The wide, flat casings and single-panel doors seem severe indeed by comparison with most of the earlier doorways with their greater flexibility of line.

Generally similar, the doorway of the old Shippen mansion, Number 1109 Walnut Street, with its straight flight of stone steps unadorned in any way, is less attractive except in the paneling of the doors. It lacks the grace of the winding stairs and the charm of the iron balustrade so much admired in the former. The fanlight pattern, good as it is, fails to make as strong an appeal as that of the other doorway.

At the northeast corner of Third and Pine streets is to be found a very narrow doorway of this character, its double doors paneled like those of the Shippen mansion and its graceful fanlight pattern more like that of the doorway at Eighth and Spruce streets, though differing considerably in detail. Like many others in Philadelphia this doorway is reached by four stone steps leading to a square stone platform, the entire construction being on the brick-paved sidewalk. The simple, slender rail of wrought iron, its chief decoration a repeated spiral, is the best feature.

Philadelphia, perhaps more than any other American city, is famous for the profusion and beauty of126 its ironwork, wrought and cast. For the most part it took the form of stair rails or balustrades, fences and foot scrapers, and many are the doorways of little or no architectural merit which are rendered beautiful by the accompanying ironwork. On the other hand, accompanying illustrations already discussed show the rare beauty of architecturally notable doorways enriched by the addition of good ironwork.

Fences were the exception rather than the rule in Colonial times, although rarely employed along the front of a house to prevent passers from accidentally stepping into areaways in the sidewalk in front of basement windows. The danger of such a catastrophe was remote, however, for Philadelphia sidewalks were very broad in order to make room for the customary stoop before the doorway and the frequent rolling way or basement entrance. These sidewalk obstructions being the rule, people formed the habit of walking near the curb, and accidents were thus avoided. It was not until late in the nineteenth century, when basement entrances with an open stairway along the front of the house began to be provided, that fences came into vogue, except in the suburbs, where a small front yard was sometimes surrounded by an iron fence.

Stoops divide themselves into four principal classes, of which the first, consisting only of a single broad stone step before the doorway, perhaps hardly127 warrants the term. As at Grumblethorpe and the Morris house, these broad stone steps often had no ironwork other than a foot scraper set in one end or in the sidewalk near by. Again, as at the entrance to the Wistar house, there were iron handrails or balustrades at both sides. Less common, though by no means infrequent, were the stoops of this sort with a single handrail at one side.

These handrails or balustrades, replacing the stone parapets so common in other American cities, are patterned after the cathedral grilles and screens of the Middle Ages and consist of both Gothic and Classic detail utilized with ingenuity and good taste. Most of the earlier designs are hand wrought. Later, cast iron came into use, and much of the most interesting ironwork combines the two. The balustrade at the Wistar house just referred to is a typical example of excellent cast-iron work, the design consisting of a diaper pattern of Gothic tracery with harmonious decorative bands above and below.

The Germantown farmhouse presents another variant of this first and simplest type of stoop with a hooded penthouse roof above and quaint side seats flanking the doorway. As at the Johnson house, the broad stone step was sometimes flush with the sidewalk pavement.

The second type of stoop consists of a broad stone step or platform before the door with a straight flight of stone steps leading up to it. Cliveden,128 Mount Pleasant and Doctor Denton's house are notable instances of such stoops without handrails of any sort. The Powel house stoop of this type has one of the simplest wrought-iron rails in the city, while that of the house at Number 224 South Eighth Street, with its effective Gothic detail, combines wrought and cast iron. Two very effective wrought-iron handrails for stoops of this type, depending almost entirely upon scroll work at the top and bottom for their elaboration, are to be seen at Number 130 Race Street and Number 216 South Ninth Street, the handsome scroll pattern of the latter being the same as at the southeast corner of Seventh and Spruce streets, already referred to, and the former being given a distinctive touch by two large balls used as newels. Sometimes, as at Number 701 South Seventh Street, there was only one step between the platform of the stoop and the sidewalk, when its appearance was essentially the same as a stoop of the first type such as that of the Wistar house.

The third type of stoop has the same broad platform before the door, but the flight of steps is along the front of the house at one side rather than directly in front. While these were oftener straight, as in the case of the doorway at the northeast corner of Third and Pine streets, already referred to, they were frequently curved, as at Number 316 South Third Street. Both have a wrought-iron rail with129 the same scroll pattern of effective simplicity, a pattern much favored in modern adaptation. Another stoop of this type at Number 272 South American Street is high enough to permit a basement entrance beneath the platform. The ironwork is beautifully hand-wrought in the Florentine manner, its elaborate scroll pattern beneath an evolute spiral band combining round ball spindles with flat bent fillets, and the curved newel treatment at each side adding materially to the grace of the whole.

The fourth type of stoop has double or wing flights each side of the platform before the door. The doorway at Number 301 South Seventh Street, already referred to, is the most notable instance of straight flights in Philadelphia, while that at the southeast corner of Eighth and Spruce streets occupies the same position in respect to curved flights. The wrought ironwork of the latter is superb. Rich in effect, yet essentially simple in design, it has grace in every line, is not too ornate and displays splendid workmanship. Again a spiral design is conspicuous in the stair balustrades, and the curved newel treatment recalls that of the foregoing stoop. The balustrade of the platform consists of a simple diaper pattern of intersecting arcs with the familiar evolute band above and below. The wing flight was a convenient arrangement for double houses, as instanced by the old Billmeyer house in Germantown, with its exceedingly130 plain iron handrail and straight spindles. Of more interest is the balustrade at Number 207 La Grange Alley with its evolute spiral band and slender ball spindles beneath.

During the nineteenth century more attention was given to newels in ironwork, and elaborate square posts combining cast and wrought pieces were constructed, such as that at Fourth and Liberty streets. In the accompanying balustrade are to be seen motives much employed in the other examples here illustrated. Scroll work is conspicuous, as are rosettes, but a touch of individuality is given by a Grecian band instead of the more common evolute spiral above the diaper pattern. The pineapple, emblem of hospitality, was attractive in cast iron and as utilized at Number 1107 Walnut Street provided a distinctive newel.

The roads on the outskirts of all Colonial cities were very bad, and many of the less important streets of Philadelphia had neither pavements nor sidewalks. After rains shoes were bemired in walking, and as rubbers were then unknown it was necessary to remove the mud from the shoes before entering a house. Foot scrapers on the doorstep or at the foot of the front steps were a necessity and became ornamental adjuncts of the doorways of early Colonial homes. For the most part of wrought iron, some of the later ones were cast in molds, that at Wyck being a particularly interesting 131example. It consists of two grotesque griffins back to back, their wings joined tip to tip forming the scraper edge, and the whole being mounted in a large tray with turned-up edges. This scraper can thus be moved about as desired, and the tray catches the scrapings, which can be emptied occasionally without sweeping the entire doorstep.

Some of the earlier and simpler scrapers, such as that at Third and Spruce streets, consisted merely of two upright standards with a sharp-edged horizontal bar between them to provide the scraper proper. This horizontal part was made quite broad to take care of anticipated wear, which in this particular instance has been great during the intervening years.

Similar to this, except for the well-wrought tops of the standards and the curved supplementary supports, is the scraper of the Dirck Keyser doorway, Number 6205 Germantown Avenue, Germantown. Regarded as a whole this design suggests nothing so much as the back and arms of an early English armchair.

On the same page with these is shown another strange Philadelphia scraper. Apart from its outline it has no decoration, and what the origin of the design may be it is difficult to determine. To a degree, however, it resembles two crude, ancient battle-axes, the handles forming the scraper bar.

A favorite design consisted of a sort of inverted132 oxbow with the curved part at the top and the scraper bar taking some ornamental pattern across the bottom from side to side. At the top, both outside and inside the bow, and sometimes down the sides, spiral ornaments were applied in the Florentine manner. Accompanying illustrations show two scrapers of this type at Number 320 South Third Street and another one elsewhere on the same street. The use of a little urn-shaped ornament at the top of the latter scraper is most effective.

At Number 239 Pine Street is seen a scraper employing two large spirals themselves as supports for the scraper bar. The turn of the spiral is here outward as contrasted with the inward turn of the scrapers at Upsala.

A scraper of quaint simplicity standing on one central standard at Vernon, Germantown, suggests the heart as its motive, although having outward as well as inward curling spirals at the top.

Another clever device of Philadelphia ironworkers was to make the foot scraper a part of the iron stair rail. Usually in such a scheme it was also made part of the newel treatment on the lower step of the stoop, but at Seventh and Locust streets, for example, it stands on the second step beside and above the ornate round newel with its surmounting pineapple. Here, as in the case of the simpler handrail in South Seventh Street, one of the iron spindles of the rail is split about a foot from the bottom, and133 the two halves bent respectively to the right and left until they meet the next spindle on each side, the scraper bar of ornamental outline being fastened across from one to the other of these spindles below. The principal charm of the South Seventh Street rail lies in its extreme simplicity, the twisted section of the spindles near the bottom being a clever expedient. The pleasing effect of the design at Seventh and Locust streets is largely due to appropriate use of the evolute spiral band. Only a little more ornate than the South Seventh Street stair rail is that in South Fourth Street. A special spiral design above the foot scraper, however, virtually becomes a newel in this instance. The same is true of another much more elaborate stair rail at Seventh and Locust streets with its attractive diaper pattern between an upper and lower Grecian band, the whole grille being supported by a graceful three-point bracket.134

CHAPTER VIII

Philadelphia windows and window frames during the Colonial period were not so much a development as a perpetuation of the initial types, although of course some minor changes and improvements were made with passing years. From the very beginning sliding Georgian sashes were the rule. Penn's house has them and so have all the other historic homes and buildings of this vicinity now remaining. There are none of the diamond paned casement sashes, such as were employed in the first New England homes half a century earlier, for builders in both the mother country and the colonies had ceased to work in the Elizabethan and Jacobean manner and were completely under the influence of the Renaissance. In the earlier houses the upper sash was let into the frame permanently, only the lower sash being movable and sliding upward, but in later years double-hung sashes with weights began to be adopted. Stiles, rails and sash bars were all put together with mortise and tenon joints and even the sash bars were pegged together with wood. The glass was135 set in rabbeted edges and held in place by putty according to the method still in use.

At first the panes were very small, and many were required in large windows, but as glass making advanced, the prevailing size was successively enlarged from about five by seven inches to six by eight, seven by nine, eight by ten, and nine by twelve. As the size of individual panes of glass was increased, their number in each sash was in some instances correspondingly decreased, although oftener larger sashes with the same number of panes resulted. Philadelphia architects always manifested a keen appreciation of the value of scale imparted by the sash bar divisions of their windows, and for that reason small-paned sashes never ceased to be popular.

Although numerous variations exist, the custom of having an equal number of panes in both upper and lower sashes predominated. Six, nine and twelve-paned sashes forming twelve, eighteen and twenty-four paned windows were all common throughout the Colonial period. Twelve-paned sashes were used chiefly in public buildings and the larger private mansions, six-paned sashes in houses of moderate size. While there are several notable instances of nine-paned upper and lower sashes, particularly Hope Lodge, Cedar Grove in Harrowgate, Northern Liberties, and the Wharton house at Number 336 Spruce Street, this arrangement136 frequently, although not always, resulted in a window rather too high and narrow to be pleasing in proportion. A comparison of the accompanying photographs of the window of a Combes Alley house with that of a house at Number 128 Race Street well illustrates the point. Sometimes, where used on the lower story, six-paned upper and lower sashes are found in the windows of the second story.

Waynesborough, in Easttown Township, Chester County, not far from Philadelphia, is a well-known case in point. Grumblethorpe presents the anomalous reverse arrangement of six-paned sashes on the first story and nine-paned sashes on the second story. Still oftener six-and nine-paned sashes were combined in the same window, the larger sash being sometimes the upper and again the lower. Bartram House and the Johnson house are instances of nine-paned upper and lower sashes on the first story and nine-paned lower and six-paned upper sashes on the second story. Greame Park in Horsham, Montgomery County, not far from Philadelphia, has nine-paned upper and lower sashes on the lower story and twelve-paned lower and nine-paned upper on the second floor. Penn's house in Fairmount Park and Glen Fern are instances of nine-paned lower and six-paned upper sashes on the first story and six-paned upper and lower sashes on the second story. Solitude and the Blackwell house, Number 224 Pine Street, exemplify the reverse137 arrangement of nine-paned upper and six-paned lower sashes on both stories.

Six-paned upper and lower sashes on both the first and second floors were, perhaps, more common on houses of moderate size and some large mansions throughout the Colonial period than any other window arrangement. Notable instances are The Highlands; Upsala; Vernon; Wynnestay in Wynnefield, West Philadelphia; Carlton in Germantown; the Powell house, Number 244 South Third Street; the Evans house, Number 322 De Lancy Street; and the Wistar house, Fourth and Locust streets.

Among the more pretentious countryseats and city residences having twelve-paned upper and lower sashes on both the first and second stories may be mentioned Cliveden, Stenton, Loudoun, Woodford, Whitby Hall, the Morris house, the Perot-Morris house, Chalkley Hall and Port Royal House in Frankford.

Twelve-paned sashes were also used in various ways in combination with six, eight and nine paned sashes. For example, the Waln house, Number 254 South Second Street, has twelve-paned upper and lower sashes on the first story with six-paned upper and lower sashes on the second story, whereas Mount Pleasant has the reverse arrangement. Laurel Hill, in the Northern Liberties, Fairmount Park, has twelve-paned upper and lower sashes on the first story and eight-paned upper and lower138 sashes on the second story, whereas the Billmeyer house has all twelve-paned sashes except the lower ones on the second story, which are eight-paned. Wyck, consisting as it does of two buildings joined together, probably has the most heterogeneous fenestration of any house in Philadelphia. On the first floor are windows having nine-paned lower and six-paned upper sashes, while on the second story are windows having twelve-paned lower and eight-paned upper sashes and others having six-paned upper and lower sashes. The Free Quakers' Meeting House at Fifth and Arch streets has twelve-paned upper and lower sashes on the first story and eight-paned upper and twelve-paned lower sashes on the second floor.

To reduce their apparent height, three-story houses were foreshortened with square windows. Two-piece sashes were used, and the number of panes differed considerably. While a like number in both upper and lower sashes was the rule, the Blackwell house, Number 224 Pine Street, and the Powel house, Number 244 South Third Street, are notable instances of foreshortened windows having three-paned upper and six-paned lower sashes. The Wharton house, Number 336 Spruce Street, and the Evans house, Number 322 De Lancy Street, have foreshortened windows with six-paned upper and lower sashes. The Waln house, Number 254 South Second Street, the Stocker house, Number139 404 South Front Street, and Pen Rhyn in Bensalem Township, Bucks County, have foreshortened windows with three-paned upper and lower sashes. Such foreshortened windows as all the above were usually employed with six-and nine-paned sashes on the stories below. Where eight-and twelve-paned sashes were used for the principal windows of the house, the foreshortened windows of the third story usually had eight-paned upper and lower sashes, as on the Morris house, the Wistar house at Fourth and Locust streets, Whitby Hall and Chalkley Hall in Frankford.

Most Philadelphia houses, whether gable or hip-roofed, have dormers to light the attic. Two or three on a side were the rule, although a few small houses have only one. For the most part they were pedimental or gable-roofed. Segmental topped dormers were rare, although a row of them is to be seen in Camac Street, "the street of little clubs", and occasional individual instances are to be found elsewhere. Lean-to or shed-roof dormers never found favor, the only notable instances about Philadelphia being at Glen Fern, Cedar Grove in Harrowgate, Northern Liberties, and Greame Park in Horsham, Montgomery County.

An accompanying illustration of a dormer on the Witherill house, Number 130 North Front Street, shows the simplest type of gable-roof dormer with square-headed window and six-paned upper and140 lower sashes. Similar dormers, differing chiefly in the detail of the moldings employed, are features of the Morris house; Wistar house, Fourth and Locust streets; Wynnestay, Wynnefield, West Philadelphia; Wyck; the Johnson house; Carlton, Germantown; and Chalkley Hall, Frankford. Grumblethorpe and Bartram House have dormers of this sort with a segmental topped upper window sash. Solitude has this sort of dormer with three-paned upper and six-paned lower sashes, while Stenton and the Evans house, Number 322 De Lancy Street, have eight-paned upper and lower sashes.

Houses usually of somewhat later date and notable for greater refinement of detail had gable-roof dormers with round-headed Palladian windows extending up into the pediment. As in the accompanying illustration showing a dormer on the house at Number 6105 Germantown Avenue, Germantown, the casings usually take the form of fluted pilasters, supporting the pediment with its nicely molded cornice, often, as in this instance, with a prominent denticulated molding. Narrower supplementary pilasters supported a molded and keyed arch, forming the frame within which the window is set. The lower sash is six-paned, while the upper one has six rectangular panes above which six ornamental shaped panes form a semicircle.

Similar dormers, differing chiefly in ornamental detail, are features of Loudoun, Vernon, Upsala,141 Hope Lodge, Port Royal House, the Perot-Morris house, the Billmeyer house, the Wharton house, Number 336 Spruce Street; the Powel house, Number 244 South Third Street; and the Stocker house, Number 404 South Front Street. The dormers of Cliveden and Mount Pleasant are of this type but further elaborated by projecting ornamental scrolls at the sides.

As the architecture of Philadelphia is almost exclusively in brick and stone, there were none of the architrave casings and ornamental heads consisting of a cornice above the architrave and often of a complete entablature which characterized much contemporary New England work in wood. Brick and stone construction require solid rather than cased wood frames let into the reveals of the brick wall and have no projections other than a molded sill, as on the Morris house, while a stone lintel or brick arch must replace the ornamental head, often such a pleasing feature of wood construction. The frames were of heavy construction held together at the corners by large dowel pins and were ornamented by suitable moldings broken around the reveals of the masonry and by molded sash guides in the frame. In the earlier brick houses the square-headed window openings had either gauged arches, as at Hope Lodge, or relieving arches of alternate headers and stretchers with a brick core, as at Stenton. Later, as in the case of hewn stonework,142 prominent stone lintels and window sills were adopted. Marble was much favored for this purpose because it harmonizes with the white-painted woodwork, brightens the façade and emphasizes the fenestration. Most of the lintels take the shape of a flat, gauged arch with flutings simulating mortar joints that radiate from an imaginary center below and mark off voussoirs and a keystone. Usually there is no surface ornamentation, the shape of the parts being depended upon to form a decorative pattern, the shallow vertical and horizontal scorings on the lintels of the Morris house being exceptional. These, the lintels of Cliveden and of the Free Quakers' Meeting House, exemplify the three most common types.

Unquestionably the most distinctive feature of the window treatment of this neighborhood was the outside shutters. Colonial times were troublous, and glass was expensive. In the city, protection was wanted against lawlessness at night, and in the country there was for many years the ever-present possibility of an Indian attack, despite the generally friendly relations of the Quakers with the tribes of the vicinity. There were also some British soldiers not above making improper use of unshuttered windows at night. Except for a relatively few country houses which had neither outside shutters nor blinds—notably Stenton, Solitude, Mount Pleasant, Bartram House and The143 Woodlands—the use of shutters on the first story was the rule. Above that the custom varied greatly. Where outside shutters were totally absent, inside hinged, folding and sometimes boxed shutters were almost invariably present. Only a few important instances of old Colonial houses having blinds on the lower story now remain. Port Royal House, for example, two and a half stories high, has blinds on the first story and none above. The Highlands has blinds on both the first and second stories, while Chalkley Hall in Frankford has blinds on all three of its stories.

Often there are shutters on the lower story and none above. Three-story instances of this are the Waln house, Number 254 South Second Street; the Blackwell house, Number 224 Pine Street; and the Wistar house, Fourth and Locust streets. Two and a half story instances are Cliveden, Hope Lodge, Vernon, Woodford, the Johnson house and Laurel Hill in the Northern Liberties, Fairmount Park.

Less common are three-story houses having shutters on the first and second stories and none on the third. Whitby Hall, the Morris house and the Wharton house, Number 336 Spruce Street, are examples. Rare are two and a half story houses having shutters on both the principal stories. Wyck, Cedar Grove in Harrowgate, Northern Liberties, and Wynnestay in Wynnefield, West Philadelphia, are good examples. Most two and a half story houses have 144 shutters on the first story and blinds on the second, as instanced by Upsala, Grumblethorpe, Loudoun, Glen Fern and the Perot-Morris house. The Powel house, Number 244 South Third Street, is a rare instance of shutters on all three stories, while the Evans house, Number 322 De Lancy Street, and Pen Rhyn in Bensalem Township, Bucks County, are rare instances of shutters on the first story and blinds on the second and third stories.

These outside shutters are of heavy construction like doors, the stiles and rails having mortise and tenon joints held together by dowel pins and the panels being molded and raised. Usually frieze and lock rails divide the shutter into three panels, the two lower ones being the same height and the upper one square. Accompanying illustrations show eighteen-paned windows having shutters arranged in this manner at Number 128 Race Street and in Combes Alley. At Cliveden the upper panel is not quite high enough to be square, and the same is true of the Morris house shutters, which are also notable for the fact that the lower panel is not quite so high as the middle one. Sometimes an opening of ornamental shape was cut through the top panel to admit a little light, as for instance the crescent in the shutters at Wynnestay, Wynnefield, West Philadelphia. On a relatively few houses the shutters had four panels, the most common arrangement being a small and a large panel in alternation from145 the top downward. Such shutters were features of Loudoun, the Wistar house, Fourth and Locust streets; the Blackwell house, Number 224 Pine Street; the Powel house, Number 244 South Third Street; the Evans house, Number 322 Spruce Street; and the Wharton house, Number 336 Spruce Street. An accompanying illustration shows an unusual four-panel arrangement on the Witherill house, Number 130 North Front Street, the three upper almost square panels being of the same size and the lowest one being about twice as high as one of the small ones. Top, frieze and lock rails are usually the same width as the stiles, and the bottom rail is about double width. The meeting stiles and sometimes those on the opposite side have rabbeted joints, the latter fitting the jambs of the window frame.

As indicated by an accompanying illustration showing the typical treatment of a second-floor twelve-paned window at Number 6105 Germantown Avenue, Germantown, most blinds were strengthened by a lock rail about midway of the height, or slightly below, dividing the blind into an upper and lower section. Blinds of this sort are to be seen at Loudoun, Grumblethorpe, Upsala, The Highlands and Port Royal House. At Waynesborough in Easttown Township, Chester County, this division is considerably below the middle, making the upper section much the larger. Less146 common are blinds divided into three sections by two lock rails, such as those of the Perot-Morris house. The Evans house, Number 322 De Lancy Street, has two-section blinds on the third story and three-section blinds on the second story. Unusual indeed are blinds having only top and bottom rails. They are found now and then on small upper windows, as at Glen Fern. Chalkley Hall in Frankford is a rare instance of such blinds on all three stories of a large countryseat.

All of these blinds are of heavy construction, having top and lock rails about the same width as the stiles, and bottom rails about double width. Except for heavy louvers instead of panels, they are much like shutters. The frame is of the same thickness, with mortise and tenon joints doweled together.

A picturesque feature of Philadelphia window treatment is the quaint wrought-iron fixtures with which shutters and blinds are hung and fastened. As clearly shown by the accompanying detail photograph of a window of the Morris house, outside shutters are generally hung by means of hinges to the frame of the window. As these frames are set back in the reveal of the masonry, these hinges are necessarily of special shape, being of large projection to enable the shutters to fold back against the face of the wall. They were strap hinges tapering slightly in width, corresponding in length to the147 width of the shutter and fastened to it by means of two or three bolts. Small pendant rings on the inside of the meeting stiles were provided for pulling the shutters together and closing them. They were fastened together by a long wrought-iron strap, usually bolted to the left-hand shutter, that projects to overlap the opposite shutter five or six inches when the shutters are closed. Near the projecting end of the strap a pin at right angles to it sticks through a hole in an escutcheon plate in the lock rail of the opposite shutter, and an iron pin, suspended by a short length of chain to prevent loss, is inserted through a vertical drilling in the pin. Later, sliding bolts were used, as seen on the shutters at Number 128 Race Street and the blinds at Number 6105 Germantown Avenue, Germantown.

Shutters and blinds were held back against the face of the wall in an open position by quaint wrought-iron turn buckles or gravitating catches and other simple fasteners. That on the shutters of the Perot-Morris house is the most prevalent pattern. The scroll at the bottom is longer and heavier than the round, flattened, upper portion, so that the fixture is kept in position by gravity. In this instance it is placed in the masonry wall near the meeting stile of the shutter. A similar fastener on the Chew house is placed in the window sill near the outer stile of the shutter. Another type of turning fastener that was quite popular is148 seen at Number 6043 Germantown Avenue, Germantown. It is held in place by a long iron strap screwed to the window sill, and the weight of the gravitating catch consists of a casting representing a bunch of grapes. More primitive and less satisfactory in use and appearance is the spring fastener bearing against the edge of the shutter seen at Wyck. Crude as these fixtures were, they have hardly been improved upon in principle, and similar designs of more finished workmanship are still used in modern work.

Twelve appears to be the largest number of panes employed in a sliding sash in Philadelphia architecture, even in public buildings, except a few churches. There are such sashes in Independence Hall, Congress Hall, Carpenters' Hall, the Free Quakers' Meeting House at Fifth and Arch streets and the main building of the Pennsylvania Hospital. In Congress Hall and Carpenters' Hall there are also round-topped windows with twelve-paned lower sashes and upper sashes having ten small ornamental panes to make up the semicircle above twelve rectangular panes. A few similar windows with seven ornamental panes in the round top are to be seen in Christ Church.

The Old Swedes' Church has a few rectangular windows with fifteen-and sixteen-paned upper and lower sashes, while over the front entrance there is a window having a twelve-paned upper and a149 sixteen-paned lower sash. In Christ Church are to be seen two windows having ten-paned upper and fifteen-paned lower sashes set in a recessed round brick arch. For the most part, however, the church windows of this period were round-topped, the upper sash being higher than the lower. Most of the windows of St. Peter's Protestant Episcopal Church have fifteen-paned lower sashes, the upper sashes consisting of twenty rectangular panes above which twelve keystone-shaped panes and one semicircular pane form the round top.

The windows of Christ Church are larger still and particularly interesting because of the heavy central muntin to strengthen the sash. On the first story the lower sashes have twenty-four panes and the upper ones eighteen rectangular panes with sixteen keystone-shaped and two quarter-round panes to form the semicircular top. On the second floor the windows are the same except for the eighteen-paned lower sashes. Each side of the steeple on the lower story is a window of this size, notable for the ornamental spacing of twenty-one sash bar divisions, the sweeping curves of which form spaces for glass reminiscent of the Gothic arch.

These windows slide in molded frames set in the reveals of the brickwork under plain arches with marble or other stone imposts, keystone and sill. The imposts and keystone were often molded and150 otherwise hand-tooled, as on Christ's Church, and the sills were sometimes supported by a console at each end, as on St. Peter's Protestant Episcopal Church. Some of the windows of both of these churches illustrate the frequent employment of slightly projecting brick arches and pilaster casings at the sides.

The great Palladian chancel windows of Renaissance churches were often much larger. Usually they were stationary, especially the central section, although sometimes, as in Christ's Church, the two side windows had sliding sashes. The central section of this window has ninety-six rectangular panes with twenty-four keystone-shaped and two quarter-round panes forming the round top. The narrow side windows have fifteen-paned upper and twelve-paned lower sashes. The treatment of this chancel end with heavy brick piers and pilasters, stone entablature, projecting brick spandrels and the bust of George II, King of England, between them, above the arch of the Palladian window, is most interesting.

The chancel window of St. Peter's Protestant Episcopal Church has one hundred and eight rectangular panes in its central section with twenty-eight keystone-shaped panes and a semicircular pane forming the round top. Each side of this end of the church, with four smaller round-headed windows ranged about the chancel window and a151 circular window in the pediment above, is a superb example of symmetrical arrangement.

Although large and more ornate, the Palladian window above the entrance to Independence Hall on the Independence Square side is more like that found in domestic architecture. All three of its lower sashes are sliding. The central window consists of a twenty-four-paned lower sash and an upper sash with twenty-one ornamental-shaped panes forming the round top above twenty-four rectangular panes. The narrow side windows have six-paned upper and twelve-paned lower sashes. Owing to its good proportion, the chaste simplicity of the detail and the pleasing combination of brick pilasters with wood trim, this has been referred to by architects as the best Palladian window in America. The use of such a window in the Ionic order above a Doric doorway adds another to the many notable instances of free use of the orders by Colonial builders.

In domestic architecture Palladian windows were employed chiefly to light the stairway landing, as at Whitby Hall; to light the upper hall, as at Mount Pleasant; and rarely to light the principal rooms each side of the front entrance, as at The Woodlands. They not only charm the eye as interior features, but when viewed outdoors relieve the severity of many ranging square-headed windows and provide a center of interest in the fenestration,152 lending grace and distinction to the entire façade. No Palladian windows in Philadelphia so thoroughly please the eye or so convincingly indicate the delightful accord that may exist between gray ledge-stone masonry and white woodwork as those set within recessed arches at The Woodlands. The proportion and simple, clean-cut detail throughout are exquisite. The engaged colonnettes of the mullions contrast pleasingly with the pilasters of the frame, each of the two supporting an entablature notable for its fine-scale dentil course, and these two in turn supporting a keyed, molded arch. The central window has twelve-paned upper and lower sliding sashes with an attractively spaced fanlight above. The narrow ten-paned side windows are stationary. Unusual as is the use of these Palladian windows, their charm is undeniable, and they are among the chief distinctions of the house.

CHAPTER IX

The hall is of particular moment in the design of a house. There guests are welcomed to the fireside, and there their first impressions of the home are formed. The architectural treatment of the hall sets the keynote of the entire home interior, so to speak. Its doorways and open arches frame vistas of the principal adjoining rooms, and its staircase, usually winding, affords a more or less complete survey of the whole house from various altitudes and angles. It is the place where the master puts his best foot foremost, as the expression goes, and happily the recognized utilitarian features of the typical Colonial hall permit a notable degree of elaboration at once consistent and beautiful.

Throughout the feudal period of the Middle Ages the hall was the main and often the only living, reception and banquet room of castles, palaces and manor houses. It was the common center of home activities. There the lord and family retainers, servants and visitors were accommodated, and all the common life of the household was carried on.154 In early times there were, besides the hall, only a few sleeping rooms, even in the greatest establishments. Later, more retired rooms were added, and gradually the hall became more and more an entranceway or passageway in the house, communicating with its different parts.

When houses began to be built more than a single story in height, the staircase became an important feature of the hall, and balconies were also introduced overlooking this great room, which was often the full height of the building. In fact, balconies were for a time more conspicuous than staircases, which were frequently located in any convenient secluded place. However, as builders came to appreciate more fully the attractiveness of this utilitarian structure, when embellished with suitable ornament, the staircase was accorded a more prominent position. Eventually it became the most important architectural feature of the hall, for the most part supplanting the balcony, which was in a measure replaced by the broad landings of broken, winding and wing flights.

Throughout the Georgian period of English architecture, the hall of the better houses retained something of the size and aspect of the great halls of feudal days, while at the same time accommodating the staircase and serving as a passageway leading to the principal rooms on the various floors. In the more pretentious houses of the period they were155 the scene of dancing and banqueting on special occasions, and for that reason were of spacious size, often running entirely through the building from front to back with the staircase located in a smaller side hall adjoining. Where space or expense were considerations, or where spacious parlors and drawing-rooms rendered the use of the hall for social purposes unnecessary, the staircase ascended in various ways at the rear of the main hall, usually beyond a flat or elliptical arch, where it added very materially to the effectiveness of the apartment without detracting at all from the use of the front portion as a reception room.

Such halls as the latter are as typical of the better Provincial mansions of Philadelphia, especially its countryseats, as of the plantation houses of Virginia and the early settled communities farther south. In the city residences of Philadelphia, built in blocks as elsewhere, the halls were of necessity narrower, mere passageways notable chiefly for their well-designed staircases, which consisted for the most part of a long straight run along one side with a single turn near the top to the second-floor passageway directly above that to the rear of the house on the floor below. In a few of the earlier country houses there are, however, halls reminiscent of medieval times, for the influences of the mother country were very strong in Philadelphia, and its Colonial architecture displays marked156 Georgian tendencies, some of it the very earliest Georgian characteristics still somewhat influenced by the life and manners of the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods.

At Stenton, the countryseat of James Logan, to which detailed reference has been made in a previous chapter, there is a hall and staircase arrangement such as can be found only in some of the earliest eighteenth-century country houses. This great brick-paved room wainscoted to the ceiling, with a fireplace across the right-hand corner, reflects the hall of the English manor house, which was a gathering place for the family and for the reception of guests, as instanced by the reception tendered to LaFayette in the great hall at Wyck on July 20, 1825.

Admirable bolection molded wood paneling of the dado and wall space above, a heavy molded cornice and high, fluted and slightly tapering pilasters standing on pedestals flanking the entrances on all four sides indicate more eloquently than words the charm of white-painted interior woodwork. As in many houses of equally early date, the absence of a mantel over the fireplace is characteristic, yet it seems a distinct omission in beauty and usefulness. Through the high arched opening in the rear, with its narrow double doors, is seen the winding staircase in a smaller stair hall beyond. In this hallway stands an iron chest to hold the family silver, the157 cumbrous old lock having fourteen tumblers. Above there are wooden pegs in the wall on which to hang hats. The broad staircase with its plain rectangular box stair ends is one of unusually simple stateliness, yet typical of the sturdy lines of Philadelphia construction, the window with its built-in seat on the landing being an ever pleasing arrangement. Severely plain square newels support an exceptionally broad and heavy handrail capped with dark wood, while attractive turned balusters of distinctive pattern complete a balustrade of more than ordinarily substantial character. A nicely paneled dado with dark-capped surbase along the opposite wall greatly enriches the effect.

About the middle of the eighteenth century wide halls leading entirely through the center of the house from front to back were common in large American houses. Where country houses had entrance and garden fronts of almost equal importance, with a large doorway at each end of the hall, the staircase was usually located in a small stair hall to one side of the main hall and at the front or back, as happened to be most convenient with respect to the desired floor plan. Where a small door at the rear opened into a secluded garden, the staircase was located at the rear of the main hall with the door under the staircase. In either case the staircase took the form of a broken flight, with a straight run along one wall rising about two-thirds of the158 total height to a broad landing across the hall where the direction of the flight reversed. The landing was usually lighted by a large round-topped Palladian window which provided one of the most charming features of the interior as well as the exterior of the house. Inside it was often graced by the "clock on the stairs", a handsome mahogany chair or a tip-table with candlesticks for lighting guests to their rooms.

Whitby Hall at Fifty-eighth Street and Florence Avenue, Kingsessing, West Philadelphia, offers a notable instance of this latter type of hall and staircase. The wide hall extends entirely through the western wing, the main entrance being on the flag-paved piazza of the south front. On the north front there is a tower-like projection in which the staircase ascends with a broad landing across the rear wall and a low outside door beneath. This unusual arrangement permits side windows on the landing in addition to the great Palladian window in the middle, so that both the upper and lower halls are flooded with light.

A great beam architecturally embellished with a complete entablature with pulvinated frieze, the soffit of the architrave consisting of small square molded panels, spans the hall over the foot of the stairs along the line of the rear wall of the western wing. It is supported on opposite sides by well-proportioned fluted pilasters with nicely tooled Ionic159 capitals and heavy molded bases. Thus the staircase vista from the front end of the hall is framed by an architectural setting of rare beauty. The heavy cornice of the beam, with its molded and jig-sawed modillions, continues all around the hall ceiling, the turned and molded drops of the newels on the floor above tying into it very pleasingly over the stairs. A molded surbase and skirting, with a broad expanse of plastered wall between, provides an effective dado all around the hall. Where it follows up the stairs, it corresponds to the handrail of the balustrade opposite. The molding is the same; there is the same upward sweep of the ramped rail, and it is also capped with dark wood. On the landing dainty little fluted pilasters support the surbase, their fine scale lending much grace and refinement. One notices there also the beautiful beveled paneling of the window embrasures, the paneled soffit of the Palladian window and its built-in seat. The balustrade is of sturdy conventional type characteristic of the period. Two attractively turned balusters grace each stair, their bases alike and otherwise differing only in the length of their tapering shafts. The newel treatment is especially appropriate, inasmuch as it reflects the Ionic order, the balustrade winding scroll-fashion about a slender fluted colonnette, and the first stair tread taking the outline of the rail above. Graceful scroll brackets adorn the stair ends beneath the molded160 projections of the treads. Altogether this is one of the most notable halls of this type in Philadelphia.

The oldest part of Whitby Hall as it now stands was erected in 1754 by James Coultas, wealthy merchant, shipowner, soldier and enthusiastic promoter of many public and philanthropic enterprises. In 1741 he established himself in a house then existing on the plantation that corresponds to the present east wing, which was reconstructed with rare fidelity in 1842 to match the western wing erected by Colonel Coultas. The walls of the entire present house all around are of nicely squared and dressed native gray stone, and to afford extra protection against prevailing winds a penthouse with coved cornice runs along the northern and western ends at the second-floor level. The gables of the west wing face north and south with quaint oval windows to light the attic. A flag-paved piazza extends across the south front, forming part of the main entrance, while in a tower projection on the north front is located the staircase already described. Both the hall doorway and windows in this tower have brick trim, an unusual feature, while the bull's-eye light in the tower pediment, also set in brick trim, was a porthole glass from one of Colonel Coultas' ships.

As a merchant and in numerous other private enterprises, Colonel Coultas amassed a substantial fortune. From 1744 to 1755 he was the lessee of the161 Middle Ferry, where Market Street bridge now stands, and it was chiefly due to his initiative that steps were first taken to make the Schuylkill River navigable. He was one of the commissioners who surveyed the stream and the first to demonstrate that large boats could be taken above the falls. In 1748 he was a captain of the Associates, a battery for the defense of Philadelphia against French insolence, and in 1756 during the Indian uprisings he became lieutenant-colonel of the county regiment. He was repeatedly justice of the peace, high sheriff of the county from 1755 to 1758, and in 1765 was appointed judge of the Orphans' Court, Quarter Sessions, and Common Pleas. He carried on a farm in Blockley, operated a sawmill on Cobb's Creek north of the Blue Bell Inn, was a devout vestryman and enthusiastic huntsman. He it was who laid the corner stone of the Church of St. James in 1762, and as a member of the Colony in Schuylkill and the Gloucester Fox Hunting Club he was also prominently identified with the more convivial activities of the community.

On Colonel Coultas' death in 1768, Whitby Hall was inherited by his niece, Martha Ibbetson Gray, and later passed by inheritance to her great-great-grandchildren in the Thomas family, in whose hands it still remains.

Eloquently typical of the broad hall running entirely through the house from front to back, with the162 staircase located in a smaller side hall, is the arrangement at Mount Pleasant to which reference has already been made in a previous chapter. It is one which affords delightful vistas through the outside doorways at each end and an ample open space for dancing on occasion. Handsome doorways along the sides open into the principal rooms and are notable for their beautifully molded architrave casings and nicely worked pedimental doorheads. In fact, the woodwork here, as well as that throughout the house, is heavier and richer in elaboration of detail than usual in Georgian houses of the North, the classic details of the fluted pilasters and heavy, intricately carved complete entablature being pure mutulary Doric and more ornate than the Ionic detail of Whitby Hall. However, this was quite in keeping with the larger and more pretentious character of the former. The entablature is a positive triumph in cornice, frieze and architrave. The moldings are of good design and carefully worked; the guttæ of the mutules, the triglyphs with paneled metopes between, and the guttæ of the architrave all closely follow the classic order and exemplify the finest hand tooling of the period.

So similar as a whole yet so different in detail are the staircase hall of Mount Pleasant and the staircase end of the main hall at Whitby Hall that they invite comparison. In general arrangement they are much the same, except that the staircases are163 reversed, left for right. As at Whitby Hall a flat arch frames the staircase vista, a great beam bearing the entablature surrounds the hall at the ceiling, spanning the entrance to the staircase hall and being supported by square, fluted columns. In this smaller hall a simple, though only a molded cornice in harmony with that of the main hall suffices. Unlike the plain dado of the main hall, however, elaborated only by a molded surbase and skirting, a handsome paneled wainscot runs around the staircase hall and up the stairs. The spacing and workmanship displayed in this heavily beveled and molded paneling could hardly be better. At the foot of the flight, on the landing and at the head of the stairs, the ramped surbase with its dark wood cap, corresponding to the handrail opposite, is supported by slender fluted pilasters which materially enrich the effect. The space under the lower run of the staircase is entirely paneled up with a small diagonal topped door opening into the little closet thus afforded. The scroll-pattern stair ends, balustrade and spiral newel treatment are much the same as at Whitby Hall. Although similar in pattern the balusters are more slender and placed three instead of two on each stair.

On the second floor, as below, the hall extends entirely through the house, and following a frequent custom of the time was finished in a different order of architecture, the pulvinated Ionic being164 chosen, no doubt, for its lighter grace and greater propriety adjoining bedchambers. In furtherance of this thought, only the cornice with its jig-sawed modillions was employed at the ceiling and the flat dado was paneled off by the application of moldings to give it a lighter scale. The complete entablature was used only over the archway at the head of the stairs, where it was supported by square, fluted columns with beautifully carved capitals. Another mannerism of the time is the variation in the treatment of the doorways, the pedimental doorheads on one side being broken, whereas the others are not.

But the handsomest features of this upper hall are the Palladian windows, admitting a flood of light at each end, with their rectangular sashes each side of a higher, round-arched central window and a delightful arrangement of curved sash bars at the top. The many small panes lend a pleasing sense of scale, while the architectural treatment of the frames adds to the charm of the interior woodwork quite as materially as to the exterior façade. In working out the scheme, the entire Ionic order is utilized on a small scale. Both the casings and the mullions take the form of fluted square columns with typical carved capitals. These support two complete entablatures forming the lintels of the rectangular windows and being carried around into the embrasure of the central window, the keyed165 arch of which springs from the entablatures. It is a design which has never been improved upon.

The hall and staircase at Cliveden combine distinctive characteristics of the halls at Stenton and Mount Pleasant. As at Stenton, the hall itself consists of a large reception room centrally located, and about which the other principal rooms of the house are grouped. Through an archway at the rear is a slightly narrower though spacious staircase hall extending through to the back of the house, where the broken staircase rises to a broad landing and the direction of the run reverses. The architecture is as pure Doric as at Mount Pleasant, but of the denticulated rather than the mutulary order, and altogether more satisfactory for interior trim in wood. The cornice only is carried around the room at the ceiling, and in the staircase hall only the cymatium and corona of the cornice; but over the archway, supported by a colonnade of four fluted round columns, a complete entablature with nicely worked classic detail is employed and given added emphasis by several inches' projection into the reception hall. The columns are spaced so as to form a wide central archway flanked by two narrow ones, the effect being a staircase vista unexcelled in the domestic architecture of Philadelphia. The picture is enriched by a heavily paneled wainscot and handsome, deeply embrasured doorways with architrave casings, paneled jambs and soffits.166

Except for the single, simple turned newel, the staircase is much like that at Mount Pleasant. There is the similar ramped balustrade and paneled wainscot with ramped surbase and dark wood cap rail along the wall opposite. Little pilasters likewise support this rail, but they are paneled rather than fluted. There are similar scroll-pattern stair ends and paneling under the stairs. In this instance the under side of the upper run is paneled in wood rather than plastered. The turned balusters are slightly more elaborate than at Mount Pleasant, but are used in the same manner, three to the stair.

Not built until nearly the dawn of the nineteenth century, Upsala belongs to a later period than most of the notable houses in Philadelphia. The lighter grace of Adam design had begun to dominate American building and is to be seen in the staircase as well as in the mantels and other interior woodwork at Upsala. The staircase combines features of the broken flight with a midway landing, such as the foregoing examples, and of the later development in long halls where the direction of the flight was reversed by a curved portion of the run instead of a landing. The breadth and length of the hall made landings possible and desirable, but instead of one wide midway landing between the upper and lower runs of the flight, there were two square landings separated by three steps, the stair stringers, balustrade and wainscot swinging upward in broad-sweeping167 curves. The wainscot consists of a charmingly varied paneling, while the balustrade is lighter in treatment than was usually the case. A simple dark wood handrail, slender, square molded balusters and stairs having a low rise and broad treads lend grace of appearance rarely equaled. Jig-sawed outline brackets of unusually harmonious scroll pattern placed under the molded overhang of the treads provide additional ornamentation of a refined character. The spiral newel is but a simpler form of those already alluded to. Altogether it is a staircase that charms the eye through its unaffected simplicity, a quality that never loses its power of appeal whether found inside the house or out.

Two other stairways with balustrades of slender grace are worthy of note, especially as instances of a single, small turned newel on the lower step, the handrail terminating in a round cap on the top. The simpler of these is at Roxborough and has balusters of unique contour standing not on the stair treads but on the cased-up stair stringer. The staircase in the Gowen house, Mount Airy, has a balustrade with three slender, but more or less conventional, balusters on each step, the treads, like the handrail and newel, being painted dark. A graceful jig-sawed bracket of scroll pattern adorns each stair end under the overhang of the tread, and the space under the stairs is closed in by well-spaced molded and raised paneling.168

Another distinctive scroll outline bracket for stair ends forms the principal feature of a graceful staircase in the Carpenter house, Third and Spruce streets. The pattern manifests great refinement and has excellent proportion. In contrast with these lighter designs for domestic architecture, it is interesting to examine the stair-end treatment in Independence Hall, which is equally pleasing as an example of heavier, richer detail for public work. The brackets are solid, of evolute spiral outline and beautifully hand carved.169

CHAPTER X

In Colonial times fireplaces were a necessity. They supplied the only means of heating the house, and much of the cooking was done by them also. Indeed, the hanging of the crane was regarded as a signal event in establishing a new home, and often a cast-iron fireback bore the date of erection of the house and the name or initials of its owner. Each of the principal rooms had its fireplace and often a large parlor, drawing-room or library had two fireplaces, usually at opposite ends or sides, though rarely on the same side, as in the library at Stenton. The hearthstone was the center of family life, and architects, therefore, very properly made the mantels and chimney pieces with which they embellished the fireplace the architectural center of each room,—the gem in a setting of nicely wrought interior woodwork.

Then came the Franklin stove, throwing more heat out into the room and less up the chimney. Fireplaces were accordingly bricked up to accommodate it, a pipe was run into it, and presently the170 air-tight stove supplanted Franklin's open grate. Later central heating plants for hot air, steam and hot water were developed in the basement and connected by pipes with registers and radiators in the various rooms above. They gave greater and more even heat, consumed less fuel and were more easily taken care of than several fires in various parts of the house. For a time houses were built for the most part without fireplaces, but gradually a sense of loss began to be generally felt. These registers and radiators warmed the flesh, but they left the spirit cold; there was no poetry or sentiment whatever about them.

The outcome was obvious. The central heating plant has of course remained, but recent years have witnessed the general reopening of bricked-up fireplaces in old houses large and small, and to-day few new houses are built without a fireplace in the living room at least. To a degree it is a luxury, perhaps, though not a very expensive one, yet it is something for which all able to do so are very glad to pay. Besides, on chilly spring and autumn days and rainy summer evenings it provides a cheap and convenient auxiliary heating plant. But an open fire warms more than the hands and feet; it reaches the heart. Its appeal goes back to the tribal camp-fire and stirs some primitive instinct in man. "Hearth and home" are synonymous; there is a whole ritual of domestic worship which centers171 around an open fire. A blaze on a hearth is more than a luxury, more than a comfort; it is an altar fire.

And so in building the modern Colonial home we find ourselves ever going back to study the creations of the master builders of provincial times in America, when fireplaces meant even more than they do to-day, and finding in their achievements ideas and inspiration of great beauty and practical value. The neighborhood of Philadelphia is as rich in its collection of fine old mantels and chimney pieces as in its splendid interior woodwork generally. Like the latter they are for the most part of the early Georgian period, mostly chimney pieces, many without shelves, and usually somewhat heavy in scale and detail.

As in other important architectural features the development of mantels and chimney pieces in America followed to a degree the prevailing mode in the mother country. For many years after the Italian classic orders were brought to England by Inigo Jones, early in the seventeenth century, chimney pieces usually consisted merely of a mantel shelf and classic architraves or bolection moldings about the fireplace opening, the chimney breast above being paneled like the rest of the room. Toward the end of that century, and for several decades following, the shelf was omitted and the paneling on the chimney breast took the form of two172 horizontally disposed oblongs, the upper broader than the lower.

Such an arrangement in its simplest form is to be seen in the great hall at Stenton, where a fireplace is located across one corner. The elliptical arch of the white pilastered brickwork and the height of the horizontal architrave above this arch impart a touch of quaint distinction. One notices with admiration the beautiful brass andirons and fire set, and with interest the floreated cast-iron fireback.

Going to the other extreme we find in the parlor at Whitby Hall a magnificently ornate example of the chimney piece without a mantel shelf which, as in many Colonial houses, has been made the central feature of one side of the room, symmetrically arranged and architecturally treated with wood paneling throughout. A heavy cornice with prominent double denticulated string course or crenelated molding runs entirely around the room, tying the fireplace end of the room into the general scheme. The chimney piece projects slightly, lending greater emphasis, and at each side the wall space is given over to high round-topped double doors of closets divided into upper and lower parts, beautifully flush-paneled and hung with quaint iron H hinges. Like those of the other doors and windows, the casings are of architrave pattern and in the center of the round arch is a keystone-shaped ornament hand-tooled in wood. The fireplace opening is faced173 beautifully with cut black marble brought from Scotland and outlined with a nicely chiseled ovolo molding in wood similar to the familiar egg and dart pattern, but incorporating the richer Lesbian leaf instead of the dart, a closely related reed-like motive replacing the conventional bead and reel. Two handsomely carved consoles resting on the fillet of this ovolo molding support the superb molded panel of the overmantel some three by five feet, in which to this day not a joint is to be seen. A band of exquisite floreated carving in high relief fills the long, narrow, horizontal panel between the consoles. The precision of the tooling in this intricate tracery is indeed remarkable. Nicely worked but simple parallel moldings with the favorite Grecian fret sharply delineated between them and Lesbian leaf ornaments in the square projections at the corners compose a frame of exceptional grace of detail and proportion. Rarely is an ensemble so elaborate accompanied by such a marked degree of good taste and restraint.

In the great chamber on the second floor, which is believed to have been the boudoir of the mistress of Mount Vernon, there is a very similar, though even more elaborate, architectural treatment of the fireplace and of the room. Closets with round-topped doors again occupy the spaces each side of the fireplace; the cornice surrounding the entire room with its conspicuous Grecian fret motive 174 again ties the paneled end of the room into the general scheme, and in this instance the relation is made closer by the paneled wainscot which is carried about all four walls. In this wainscot two panel sections under each closet are hung as double doors opening into small supplementary closets. Owing to the loftiness of the room, the closet doors have been elaborated by ornate broken pedimental heads repeating the cornice on a smaller scale, and which are supported by paneled pilasters and large consoles superbly carved with an acanthus leaf decoration.

Beautiful as these doorways are in themselves, they are so much heavier in treatment than the overmantel as to detract from it; they do not occupy an unobtrusive subordinate position, as do the closet doors of the parlor at Whitby Hall. Moreover, the trim of each door occupies such a breadth of wall space that the fireplace and overmantel are narrowed, the latter taking the form of a vertical rather than a horizontal oblong. In fact, the dominant lines throughout are here vertical as contrasted with the dominant horizontal lines at Whitby Hall. The loftiness and stateliness of the room are thereby emphasized, but the effect is less restful.

In architectural detail the fireplace and overmantel recall that of the Whitby Hall chimney piece. There are similar black marble facings about the fireplace opening outlined by a hand-tooled molding, and similar elaborately carved consoles175 supporting a handsomely molded panel with projecting ornamental corners, but in this instance the panel is surmounted by a highly ornamental top, consisting of a swag or broken pediment with an exquisitely hand-carved floreated design in high relief between the volutes which imparts a charming lightness and grace to the ensemble. Pilaster projections bearing nicely delineated leaf ornaments above the corners of the overmantel panel tie into corresponding projections in the cornice and unify the whole construction. Otherwise the chimney piece differs from that of Whitby Hall chiefly in its moldings, in which the Lesbian leaf is prominent. The ovolo about the marble facings of the fireplace bears the conventional bead and reel and egg and dart motives, the latter having a leaf design in alternation with the egg. The ogee molding outlining the overmantel panel is enriched with a larger and a smaller leaf motive in alternation, while the torus of the inner molding of this panel bears a little conventionalized flower in alternation with crossed flat fillets.

Altogether more pleasing is the chimney piece in the parlor at Mount Pleasant. In fact, it is regarded as one of the handsomest chimney pieces without a mantel shelf in America. Its excellence is due not to superiority of detail, but to better proportion, the breadth of the chimney breast being sufficient to make the overmantel panel practically square. This176 great fireplace construction for burning four-foot logs projects into the room some eighteen inches, with wood-paneled sides, the adjoining walls being plastered. Around it are carried the chaste Ionic cornice with its prominent dentil course; and the paneled wainscot below corresponds to the pedestal of the order. In the general arrangement of the design, this chimney piece follows closely that of the one above, except that top, sides and bottom of the overmantel panel frame are alike. As at Whitby Hall the familiar Grecian fret very acceptably occupies the space between the inner and outer moldings of this frame and obviates the need of any elaborate carved decoration above the panel. Contrasting pleasingly with this fret and on opposite sides of it are a plain molded ovolo outlining the panel and a small floreated torus supplemented by a molded cymatium within. The pilaster projections tying the panel treatment to the cornice bear three nicely tooled vertical flower designs in a row, an unusual conception. An ovolo of conventional egg and dart motive with the customary bead and reel astragal outlines the black marble facings of the fireplace opening. The console ornamentation is strongly reminiscent of that at Whitby Hall.

The mantel shelf proper was far too practical and attractive a feature of the fireplace to be long abandoned, however. It furnished a convenient place for clocks, candlesticks, china and other ornaments,177 and it appealed to the eye because of the homelike, livable appearance these articles of decoration gave to the room. About the middle of the eighteenth century the shelf of former times was reinstated and the overmantel was developed into a single large and elaborately framed panel over the chimney breast in which often hung a family portrait, a gilt-framed mirror or girandole.

Such a chimney piece is to be seen in the parlor at Cliveden, its fireplace opening partly closed up to convert it for use with the coal grate shown by the accompanying illustration. In this instance the carved consoles support the shelf rather than the panel of the overmantel, which engages neither the shelf nor the cornice with its prominent double denticulated molding. Otherwise, the chimney piece is essentially the same in arrangement as that in the parlor at Mount Pleasant. It has the same pleasing breadth and generally good proportions, but is severely simple in detail, the conventional ovolo of egg and dart motive without the astragal which outlines the black marble fireplace facings being the only enriched molding. As was customary, the shelf takes the form of a cymatium, and the projections above the consoles and central panel are characteristic details.

Much like this, though simpler in the absence of any enriched moldings and having less projection, is the chimney piece on the second floor of an old178 Spruce Street house shown by an accompanying illustration. It has substantially the same overmantel frame and mantel treatment. Incidentally it furnishes an excellent example of the complete paneling of one end of a room with the familiar six-panel ordinary inside doors each side of the fireplace. The architrave casings of the doors with their horizontal projections over the lintel are in pleasing accord with the corresponding projections of the overmantel frame and of the facing of the fireplace opening.

Toward the end of the eighteenth century and for some years thereafter, mantels with a shelf, but without any overmantel treatment of the chimney breast, became the rule. The whole construction was usually projected from twelve to eighteen inches into the room, however, and as the surbase and skirting or a paneled wainscot and the cornice above was carried around it, the effect was much like that of a chimney piece, especially when a large, ornamental framed mantel mirror occupied the space over the chimney breast.

The mantel itself took the form of a complete entablature above the fireplace opening, supported by pilasters at each side, the pilasters usually being carried up through the entablature by projections in architrave, frieze and cornice respectively, and the cymatium of the cornice forming the mantel shelf. The classic orders supplied much of the179 ornamental detail with which these mantels were embellished, and the work gave full scope to the genius of English and American wood-carvers, of whom there were many of marked ability in America.

The thriving condition of the ship-building industry in the colonies was instrumental in attracting and developing skilled wood-carvers. Many of them became apt students of architecture and proficient in executing hand-tooled enriched moldings and other ornament for mantels and chimney pieces. Not content with the conventional detail of the classic orders, they varied it considerably to suit their purposes, using familiar motives in new ways, securing classic effects with detail of their own conception, and at times departing far from all precedent. For the most part their achievements displayed that good taste and restraint combined with a novelty and an ingenuity which have given our best Colonial architecture its principal charm and distinction.

Numerous examples of this sort of hand-carved mantels are to be found in Philadelphia, but none elicits greater admiration than those in two rooms at Upsala which are shown by accompanying illustrations. Enriched with a wealth of intricate, fine-scale hand-tooling of daintiness and precision, they indicate the influence of Adam design and detail, although quite unlike the typical Adam mantel. They form an especially interesting study180 for comparison because of the marked similarity of the general scheme in all three and the difference in effect resulting from variations in detail.

The simplest of the three is a mantel for an iron hob grate with dark marble facings outlined by simple moldings. Familiar fluted pilasters support a mantel board entablature of rare beauty. Beneath a conventional cymatium and corona, with projections above the pilasters and central panel of the frieze, is a nicely worked dentil course,—a band of vertical flutes with a drilled tooth in the upper half of each alternate flute. The pilaster projections of the frieze are fluted in dots and dashes arranged in vertical lines, while a similar treatment of the central panel is so arranged that a pattern suggesting four festoons and five straight hanging garlands is produced. The upper fascia is enriched with groups of five vertical flutes in alternation with an incised conventionalized flower.

Resembling the foregoing, but more elaborate, is the mantel in the parlor with its richer moldings and intricate carving. An astragal with the customary bead and reel separates the cymatium and the corona, while a drilled rope supplies the bed molding above the dentil course. The latter consists of a continuous pattern of vertical and shorter horizontal flutes, the alternate vertical half spaces above and below the cross line of the H being cut out flat and deeper. The pilaster projections of181 the frieze, the central panel and the pilasters at each side of the fireplace opening supporting the entablature are vertical fluted in short sections which break joints like running bond in brickwork. In both the pilaster projections and the central panel the carving has been done in such a manner as to leave four-sided decorative figures with segmental sides in slender outline flush with the surface. The upper fascia of the architrave is adorned by shallow drillings suggesting tiny festoons and straight hanging garlands with a conventionalized flower above each festoon. A cavetto molding, enriched with a bead and reel astragal and another drilled rope torus, outlines the dark marble facings about the fireplace opening. Handsome brass andirons, fender and fire set, together with the large gilt-framed mirror above, combine with the mantel to make this one of the most beautiful fireplaces in Philadelphia.

The third example in another room at Upsala is virtually the same as the mantel just described, except for the greater elaboration of the pilasters, pilaster projections of the frieze and central panel. Apart from these three features, the only essential differences are a dentil course in the cornice like that of the first Upsala mantel described and a vertical fluted belt in the capital of the pilasters and associated moldings. In the pilaster projections of the frieze there are flush outline ornaments taking the form of a shield, while other graceful182 outline patterns running through the flutings adorn the upper half of the pilasters proper. The lower half is fluted in the short running bond sections. The central panel of the frieze retains and elaborates the motive of festoons and straight hanging garlands, the space above the festoons in this instance being left flush except for an incised conventionalized flower design in each of the three sections.

Rarely are three mantels of such attractive design, good proportion, distinctive detail and dainty appearance to be found in a single house. Seldom are three mantels to be found which are so similar and yet so different. They present an eloquent illustration of the infinite possibilities of minor variation in architectural design.

The same influences were at work elsewhere, however, and two other mantels shown by accompanying illustrations, one in a house at Third and DeLancy streets and another in the Rex house, Mount Airy, show numerous variations of similar motives. In both, vertical flutings are depended upon chiefly for decoration, ornamental patterns being formed by flush sections where the cutting of the flutes is interrupted. In both instances the original fireplace opening has been partially closed up, in one case for a Franklin stove, and in the other for a hob grate, both for burning coal.

The mantel at Number 312 Cypress Street, with its well-proportioned entablature and paneled183 pilasters, displays a central panel in the frieze similar to the foregoing examples, but possesses a more distinct Adam character in the human figures in composition applied to the pilaster projections of the frieze, and in the drillings of the upper fascia of the architrave, simulating festoons. A reeded ovolo and deeply cut and drilled denticulated member lend sufficient emphasis to the string course of the cornice.

At Number 729 Walnut Street is to be seen a typically Adam mantel of exceptional grace and beauty. Instead of the usual pilasters the entablature is supported by two pairs of slender reeded colonnettes, and the fireplace opening is framed by moldings in which a torus enriched with a rope motive is prominent. The shelf or cymatium of the entablature has round corners and is supported by pilaster projections above the colonnettes at each end and by a projecting central panel, all of these projections being vertical fluted in the frieze portion. Both the central panel and the sunken panels each side of it bear graceful festoons and straight hanging garlands suspended from flower ornaments, the central space of both sunken panels being occupied by a small, sharply delineated medallion in white, suggestive of wedgewood. This composition work was nicely detailed and is still well preserved. Below, the upper fascia of the architrave is enriched in accord with the Adam spirit. Drillings forming184 festoons with a tiny ornament above alternate with groups of seven vertical dotted lines. The fireplace opening has been closed up with stone slabs to inclose a Franklin stove for burning coal, the effect being much the same as a hob grate. In terms of dainty grace and chaste simplicity this is one of the best mantels in Philadelphia.185

CHAPTER XI

Mantels and staircases, the most important architectural features of interiors, were very properly elaborated considerably beyond the somewhat negative character of background accessories by the builders of Colonial times. Virtually furnishings as well as necessary parts of the house, the application of tasteful ornamentation to them seems amply justified. Each is a subject in itself, as indicated by the fact that stair building and mantel construction still remain independent trades quite apart from ordinary joinery. For that reason two separate chapters of this book have been devoted to these important subjects, the present chapter being devoted to interior woodwork in general.

What the interior wood trim of the average eighteenth-century Philadelphia house consists of is shown by accompanying photographs, especially those in Stenton, Mount Pleasant and Whitby Hall. It is found that the principal rooms of pretentious mansions, such as the hall, parlor and reception186 room at Stenton, were sometimes entirely paneled up on all sides. About this time, however, hand-blocked wall paper began to be brought to America, and a favorite treatment of Colonial interiors, including halls, parlors, dining rooms and even the principal bedrooms of large houses, combined a cornice, or often a cornice and frieze, and sometimes a complete entablature, with a paneled wainscot or a flat dado with surbase and skirting, the wall between being papered. Sometimes a dado effect was secured by means of a surbase above the skirting, the plaster space between being left white as in the parlor at Cliveden or in the hall and dining room at Whitby Hall, or papered like the wall above, as in the parlor at Whitby Hall and in some of the chambers at Upsala. Later the skirting only was frequently employed with a simple cornice or picture mold, even in the principal rooms of the better houses, as in the dining room at Whitby Hall. Several accompanying illustrations show it with the dado, while a few interiors of Mount Pleasant, Upsala and Cliveden show it with the paneled wainscot. This general scheme constitutes a pleasing and consistent application of the classic orders to interior walls, the dado, the wall above it and whatever portion of the entablature happens to be employed corresponding to the pedestal, shaft and entablature of the complete order respectively. In a room so treated the dado becomes virtually a187 continuous pedestal with a base or skirting and a surbase above the die or plane face of the pedestal. Usually this surbase is molded to resemble the upper fascia or the complete architrave of the various orders. Again it may be hand-carved with vertical flutings, continuous, as in the parlor at Upsala, or in groups of three or more in alternation with an incised flower pattern, as in the Rex house.

For the most part the surmounting cornice and frieze of the room was of wood, beautifully molded and often hand-carved, the architrave usually being omitted. In the library at Solitude, however, is to be seen a handsome cornice and frieze entirely of plaster or composition work in the Adam manner, including familiar classic detail in which enriched cavetto and ogee moldings, festoons, flower ornaments and draped human figures are prominent. When chandeliers for candles began to be used in private houses they were hung from ornamental centerpieces of plaster on the ceiling, the motives usually being circles, ovals, festooned garlands and acanthus leaves. Such a centerpiece and ornamental treatment of the ceiling is also a feature of this room.

In most of the better houses during the Provincial period, important rooms had paneled wainscots, papered walls and molded cornices, as in the parlor and second-story hall at Mount Pleasant and in the parlor at Upsala. Sometimes the plaster walls were188 left white or painted, as in the hall at Cliveden and the library at Stenton. A fireplace with paneled chimney piece was an important feature of most rooms, and the entire wall including it was often completely paneled up, closely relating the fireplace, doors or windows in a definite architectural scheme, as already shown by examples in Stenton, Whitby Hall and Mount Pleasant. Embrasured windows with two-part paneled folding shutters and seats jutting somewhat into the room were customary in early brick and stone houses, as at Stenton. These were fastened by bars of wood thrust across from side to side and fitting into slots in the jambs. Later, outside shutters came into vogue, and the jambs and soffit of the embrasures were paneled, as at Whitby Hall, the treatment of the Palladian window on the staircase landing in this house being an especially fine example.

The parlor at Stenton is among the most notable instances in Philadelphia of this architectural treatment of the fireplace in a room with wood paneling throughout. Along Georgian lines and decidedly substantial in character, it is essentially simple in conception and graceful in form and proportion, the spacing of the large bolection molded raised panels being excellent. First attention properly goes to the wide chimney piece with its unusual, but attractive overmantel paneling, low arched and marble-faced fireplace opening, beautiful brass fender189 and andirons. The symmetrical arrangement of two flanking china closets, with round-headed double doors recalling those shown at Whitby Hall and Mount Pleasant, is most effective. The work is executed in a masterly manner, the proportions being well calculated and the precision of the hand tooling remarkably well maintained. Both the doors and embrasured windows of this room merit careful study.

Of more modest, but generally similar treatment, is the paneling of the reception room at Stenton, the fireplace opening here having been closed for installation of a Franklin stove.

At Whitby Hall there are two interesting and characteristic examples of embrasured windows with paneled jambs and soffits, and molded architrave casings. In the dining room the embrasures are cased down to the window seats, while in the parlor the casings with their broader sections at top and bottom do not extend below the surbase, although the embrasure continues to the floor. In this latter room one of the Colonial builder's favorite motives, ever recurring with minor variations throughout many houses, occupies the string course of the cornice. This double denticulated member or Grecian fret band is formed by vertical cross cuttings, alternately from top and bottom of a square molding, the plain ogee molding beneath giving it just the proper emphasis.190

Conforming to the characteristic panel arrangement of the time, most of the inside doors of Philadelphia have six panels, the upper pair being not quite square and the two lower pairs being oblong, the middle pair being longer than the lower. Like outside doors they were for the most part molded and raised with broad bevels, although occasionally, as on the second floor at Mount Pleasant, they were flat and bolection molded, giving the door a considerably different aspect. Generally speaking, the workmanship was excellent, the beveling of the panels and the molding of the stiles and rails manifesting the utmost painstaking. A simple knob and key-plate, usually of brass, completed the complement of hardware, apart from the H hinges of early years and the butts which soon followed. It will be noted that all of these six-panel doors have stiles and muntins of virtually equal width, any variation being slightly wider stiles. Top and frieze rails are alike and about the same width as the muntin, but the bottom rail is somewhat broader and the lock rail the broadest of the four. Moldings are very simple and confined to the edge of the panels, with the splayed or beveled panels of earlier years gradually being abandoned in favor of plain, flat surfaces.

Architrave casings were the rule, sometimes extending to the floor and often standing on heavy, square plinth blocks the height of the skirting191 beneath its molding. There are instances of both types at Mount Pleasant and Whitby Hall. The thickness of the walls in houses of brick and stone encouraged the custom of paneling the jambs and soffit of doorway openings to correspond with the paneling of the doors, the effect being rich and very pleasing. Generally the architrave casing was miter-joined across the lintel, as at Upsala, but in many of the better houses this horizontal part of the casing was given an overhang of an inch or two to form the doorhead. How pleasing this simple device was, especially when a rosette of stucco was applied to each jog of the casing, is well exemplified by the doors on the first floor at Whitby Hall. Very similar door trim without the rosette is to be seen at Cliveden and in numerous other houses.

At Mount Pleasant, and in several of the more pretentious old Colonial mansions of Philadelphia, this type of door trim was elaborated by a surmounting frieze and heavy pediment above the architrave casing. The first floor hall at Mount Pleasant presents the interesting combination of a pulvinated Ionic pediment with a mutulary Doric cornice and frieze about the ceiling. Here one notices the flat dado and doors with raised and molded panels as contrasted with the paneled wainscot and bolection-molded, flat-paneled doors of the second-story hall. In this latter, also, some of the pediments are complete, others broken,192 illustrating another whim of the early American builders. Here the cornice is also Ionic with jig-sawed modillions, and the ensemble is generally more pleasing. In proportion and precision of workmanship this woodwork is hardly excelled in Philadelphia. The simple, carefully wrought dentil course of the doorheads lends a refining influence and pleasing sense of scale that seems to lighten the design very materially.

Philadelphia has no handsomer example of the enriched pedimental doorhead than the interior treatment of the entrance doorway of the Blackwell house, Number 224 Pine Street. Above the horizontal overhang of the architrave casing across the lintel two beautifully carved consoles, the width of the frieze in height, support a cornice which is the base of a broken pediment. The familiar Grecian band or double denticulated molding in the string course gives character to the cornice, while an attractive leaf decoration in applied composition adorns the recessed frieze panel. Projections of the cornice above the consoles lend an added touch of refinement. This elaboration of the white wood trim is further emphasized by the dark red-brown painting of the door to simulate old mahogany, which became a frequent feature of the houses of this period.

Round-headed doorways here and there, not only at the front entrance, but elsewhere, as in the hall193 at Hope Lodge, provided a welcome variation from the customary square-headed types and have been a pleasing feature of Colonial interiors since early times. As framing the glazed doorways of china closets already referred to, they were a charming feature of the interior wood finish. At the front entrance the round-headed doorway was utilized to provide an ornamental yet practical fanlight transom over the door which admitted considerable light to brighten the hall. As contrasted with this more graceful arrangement, the broad front entrance to Whitby Hall, with its severely plain unmolded four-panel double doors and wrought-iron strap hinges, bolts, latch and great rim lock, is of quaint interest. The accompanying photograph shows well the dado effect secured by a surbase and skirting, and one notes with interest the cornice with its prominent modillions and the heavy plinth blocks on which the architrave casings of the doors stand.

Round-headed windows were employed for landing windows in stair halls, as at Whitby Hall, and in the central part of the Palladian windows over entrances, as at Mount Pleasant, where they became decorative interior features of the front end of the second-floor halls.

Elliptical-headed openings are rare in Philadelphia, and in most instances were arches across the main hall, as at Hope Lodge. Sometimes they framed the staircase vista at the head or foot of194 the flight, where they became one of the most charming features of the best Colonial interiors.

The illustrations of interiors at Stenton accompanying this chapter, serve, as might many others, to show that white-painted interior woodwork, although one of the greatest charms of the Colonial house, finds its principal mission in providing the only architectural background that sets off satisfactorily the warmth of color and grace of line possessed by eighteenth-century furniture in mahogany and other dark woods. Bright and cheerful, chaste and beautiful, it emphasizes the beauties of everything before it, yet seldom forces itself into undue prominence. It is a scheme of interior treatment which has stood the test of time and indicates what excellent taste the Colonial builders manifested in resorting to its subtle influence to display their rare pieces of furniture brought from England and the Continent.

The admirable work of Philadelphia joiners indicates conclusively the many possibilities of white-painted soft woods. Unlike hardwood finish, the natural grain of the wood is concealed by painting, so that broad flat surfaces and simple moldings would be monotonous. Beauty of form is therefore substituted for the beauty of wood grain. Classic motives and detail are brought to bear upon the interior woodwork in such a manner as to delight the eye, yet not to detract unduly from the195 furnishings of the room. And the charm of much of the resulting woodwork indicates an early realization by American craftsmen of the fact that a nice balance between plain surface and decoration is as important as the decoration itself. It was by their facility in the design and execution of this woodwork that skilled wood-carvers were able to impart that lightness, grace and ingenuity of adaptation to which the Colonial style chiefly owes its charm.196

CHAPTER XII

As in its domestic architecture of Colonial times, Philadelphia is so rich in its fine old public buildings that a readable and instructive book could be made about them alone. Intended for religious, political and commercial purposes, erected from one to two centuries ago and ranging from the frugal simplicity of the Mennonite Meeting House in Germantown to the stately beauty of Independence Hall, these noble edifices of bygone days were the scenes of momentous events in the most glorious and troublous period of the world's first republic. Their histories are inspiring and likewise their architecture. Exigencies of space in a book of this sort render it impossible to include all worthy examples, but an effort has been made to present a representative collection that does justice to the annals and building genius of this remarkable city.

Probably the most famous historical monument in the United States is Independence Hall, on Chestnut Street between Fifth and Sixth streets. Here the American nation really came into being and197 began to function, and here come thousands of visitors annually to view in awed admiration the greatest patriotic shrine of a free people. The building, designed by Andrew Hamilton, speaker of the Assembly, and built under his direction for the State House, was used for that purpose until 1799. The foundations were laid in 1731, and the main building was ready for occupancy in 1735, although the wings and steeple were not completed until 1751. The steeple was taken down in 1781, but was restored to its original condition by William Strickland in 1828, and further restorations of the building to its original condition were effected later by the city government. The east, or "Declaration" chamber, still appears substantially as it did when that famous document was signed, but the restoration of certain other rooms has been less satisfactory. The building has been set apart by the city, which purchased it from the State in 1816, as a museum of historical relics, and during the past century has been used by various public offices and societies.

Many famous buildings of Colonial times were the work of amateur architects, but this is without exception the finest contemporary administrative building in America; a noble building rich in glorious memories; nobler even than the Bulfinch State House at Boston or the Maryland State House at Annapolis. It is an enduring monument to198 Hamilton's versatility, showing that with his genius he might have won distinction as an architect no less than as a barrister. His sense of design, mass and proportion, his appreciation of the relative value and most effective uses of classic detail and his ability to harmonize the exigencies of the floor plan with attractive appearance were second to those of no professional architect of his time.

Independence Hall is a stately structure of exceptionally well-balanced symmetrical arrangement, beautiful alike in its general mass and minutest details, and presenting a delightful appearance from whatever viewpoint it is seen,—dignified, spacious and picturesque, a building that seems to typify the serenity of mind and steadfastness of purpose of those sturdy patriots who made it famous.

The structure comprises three parts; a large central building with hip-roofed wings for offices connected with the main building by open arcaded loggias. The present wings are restorations. Beyond the wings are two buildings erected after the close of the Revolution, but forming part of the group. That at the corner of Fifth and Chestnut streets was erected as the Philadelphia County Court House, while that at the corner of Sixth and Chestnut streets was the City Hall.

The entire group is of characteristic Philadelphia brick construction, delightfully mellowed by age, with marble and white-painted wood trim. The199 main building is two stories high with a decked gable roof, heavily balustraded between large, arched quadruple chimney stacks at each end, corners heavily quoined with marble and ends without fenestration other than a round bull's-eye window in each. Across the one hundred and seven feet of the Chestnut Street façade there is a range of nine broad, high, twenty-four-paned windows with flat gauged brick arches and high marble keystones, the central window being replaced by a simple, very high and deeply recessed doorway with a broad stone stoop before it. Tying into the keystones is a horizontal belt of marble across the entire front. A similar belt is located immediately beneath the window sills of the second story, and between the two belts and ranging with the windows are nine oblong marble panels set into the brickwork.

On the Independence Square façade everything is subordinated to the great square steeple-like clock tower, centrally located, which stands its entire height outside but adjoining the walls of the main building. In construction the lower two stories of the tower correspond to those of the building itself, and the cornice of the latter is effectively carried around the tower. Above, the tower rises two more stories of brick with pedimented and pilastered walls in the Ionic order and surmounted with classic urns and flame motives. Above this level the construction of the clock tower is of200 white-painted wood, one story with Corinthian pilasters and another balustraded, rising in four-sided diminutions to the octagonal, open arched belfry and superstructure, above which is a tapering pinnacle and gilt weathervane. It is a tower of grace, dignity and repose, a tower suggestive of ecclesiastical work, perhaps, yet withal in complete harmony with its situation and purpose. In the base of this tower is the main entrance, a simple and dignified pillared doorway in the mutulary Doric order with double four-panel doors, and a magnificent Palladian window in the Ionic order above, to which reference was made in a previous chapter. Thus three distinct orders of architecture are used in this tower alone, presenting another instance of the great freedom with which early American architects utilized their favorite motives.

Entering this doorway one comes into a great, square, lofty, brick-paved hall in the base of the tower where now reposes the Liberty Bell at the foot of what has often been called the finest staircase in America. And where, indeed, is to be found a more splendid combination of nicely worked white wood trim with touches of mahogany and dark green stairs? Done in the Ionic order, with a heavy cornice having carved modillions and a prominent dentil course, deeply embrasured windows with paneled jambs and broad sills supported by beautifully hand-tooled consoles, and a nicely201 spaced paneled wainscot, this entrance is a fitting frame for the broad winding staircase. Rising ramp after ramp by broad treads and low risers, it leads first to a broad landing in front lighted by the Palladian window over the entrance, and thence upward and around to a gallery across the opposite wall, where a broad double doorway with delightful fanlight above leads into the main hall of the second floor. To the right a narrow staircase rises to the belfry. The classic balustrade, with its mahogany-capped rail and simple landing newels is heavy but well proportioned; the paneled wainscot along the wall follows the contour of the ramped rail opposite, and the under side of the landings, gallery and upper runs are nicely paneled. Elaborately carved scroll brackets adorn the stair ends, and a harmonious floreated volute spiral band runs along the edge of the gallery; while the pilaster casings of the upper doorway and of the Palladian window are enriched with straight hanging garlands. At the foot of the staircase the newel treatment takes the scroll form of the Ionic volute, the rail and balusters on the circular end of the broad lower step winding around a central column like the landing newels.

Hanging from its original beam, but within an ornamental frame erected in the center of this staircase hall, is the best-known relic of the building, the famous Liberty Bell, which is supposed,202 without adequate evidence, to have been the first bell to announce the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. It was cast in England early in 1752 and bears the following inscription: "By order of the Assembly of the Province of Pennsylvania for the State House in Philadelphia, 1752", and underneath: "Proclaim Liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof, Lev. XXV, V, X." In August, 1752, the bell was received in Philadelphia, but was cracked by a stroke of the clapper the following month. It was recast, but the work being unsatisfactory, it was again recast with more copper, in Philadelphia during May, 1753, and in June was hung in the State House steeple, where it remained until taken to Allentown, Pennsylvania, in 1777, to prevent it from falling into the hands of the British. In 1781 the bell was lowered and the steeple removed. In 1828 a new steeple was erected, and a new bell put in place, the Liberty Bell being given a place in an upper story of the tower to be rung only on occasions of great importance. On July 8, 1835, it suddenly cracked again while being tolled in memory of Chief Justice John Marshall, and on February 22, 1843, this crack was so increased as nearly to destroy its sound. In 1864 it was placed in the east or Declaration room, but in 1876, the Centennial year, it was again hung in the tower by a chain of thirteen links. From the time of its second recasting in203 1753, until it lost its sound in 1843, the Liberty Bell was sounded on all important occasions, both grave and gay. It convened town meetings and the Assembly, proclaimed the national anniversary, ushered in the new year, welcomed distinguished men, tolled for the honored dead, and on several occasions was muffled and tolled as an expression of public disapproval of various acts of British tyranny.

Passing through a high, round-headed arch with paneled jambs and soffit one enters the central hall, a magnificent apartment in the mutulary Doric order, extending through the building to the Chestnut Street entrance. Fluted columns standing on a high, broad pedestal which runs about the walls like a wainscot, support a heavy complete entablature enriched with beautifully hand-carved moldings, notably an egg and dart ovolo between cornice and frieze and foliated moldings about the mutules and the panels of the soffit and metopes. It is a hall of charming vistas in a noble architectural frame,—straight ahead to the Chestnut Street entrance; back through the great single arch to the staircase; to the left through an arcade of three pilastered arches into the west or Supreme Court chamber; to the right through a broad, double doorway into the east or "Declaration" room, the original Assembly chamber.

The treatment of the latter wall of the hall is most204 elaborate. Three cased arches correspond to the open arches opposite. On the wall within the two end ones are handsome, pedimental-topped, inscribed tablets, while in the middle one is located the doorway with an ornate, broken, pedimental doorhead taking the form of a swag.

Like the hall, the Supreme Court chamber is Doric with fluted pilasters instead of engaged columns, and walls entirely paneled up. There are three windows at each end and two back of the judge's bench with its paneled platform and rail, and balustraded staircases at each end. In this room the convention to form a new constitution for Pennsylvania met July 15, 1776, and unanimously approved the Declaration of Independence, and pledged the support of the State. Delegates to Congress were elected who were signers of the Declaration. In this room now stands the statue of Washington carved out of a single block of wood by Colonel William Rush, after Stuart.

Across the hall is the Declaration chamber, forty feet and two inches long, thirty-nine feet and six inches wide and nineteen feet and eight inches high. As in size, its architecture is substantially the same as the chamber opposite, and like it the two corners near the hall are rounding. Also it is of spacious appearance, light, beautiful and cheerful, a room to inspire noble deeds. Instead of the high judge's bench at the side opposite the entrance, there is a205 relatively small platform or dais of two steps on which stands the presiding officer's desk in front of a large, elaborate, pedimental-topped frame with exquisitely enriched carved moldings, within which is a smaller frame containing a facsimile of the Declaration of Independence. To either side, between fluted pilasters, are segmental arched fireplaces with heavy mantel shelves above, supported by carved consoles, while beyond these are single doors with pedimental heads. Otherwise the room is substantially like that across the hall. They are regarded as the best of the restored rooms of the building, and of the two the courtroom is perhaps rather the better in its greater simplicity.

In the east or so-called Declaration chamber, the second Continental Congress met May 10, 1775; George Washington was chosen commander in chief of the Continental Army June 15, 1775; and the Declaration of Independence was adopted July 4, 1776. The American officers taken prisoners at the Battle of Brandywine, September 11, and of Germantown, October 4, 1777, were held here as prisoners of war, and on July 9, 1778, the Articles of Confederation and perpetual union between the States were signed here by representatives of eight States. The room contains much of the furniture of those days. The table and high-backed Chippendale chair of mahogany used by the presidents of the Continental Congress and206 occupied by John Hancock at the signing still remain, and on the table is to be seen the silver ink-stand with its quill box and sand shaker, in which the delegates dipped their pens in autographing the famous document. There are also fourteen of the original chairs used by delegates. On the walls hang portraits of forty-five of the fifty-six signers, also a portrait of Washington by Rembrandt Peale.

In fact, the collection of portraits is largely based on canvases secured from the famous Peale Museum which at one time occupied the upper floors of the building. There are also valuable paintings by Benjamin West, Gilbert Stuart, Edgar Pine, Thomas Sully and Allan Ramsay. The bronze statue of Washington standing in front of Independence Hall on Chestnut Street is a replica of the original one in white marble by Bailey, which was removed on account of its disintegration. Forty-five crayons and pastels by John Sharpless, purchased by the city in 1876, form a notable collection estimated to be worth half a million dollars. What is supposed to be the earliest exhibition of paintings ever held in America was that of Robert Edge Pine, which occurred in Independence Hall in 1784.

On the second floor the principal room is a great banqueting hall extending across the entire building on the Chestnut Street side with its range of nine windows and having a fireplace at each end. There are smaller rooms on each side of the broad entrance207 corridor; its wide, flat arch has four fluted columns supporting a heavy pedimental head with elliptical fanlight. Architecturally the restoration of the second floor is less happy than that of the first. It is not in the spirit of the work below; nor does it accord with typical Colonial work of pre-Revolutionary days. It lacks that simple, straight-forward dignity of design; that fine sense of proportion; that refinement and appropriateness of detail. The spacing of the paneling of both the wainscot and the fireplace mantels is not characteristic; the detail of the latter is poorly chosen and assembled, and the whole aspect, especially the entrance arch, suggests a studied effort to achieve picturesque effect.

On the northwest corner of Independence Square, which is the southeast corner of Sixth and Chestnut streets, is old Congress Hall, erected in 1787, in which Congress sat from 1790 to 1800, and in which Washington was inaugurated in 1793 for a second term with Adams as vice-president, and in which Adams, in 1797, was inaugurated president with Jefferson as vice-president.

Here Washington presented his famous message concerning Jay's treaty with England; here, toward the close of his second administration, he pronounced his farewell address, which is still regarded as a model of dignity and farsightedness. Here, too, was officially announced the death of208 Washington, when John Marshall offered a resolution that a joint committee of the House and Senate consider "the most suitable manner of paying honor to the memory of the man first in war, first in peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen", thus originating a phrase never to be forgotten in America. For some years after 1800 the building was occupied by the criminal courts, now located in the City Hall.

Were it not so near the more pretentious Independence Hall, this demure little building would receive much more attention, for it is architecturally a gem of the Colonial period, and such of its interior woodwork as has been restored has been more happily treated than is often the case. It is an oblong structure of brick, with marble and white wood trim, two stories high, hip-roofed and surmounted in the center by a well-proportioned, octagonal open cupola. On the front a pediment springs from the cornice over a slightly projecting central section of the façade, while a three-sided bay breaks the rear wall and enlarges the building. The stoop and doorway are of simple dignity, the double doors having the appearance of being four separate, very narrow four-panel doors, and the graceful fanlight above being in accord with the round-headed windows of the lower story. These windows are set effectively in brick arches with marble sills, keystones and imposts. On the upper209 story the windows are twenty-four-paned and square-headed with gauged brick arches and marble keystones. Under the central front window over the entrance there is a handsome wrought-iron fire balcony. The best exterior feature of the building is the beautifully hand-tooled cornice with its coved member having a series of recessed arches and the well-known Grecian band or double denticulated molding beneath. At the second-floor level a white marble belt accords well with the general scheme.

No less interesting than the outward appearance of the entrance is its inward aspect, with its deeply paneled embrasures and soffit, its quaint strap hinges and rim lock. The arrangement of the double staircases with a halfway landing in this lofty, airy stair hall compels admiration for effective simplicity. The stair ends are unadorned, but the spaces under the lower run of both flights are nicely paneled up. The balusters are of good, though familiar pattern, and the lines of the dark ramped rail gracefully drawn.

Interest centers in the Senate chamber with its barrel ceiling and panel-fronted galleries along both sides supported by slender round columns. Here momentous business was transacted during the early years of the American nation, and many relics of those troublous times are here preserved. In the bay at the rear end the President's dais has been210 restored from remains found beneath an old platform. It is of graceful design with free-flowing curves and an elliptical swell front where the balustrade has a solid three-panel insert. The turned balusters are of slender grace, while the paneled pilasters or newels at the ends and corners are adorned with straight hanging garlands in applied work. There is also a festooned border in applied work above the opening into the bay that is carried about the room above the galleries. The central decoration of the ceiling and the eagle over the President's dais furnish excellent examples of eighteenth-century frescoes.

A short distance east of Independence Square, in a narrow court off Chestnut Street, between South Third and South Fourth streets, hedged about by high modern office buildings that dwarf its size, is Carpenters' Hall, in which the first Continental Congress assembled, September 5, 1774, and in which the National Convention, in 1787, framed the present Constitution of the United States. The building was also the headquarters of the Pennsylvania Committee of Correspondence; the basement was used as a magazine for ammunition during the Revolution, and from 1791 to 1797 the whole of it was occupied by the first United States Bank.

The Carpenters' Company, established in 1724, was patterned after the Worshipful Company of211 Carpenters of London, which dates back to 1477, and the early organization of such a guild in America indicates the large number and high character of the Colonial builders of Philadelphia and explains the excellence of the architecture in this neighborhood. The present building was begun in 1770, but was not completed until 1792, so that throughout the Revolutionary period it was used in a partly finished condition. Since 1857 it has been preserved wholly for its historic associations. Here was conceived that liberty which had its birth in Independence Hall, so that its claim to fame is second only to the latter. Like it, too, there are many interesting relics of those glorious days to be seen within. An inscription on a tablet outside very properly reads, "Within these walls, Henry, Hancock, and Adams inspired the delegates of the Colonies with nerve and sinew for the toils of war."

The building is in the form of a Greek cross with four projecting gable ends and an octagonal cupola of graceful design and proportions at the center of the roof. It is of characteristic Philadelphia brickwork, with handsomely cased twenty-four-paned windows shuttered on the lower floor. The entrance façade, with its broad, high stoop and pedimental doorway, double doors and fanlight above; its pleasing fenestration, especially the round-headed, Palladian windows of the second floor, above balustrade sections resting on a horizontal belt of white at the212 second-floor level, and its pediment with a handsome hand-tooled cornice in which an always pleasing Grecian band is prominent, does credit to its design, and altogether the structure was worthy of its purpose.

Within, the meeting room is of surprisingly generous size, considering the small impression given by the exterior aspect of the building. The restored woodwork is unfortunate, yet the general effect of bygone years remains.

For two centuries Philadelphia has been justly famous for its public markets, numerous and readily accessible to the entire community. Marketing has ever been one of the duties of the thrifty housewife, to which Philadelphia women have given particular attention, and everything possible has been done to make the task easy and satisfactory to them. When the city was first laid out its few wide streets, with the exception of Broad Street, were laid out for the convenience of markets, which in those days were placed in their center. A few of these old-time markets still remain, notably that at Second and Pine streets, its market house or central building of quaintly interesting design embracing features such as the octagonal cupola, marble lintels, sills and belt, and the elliptical and semicircular fanlights which are typically Colonial.

To Benjamin Franklin, Philadelphia is largely indebted for the Pennsylvania Hospital fronting on213 Pine Street between South Eighth and South Ninth streets, the first hospital in the United States, which was projected in 1751, erected in 1755 and still continues to be the foremost of some one hundred institutions in the city. The main building was designed by Samuel Rhodes, mayor of Philadelphia, and in architectural excellence is regarded as second only to Independence Hall.

Individuals gave funds freely for its erection; the British Parliament turned over to it some funds unclaimed by a land company; Bishop Whitefield gave a considerable sum; Benjamin West painted a replica of his famous work, "Christ Healing the Sick", now in the entrance hall, which was exhibited and earned four thousand pounds sterling in admissions; some players gave "Hamlet" for the benefit of the hospital, and money was raised in numerous other ways.

The building is a large and beautiful one of noble appearance, three stories high, having long, balanced wings two and a half stories high, with dormers and an octagon tower over the cross wings at each end. The total frontage is some two hundred and seventy-five feet. It is of reddish-brown brick, faced on the front of the first story of the main building with gray marble, and pierced by two large round-topped windows each side of a central doorway with a balustraded stoop and handsome semicircular fanlight and side lights. Above, six 214 Corinthian pilasters support a beautifully detailed entablature at the eaves, from which springs a pediment with ornamental oval window. Surmounting the hip roof is a square superstructure of wood, paneled and painted white, above which is a low octagonal belvedere platform with a huge, round balustrade. Brick walls and an ornamental wistaria-clad iron fence surround the grounds, and no visitor has entered the central gate since La Fayette.

Within the building there is much splendid interior wood finish. Its best feature, however, is the high, broad hall, with fluted Ionic columns supporting a mutulary Doric entablature, leading back to a double winding staircase, which is a marvelous work of art, combining the simplicity and purity as well as the beauty of the middle Georgian period. There are two landings on each flight, and from the spiral newels at the bottom the balustrades with ramped rails and heavy, turned balusters swing upward, as do the staircases, to the third floor. One notes with interest the unusual outline of the brackets under the overhang of the stair treads.

A few important public buildings of Philadelphia that were not erected until early in the nineteenth century had their inception directly or indirectly in the outgrowth of the War of Independence, and their omission would render any treatise of the215 public buildings of the city noticeably incomplete. Their inclusion here finds still further justification in the fact that they are of classic architecture and so to a degree in accord with Colonial traditions.

The Custom House, a classic stone structure, on the south side of Chestnut Street between Fourth and Fifth streets, was built for the second United States Bank, authorized by Congress in April, 1816, because of the bad financial condition into which the government had fallen during the War of 1812. The building was designed by William Strickland, in his day the leading American architect, being modeled after the Parthenon of Athens. It was completed in 1824 and was put to its present use in 1845.

The main building of Girard College on Girard Avenue between North 19th and North 25th streets, of which Thomas Ustick Walter, a pupil of Strickland's, was the architect, is one of the finest specimens of pure Greek architecture in America. Indeed, this imposing Corinthian structure of stone has been called "the most perfect Greek temple in existence." Work upon it was begun in 1833, and the college was opened January 1, 1848. To a sarcophagus in this main building were removed the remains of Stephen Girard in 1851. The building is 111 feet wide and 169 feet long, and is surrounded by thirty-four fluted columns fifty-six feet high and seven feet in diameter at the base, which216 cost thirteen thousand dollars each. The total height of the building is ninety-seven feet, and it is arched throughout with brick and stone, and roofed with marble tiles. The weight of the roof is estimated at nearly one thousand tons.

The old Stock Exchange at Third and Walnut and Dock streets, facing a broad open space once an old-time market, is also the work of William Strickland, who likewise designed St. Paul's Church, St. Stephen's Church, the almshouse and the United States Naval Asylum. It is an impressive round-fronted classic structure of gray stone in the Corinthian order, with a semicircular colonnade above the first story supporting a handsomely executed entablature with conspicuous antefixes about the cornice. Instead of a central flight of steps leading to a main entrance, there were two well-designed flights at each side. Surmounting the whole is a daring, tall, round cupola, its roof supported by engaged columns and the spaces between pierced by classic grilles. The structure is notable throughout for excellence in mass and detail.

At Number 116 South Third Street stands the oldest banking building in America, and withal one of the handsomest of such buildings. Erected in 1795 by the first Bank of the United States, this beautiful stone and brick structure in the Corinthian order, with its fine pedimental portico bearing in high relief a modification of the seal of the United217 States, was owned and occupied by Stephen Girard from 1812 to 1831, and since 1832 by the Girard Bank and the Girard National Bank. It is one of those classic structures which by reason of nicety in proportion and precision in detail still compares favorably with the best modern buildings of the city. The high, fluted columns and pilasters with their nicely wrought capitals lend an imposing nobility that immediately arrests attention, while the refinement of detail throughout well repays careful scrutiny. In this latter respect its best features are the cornice with its beautifully enriched moldings and modillions, the balustrade above, the window heads supported by hand-tooled consoles and the insert panels under the portico.

The first Bank of the United States was incorporated in 1791 with a capital of ten million dollars. It was the first national bank of issue essential to the system of banking built up by Alexander Hamilton in organizing the finances of the Federal Government under the constitution of 1789. It issued circulating notes, discounted commercial paper and aided the government in its financial operations. Although the government subscribed one-fifth of the capital, it was paid for by a roundabout process which actually resulted in the loan of the amount by the bank to the treasury. Other loans were made by the bank to the government, until by the end of 1795 its obligations had reached $6,200,000.218 In order to meet these obligations, the government gradually disposed of its bank stock and by 1802 had sold its entire holdings at a profit of $671,860. A statement submitted to Congress January 24, 1811, by Albert Gallatin, then Secretary of the Treasury, showed resources of $24,183,046, of which $14,578,294 was in loans and discounts, $2,750,000 in United States stock and $5,009,567 in specie.

The expiration of the charter of the bank, in 1811, was the occasion for a party contest which prevented renewal and added greatly to the financial difficulties of the government during the War of 1812. Although foreign stockholders were not permitted to vote by proxy, and the twenty-five directors were required to be citizens of the United States, the bank was attacked on the ground of foreign ownership, and it was also claimed that Congress had no constitutional power to create such an institution.

Thereupon the bank building and the cashier's house in Philadelphia were purchased at a third of the original cost by Girard, who, in May, 1812, established the Bank of Stephen Girard and thereafter assisted the government very materially. He was, in fact, the financier of the War of 1812.

No less interesting than the governmental and commercial public buildings of Philadelphia are its churches, of which several of noble architecture date back to the Colonial period.219

On North Second Street, just north of Market, is located Christ Church, Protestant Episcopal, the first diocesan church of Pennsylvania. It is a fine old building designed mainly by Doctor John Kearsley, a vestryman and physician. The corner stone was laid in 1727, and the building was completed in 1744, but the steeple, in part designed by Benjamin Franklin and containing a famous chime of eight bells, was not erected until 1754. Franklin was one of the managers of a lottery in 1753 for raising funds for the steeple and bells, the latter being imported at a cost of five hundred pounds sterling. On July 4, 1776, after the Declaration of Independence had been read, these bells "rang out a merry chime."

This imposing edifice eloquently indicates what architectural triumphs can be achieved in brickwork in the Colonial style. Apart from the spire, interest centers in the fenestration, which has already been treated in Chapter VIII, and in the wood trim. As in much contemporary architecture, the woodwork is conspicuous for the free use of the orders. For example, one immediately notes the mutulary Doric cornice and frieze along the sides, and the pulvinated Ionic entablature across the chancel gable above the Palladian window. The roof is heavily balustraded in white-painted wood with the urns on the several pedestals holding torches with carved flames. A brick belfry rises square and220 sturdy above the roof and then continues upward in diminishing construction of wood, first virtually four-sided, then octagonal and finally in a low, tapering spire surmounted by a weather-vane. A distinctive feature is the simple iron fence along the street with two wrought-iron arched gates, as beautiful as any in America, hung from high, ball-topped stone posts.

Imposing in its simplicity, the interior is generally Doric in character, but the Ionic entablatures over the side sections of the beautiful Palladian chancel window reflect the treatment outside. Fluted columns standing on high pedestals, with square, Doric entablature sections above, support graceful, elliptical arches, which separate the nave from the aisles in which are panel-fronted galleries. The organ loft over the main entrance is bow-fronted and highly ornate.

Certain alterations to the interior were made in 1836, and in 1882 it was restored to its ancient character, but the high old-fashioned wineglass pulpit of 1770 remains, as does the font. A silver bowl, weighing more than five pounds, presented in 1712 by Colonel Quarry of the British Army, is still in use, while a set of communion plate presented by Queen Anne in 1708 is brought forth on special occasions. The brass chandelier for candles has hung in its central position since 1749. Bishop White officiated as rector during221 Revolutionary days, and his body lies under the altar. Many well-known figures of American history worshiped here, both Washington and Franklin maintaining pews which are still preserved. That in which Washington sat was placed in Independence Hall in 1836.

In the churchyard adjoining are buried a number of noted patriots, including Benjamin Franklin, Robert Morris, the financier of the Revolution, James Wilson, the first justice of the State and a signer of the Declaration and Constitution, Brigadier General John Forbes, John Penn, Peyton Randolph, Francis Hopkinson, Doctor Benjamin Rush, Generals Lambert, Cadwalader, Charles Lee and Jacob Morgan of the Continental Army, and Commodores Truxton, Bainbridge and Dale of the Navy.

In the southeast part of the city, at Swanson and Christian streets, just east of Front Street, is located the ivy-clad Old Swedes' Church, one of the most venerable buildings in America. It stands on the site of a blockhouse erected by the Swedish settlers in 1677. The present structure of brick was begun in 1698 and finished two years later. For one hundred and forty-three years it remained a worshiping place of the Swedish Lutherans, and for one hundred and thirty years it was in charge of ministers sent over from Sweden. The baptismal font is the original one brought from Sweden, and the communion service has been in use since 1773.222 In the adjoining churchyard the oldest tombstone bearing a legible epitaph is dated 1708. Here Alexander Wilson, the celebrated naturalist, was buried at his own request, saying that the "birds would be apt to come and sing over my grave."

Although generally Colonial in external appearance, and frankly so in the detail of its wood trim, the arrangement of the structure and its proportions, especially the peaked gable over the entrance and the small, low and square wooden belfry, give it a somewhat foreign aspect which is by no means surprising in the circumstances. Indeed, it may be said to have decided Norse suggestion. The interior, with its severely simple galleries, straight-backed wooden pews and high pulpit under the chancel window, has that quaintness to be seen in the earliest country churches of America. Two big-eyed, winged cherubim on the organ loft are interesting examples of early Swedish wood carving probably taken from an old Swedish ship.

St. Peter's at South Third and Pine streets, the second Protestant Episcopal Church in the city, was an offshoot of Christ Church, and for many years both were under the same rectorship. Washington, during his various sojourns in Philadelphia, attended sometimes one and again the other, and Pew Number 41 in St. Peter's is pointed out as his. The building was erected in 1761 and still retains its Colonial characteristics.223

It is a brick structure two and a half stories in height, having pedimental ends and corners quoined with stone. The fenestration with many round-headed windows is excellent and has already been alluded to in Chapter VIII. At one end a massive, square, vine-clad belfry tower of brick rises to a height of six stories, above which there is a tall, slender wooden spire surmounted by a ball and cross.

Within are the original square box pews with doors, and seats facing both ways, those of the galleries being similarly arranged. The whole aspect is one of great plainness and simple dignity, yet withal pleasing. A unique feature is the location of the organ and altar at the eastern end and the reading desk and lofty wineglass pulpit, with sounding board overhead, at the western end. This compels the rector to conduct part of the service at each end of the church and obliges the congregation to change to the other seat of the pews in order to face in the opposite direction. In the adjoining churchyard are buried many distinguished early residents of the city, including Commodore Stephen Decatur.

Trinity Church, Oxford, stands on the site of a log meetinghouse where Church of England services were held as early as 1698. The present brick structure was erected in 1711. Standing among fine old trees in the midst of a picturesque224 churchyard, it has an appearance rather English than American. The detail of the wood trim is obviously Colonial, however, and the brickwork corresponds to the best in Philadelphia. The influence of Flemish brickwork is seen in the large diamond patterns each side of the semicircular marble inscription tablet above the principal doorway.

St. Paul's Protestant Episcopal Church, South Third and Walnut streets, was designed by William Strickland and built some years later than St. Peter's. The exterior remains the same, but the interior has been considerably altered. It is a simple gable-roof structure of plastered rubble masonry, and its façade with broad pilasters, handsome round-topped windows and simple doorway is heavily vine-clad. A handsome fence with highly ornamental wrought-iron gates and large ball-topped posts lends a touch of added refinement to the picture. Edwin Forrest, the eminent American actor, is buried in one of the vaults of the church.

Although the Friends were the first sect to erect a meetinghouse of their own in Germantown, about 1693, the Mennonites built a log meetinghouse in 1709, the first of this sect in America, and their present stone church on Germantown Avenue, near Herman Street, in 1770, a modest one-story gable-roof structure of ledge stone. It would be impossible to conceive anything simpler than the225 tall, narrow, double doors with the little hood above a stone stoop with plain, iron handrail on one side. In the churchyard in front of it lie the remains of the man who shot and mortally wounded General Agnew during the Battle of Germantown.

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chapter		page
	Foreword	v
I.	Philadelphia Architecture	1
II.	Georgian Country Houses of Brick	16
III.	City Residences of Brick	38
IV.	Ledge-stone Country Houses	53
V.	Plastered Stone Country Houses	69
VI.	Hewn Stone Country Houses	86
VII.	Doorways and Porches	101
VIII.	Windows and Shutters	134
IX.	Halls and Staircases	153
X.	Mantels and Chimney Pieces	169
XI.	Interior Wood Finish	185
XII.	Public Buildings	196
	Index	227

I.	Doorway, Cliveden, Germantown	Frontispiece
		page
II.	Old Mermaid Inn, Mount Airy; Old Red Lion Inn	6
III.	Camac Street, "The Street of Little Clubs"; Woodford, Northern Liberties, Fairmount Park. Erected by William Coleman in 1756	7
IV.	Stenton, Germantown Avenue, Germantown. Erected by James Logan in 1727	12
V.	Hope Lodge, Whitemarsh Valley. Erected by Samuel Morris in 1723; Home of Stephen Girard	13
VI.	Port Royal House, Frankford. Erected in 1762 by Edward Stiles	16
VII.	Blackwell House, 224 Pine Street. Erected about 1765 by John Stamper; Wharton House, 336 Spruce Street. Erected prior to 1796 by Samuel Pancoast	17
VIII.	Morris House, 225 South Eighth Street. Erected in 1786 by John Reynolds	20
IX.	Wistar House, Fourth and Locust Streets. Erected about 1750; Betsy Ross House, 239 Arch Street	21
X.	Glen Fern, on Wissahickon Creek, Germantown. Erected about 1747 by Thomas Shoemaker; Grumblethorpe, 5261 Germantown Avenue, Germantown. Erected in 1744 by John Wister	24
XI.	xii Upsala, Germantown Avenue and Upsala Streets, Germantown. Erected in 1798 by John Johnson; End Perspective of Upsala	25
XII.	The Woodlands, Blockley Township, West Philadelphia. Erected in 1770 by William Hamilton; Stable at The Woodlands	28
XIII.	Wyck, Germantown Avenue and Walnut Lane, Germantown. Erected by Hans Millan about 1690; Hall and Entrance Doorways, Wyck	29
XIV.	Mount Pleasant, Northern Liberties, Fairmount Park. Erected in 1761 by Captain James Macpherson; The Main House, Mount Pleasant	32
XV.	Deschler-Perot-Morris House, 5442 Germantown Avenue, Germantown. Erected in 1772 by Daniel Deschler; Vernon, Vernon Park, Germantown. Erected in 1803 by James Matthews	33
XVI.	Loudoun, Germantown Avenue and Apsley Street, Germantown. Erected in 1801 by Thomas Armat; Solitude, Blockley Township, Fairmount Park. Erected in 1785 by John Penn	34
XVII.	Cliveden, Germantown Avenue and Johnson Street, Germantown. Erected in 1781 by Benjamin Chew	35
XVIII.	Detail of Cliveden Façade; Detail of Bartram House Façade	40
XIX.	The Highlands, Skippack Pike, Whitemarsh. Erected in 1796 by Anthony Morris	41
XX.	xiii Bartram House, Kingsessing, West Philadelphia. Erected in 1730-31 by John Bartram; Old Green Tree Inn, 6019 Germantown Avenue, Germantown. Erected in 1748	46
XXI.	Johnson House, 6306 Germantown Avenue, Germantown. Erected in 1765-68 by Dirck Jansen; Billmeyer House, Germantown Avenue, Germantown. Erected in 1727	47
XXII.	Hooded Doorway, Johnson House, Germantown; Hooded Doorway, Green Tree Inn	52
XXIII.	Pedimental Doorway, 114 League Street; Pedimental Doorway, 5933 Germantown Avenue	53
XXIV.	Doorway, 5011 Germantown Avenue; Doorway, Morris House, 225 South Eighth Street	56
XXV.	Doorway, 6504 Germantown Avenue; Doorway, 709 Spruce Street	57
XXVI.	Doorway, 5200 Germantown Avenue; Doorway, 4927 Frankford Avenue	60
XXVII.	xiv Doorway, Powel House, 244 South Third Street; Doorway, Wharton House, 336 Spruce Street	61
XXVIII.	Doorway, 301 South Seventh Street	64
XXIX.	Doorway, Grumblethorpe, 5621 Germantown Avenue; Doorway, 6105 Germantown Avenue	65
XXX.	Doorway, Doctor Denton's House, Germantown	68
XXXI.	West Entrance, Mount Pleasant, Fairmount Park; East Entrance, Mount Pleasant	69
XXXII.	Doorway, Solitude, Fairmount Park; Doorway, Perot-Morris House, 5442 Germantown Avenue	72
XXXIII.	Entrance Porch and Doorway, Upsala, Germantown; Elliptical Porch and Doorway, 39 Fisher's Lane, Wayne Junction	73
XXXIV.	Doorway, 224 South Eighth Street; Doorway, Stenton	78
XXXV.	Doorway and Ironwork, Southeast Corner of Eighth and Spruce Streets	79
XXXVI.	Doorway and Ironwork, Northeast Corner of Third and Pine Streets; Stoop with Curved Stairs and Iron Handrail, 316 South Third Street	84
XXXVII.	Stoop and Balustrade, Wistar House; Stoop and Balustrade, 130 Race Street	85
XXXVIII.	Detail of Iron Balustrade, 216 South Ninth Street; Stoop with Wing Flights, 207 La Grange Alley	88
XXXIX.	Iron Newel, Fourth and Liberty Streets; Iron Newel, 1107 Walnut Street	89
XL.	Footscraper, Wyck; Old Philadelphia Footscraper; Footscraper, Third and Spruce Streets; Footscraper, Dirck-Keyser House, Germantown	92
XLI.	Footscraper, 320 South Third Street; Footscraper, South Third Street; Footscraper, Vernon, Germantown; Footscraper, 239 Pine Street	93
XLII.	xv Iron Stair Rail and Footscraper, South Seventh Street (section); Iron Stair Rail and Footscraper, South Fourth Street (section); Iron Stair Rail and Footscraper, Seventh and Locust Streets (section); Iron Stair Rail and Footscraper, Seventh and Locust Streets (section)	98
XLIII.	Detail of Window and Shutters, Morris House	99
XLIV.	Window and Shutters, Free Quakers' Meeting House, Fifth and Arch Streets; Second Story Window, Free Quakers' Meeting House	102
XLV.	Detail of Window, Combes Alley; Window and Shutters, Cliveden; Window, Bartram House	103
XLVI.	Window, Stenton; Window and Shutters, 128 Race Street	106
XLVII.	Dormer, Witherill House, 130 North Front Street; Dormer, 6105 Germantown Avenue, Germantown; Foreshortened Window, Morris House; Dormer, Stenton; Window and Shutters, Witherill House; Window and Blinds, 6105 Germantown Avenue	107
XLVIII.	Shutter Fastener, Cliveden; Shutter Fastener, Wyck; Shutter Fastener, Perot-Morris House; Shutter Fastener, 6043 Germantown Avenue	110
LIX.	Detail of Round Headed Window, Congress Hall; Detail of Round Headed Window, Christ Church	111
L.	Fenestration, Chancel End, St. Peter's Church	114
LI.	Details of Round Headed Windows, Christ Church	115
LII.	Chancel Window, Christ Church; Palladian Window and Doorway, Independence Hall	118
LIII.	xvi Palladian Window, The Woodlands	119
LIV.	Great Hall and Staircase, Stenton	122
LV.	Hall and Staircase, Whitby Hall; Detail of Staircase, Whitby Hall	123
LVI.	Hall and Staircase, Mount Pleasant; Second Floor Hall Archway and Palladian Window, Mount Pleasant	126
LVII.	Hall and Staircase, Cliveden; Staircase Detail, Cliveden	127
LVIII.	Detail of Staircase Balustrade and Newel, Upsala; Staircase Balustrade, Roxborough	130
LIX.	Staircase Detail, Upsala; Staircase Balustrade, Gowen House, Mount Airy	131
LX.	Detail of Stair Ends, Carpenter House, Third and Spruce Streets; Detail of Stair Ends, Independence Hall (horizontal section)	134
LXI.	Chimney Piece in the Hall, Stenton; Chimney Piece and Paneled Wall, Great Chamber, Mount Pleasant	135
LXII.	Chimney Piece and Paneled Wall, Parlor, Whitby Hall	138
LXIII.	Chimney Piece, Parlor, Mount Pleasant; Chimney Piece, Parlor, Cliveden	139
LXIV.	Chimney Piece and Paneled Wall on the Second Floor of an Old Spruce Street House; Detail of Mantel, 312 Cypress Street	142
LXV.	Parlor Mantel, Upsala; Detail of Parlor Mantel, Upsala	143
LXVI.	Mantel at Upsala; Mantel at Third andxviiDeLancy Streets	144
LXVII.	Mantel, Rex House, Mount Airy; Mantel at 729 Walnut Street	145
LXVIII.	Parlor, Stenton; Reception Room, Stenton	148
LXIX.	Dining Room, Stenton; Library, Stenton	149
LXX.	Pedimental Doorway, First Floor, Mount Pleasant; Pedimental Doorway, Second Floor, Mount Pleasant	152
LXXI.	Doorways, Second Floor Hall, Mount Pleasant; Doorway Detail, Whitby Hall	153
LXXII.	Inside of Front Door, Whitby Hall; Palladian Window on Stair Landing, Whitby Hall	156
LXXIII.	Window Detail, Parlor, Whitby Hall; Window Detail, Dining Room, Whitby Hall	157
LXXIV.	Ceiling Detail, Solitude; Cornice and Frieze Detail, Solitude	160
LXXV.	Independence Hall, Independence Square Side. Begun in 1731	161
LXXVI.	Independence Hall, Chestnut Street Side	164
LXXVII.	Independence Hall, Stairway; Liberty Bell, Independence Hall	165
LXXVIII.	Stairway Landing, Independence Hall; Palladian Window at Stairway Landing	170
LXXIX.	Declaration Chamber, Independence Hall	171
LXXX.	Judge's Bench, Supreme Court Room, Independence Hall; Arcade at Opposite End of Court Room	174
LXXXI.	Banquet Hall, Second Floor, IndependencexviiiHall; Entrance to Banquet Hall	175
LXXXII.	Congress Hall, Sixth and Chestnut Streets. Completed in 1790; Congress Hall from Independence Square	180
LXXXIII.	Stair Hall Details, Congress Hall	181
LXXXIV.	Interior Detail of Main Entrance, Congress Hall; President's Dais, Senate Chamber, Congress Hall	190
LXXXV.	Gallery, Senate Chamber, Congress Hall	191
LXXXVI.	Carpenters' Hall, off Chestnut Street between South Third and South Fourth Streets. Erected in 1770; Old Market House, Second and Pine Streets	196
LXXXVII.	Main Building, Pennsylvania Hospital. Erected in 1755	197
LXXXVIII.	Main Hall and Double Staircase, Pennsylvania Hospital	206
LXXXIX.	Custom House, Fifth and Chestnut Streets. Completed in 1824; Main Building, Girard College. Begun in 1833	207
XC.	Old Stock Exchange, Walnut and Dock Streets; Girard National Bank, 116 South Third Street	210
XCI.	Christ Church, North Second Street near Market Street. Erected in 1727-44; Old Swedes' Church, Swanson and Christian Streets. Erected in 1698-1700	211
XCII.	St. Peter's Church, South Third and Pine Streets. Erected in 1761; Lectern, St. Peter's Church	216
XCIII.	Interior and Chancel, Christ Church; Interior and Lectern, St. Peter's xixChurch	217
XCIV.	Interior and Chancel, Old Swedes' Church; St. Paul's Church, South Third Street near Walnut Street	220
XCV.	Mennonite Meeting House, Germantown. Erected in 1770; Holy Trinity Church, South Twenty-first and Walnut Streets	221