The Colonial Architecture of Philadelphia

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.

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CHAPTER IX

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.