Plate XCV.—Mennonite Meeting House, Germantown. Erected in 1770; Holy Trinity Church, South Twenty-first and Walnut Streets.
Plate XCV.—Mennonite Meeting House, Germantown. Erected in 1770; Holy Trinity Church, South Twenty-first and Walnut Streets. Plate XCV.—Mennonite Meeting House, Germantown. Erected in 1770; Holy Trinity Church, South Twenty-first and Walnut Streets.

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.

INDEX