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

The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Colonial Architecture of Philadelphia, by
Frank Cousins and Phil M. Riley
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Title: The Colonial Architecture of Philadelphia
Author: Frank Cousins
Phil M. Riley
Release Date: July 6, 2009 [EBook #29334]
Language: English

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_The Colonial Architecture
of Philadelphia_
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
[Illustration: PLATE I.--Doorway, Cliveden, Germantown.]
_The
Colonial Architecture
of Philadelphia_
_By_
_Frank Cousins and Phil M. Riley_
_Illustrated_
[Illustration]
_Boston_
_Little, Brown, and Company_
_1920_
_Copyright, 1920,_
BY LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY.
_All rights reserved_
_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 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
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 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.
FRANK COUSINS AND PHIL M. RILEY.
APRIL 1, 1920
_Contents_
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
_List of Plates_
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. 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. 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. 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. 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
XLIX. 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. 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 and
DeLancy 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, Independence
Hall; 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
Church 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
_The Colonial Architecture of Philadelphia_
CHAPTER I
PHILADELPHIA ARCHITECTURE
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 almost national 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 architecture 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 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 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 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.
[Illustration: PLATE II.
--Old Mermaid Inn, Mount Airy; Old Red Lion Inn.]
[Illustration: PLATE III.--Camac Street, "The Street of Little Clubs";
Woodford, Northern Liberties, Fairmount Park. Erected by William Coleman
in 1756.]
During the whole of the eighteenth century 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 successful 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 colonies 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
in 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 playhouse 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 to 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.
[Illustration: PLATE IV.--Stenton, Germantown Avenue, Germantown.
Erected by James Logan in 1727.]
[Illustration: PLATE V.--Hope Lodge, Whitemarsh Valley. Erected by
Samuel Morris in 1723; Home of Stephen Girard.]
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 the 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
performance 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 portion 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.
CHAPTER II
GEORGIAN COUNTRY HOUSES OF BRICK
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 small 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.
[Illustration: PLATE VI.--Port Royal House, Frankford. Erected in 1762
by Edward Stiles.]
[Illustration: PLATE VII.--Blackwell House, 224 Pine Street. Erected
about 1765 by John Stamper; Wharton House, 336 Spruce Street. Erected
prior to 1796 by Samuel Pancoast.]
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
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 representative 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.
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.”
[Illustration: PLATE VIII.--Morris House, 225 South Eighth Street.
Erected in 1786 by John Reynolds.]
[Illustration: PLATE IX.--Wistar House, Fourth and Locust Streets.
Erected about 1750; Betsy Ross House, 239 Arch Street.]
On Barclay’s death in 1771, Woodford became the 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. This 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.
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 circumstance 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.
[Illustration: PLATE X.--Glen Fern, on Wissahickon Creek, Germantown.
Erected about 1747 by Thomas Shoemaker; Grumblethorpe, 5261 Germantown
Avenue, Germantown. Erected in 1744 by John Wister.]
[Illustration: PLATE XI.--Upsala, Germantown Avenue and Upsala Streets,
Germantown. Erected in 1798 by John Johnson; End Perspective of Upsala.]
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 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 in 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 houses 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 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.
[Illustration: PLATE XII.--The Woodlands, Blockley Township, West
Philadelphia. Erected in 1770 by William Hamilton; Stable at The
Woodlands.]
[Illustration: PLATE XIII.--Wyck, Germantown Avenue and Walnut Lane,
Germantown. Erected by Hans Millan about 1690; Hall and Entrance
Doorways, Wyck.]
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 he 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 distinguished 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 by 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
master 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.
[Illustration: PLATE XIV.--Mount Pleasant, Northern Liberties, Fairmount
Park. Erected in 1761 by Captain James Macpherson; The Main House, Mount
Pleasant.]
[Illustration: PLATE 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.]
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. 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.
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.
[Illustration: PLATE 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.]
[Illustration: PLATE XVII.--Cliveden, Germantown Avenue and Johnson
Street, Germantown. Erected in 1781 by Benjamin Chew.]
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 streets 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 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. 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.
CHAPTER III
CITY RESIDENCES OF BRICK
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 right 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 of 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.
[Illustration: PLATE XVIII.--Detail of Cliveden Façade; Detail of
Bartram House Façade.]
[Illustration: PLATE XIX.--The Highlands, Skippack Pike, Whitemarsh.
Erected in 1796 by Anthony Morris.]
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 citizens 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 a 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 carved 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 and 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 Pennsylvania 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 prominent 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.
[Illustration: PLATE XX.--Bartram House, Kingsessing, West Philadelphia.
Erected in 1730-31 by John Bartram; Old Green Tree Inn, 6019 Germantown
Avenue, Germantown. Erected in 1748.]
[Illustration: PLATE XXI.--Johnson House, 6306 Germantown Avenue,
Germantown. Erected in 1765-68 by Dirck Jansen; Billmeyer House,
Germantown Avenue, Germantown. Erected in 1727.]
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 with 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 be 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
courses 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 in 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.
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.
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.
[Illustration: PLATE XXII.--Hooded Doorway, Johnson House, Germantown;
Hooded Doorway, Green Tree Inn.]
[Illustration: PLATE XXIII. Pedimental Doorway, 114 League Street;
Pedimental Doorway, 5933 Germantown Avenue.]
CHAPTER IV
LEDGE-STONE COUNTRY HOUSES
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 architecture 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.
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 other 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 on
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.
[Illustration: PLATE XXIV.--Doorway, 5011 Germantown Avenue; Doorway,
Morris House, 225 South Eighth Street.]
[Illustration: PLATE XXV.--Doorway, 6504 Germantown Avenue; Doorway, 709
Spruce Street.]
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-spirited 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, 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.
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 spot 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.
[Illustration: PLATE XXVI.--Doorway, 5200 Germantown Avenue; Doorway,
4927 Frankford Avenue.]
[Illustration: PLATE XXVII.--Doorway, Powel House, 244 South Third
Street; Doorway, Wharton House, 336 Spruce Street.]
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.
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 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 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.
[Illustration: PLATE XXVIII.--Doorway, 301 South Seventh Street.]
[Illustration: PLATE XXIX.--Doorway, Grumblethorpe, 5621 Germantown
Avenue; Doorway, 6105 Germantown Avenue.]
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, 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 an 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
expression 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 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.