The Colonial Architecture of Philadelphia Part 11

The entrance facade, with its broad, high stoop and pedimental doorway, double doors and fanlight above; its pleasing fenestration, especially the round-headed, Palladian windows of the second floor, above bal.u.s.trade sections resting on a horizontal belt of white at the second-floor level, and its pediment with a handsome hand-tooled cornice in which an always pleasing Grecian band is prominent, does credit to its design, and altogether the structure was worthy of its purpose.

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

For two centuries Philadelphia has been justly famous for its public markets, numerous and readily accessible to the entire community.

Marketing has ever been one of the duties of the thrifty housewife, to which Philadelphia women have given particular attention, and everything possible has been done to make the task easy and satisfactory to them.

When the city was first laid out its few wide streets, with the exception of Broad Street, were laid out for the convenience of markets, which in those days were placed in their center. A few of these old-time markets still remain, notably that at Second and Pine streets, its market house or central building of quaintly interesting design embracing features such as the octagonal cupola, marble lintels, sills and belt, and the elliptical and semicircular fanlights which are typically Colonial.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The old Stock Exchange at Third and Walnut and Dock streets, facing a broad open s.p.a.ce once an old-time market, is also the work of William Strickland, who likewise designed St. Paul's Church, St. Stephen's Church, the almshouse and the United States Naval Asylum. It is an impressive round-fronted cla.s.sic structure of gray stone in the Corinthian order, with a semicircular colonnade above the first story supporting a handsomely executed entablature with conspicuous antefixes about the cornice. Instead of a central flight of steps leading to a main entrance, there were two well-designed flights at each side.

Surmounting the whole is a daring, tall, round cupola, its roof supported by engaged columns and the s.p.a.ces between pierced by cla.s.sic grilles. The structure is notable throughout for excellence in ma.s.s and detail.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE XCII.--St. Peter's Church, South Third and Pine Streets. Erected in 1761; Lectern, St. Peter's Church.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE XCIII.--Interior and Chancel, Christ Church; Interior and Lectern, St. Peter's Church.]

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

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

The expiration of the charter of the bank, in 1811, was the occasion for a party contest which prevented renewal and added greatly to the financial difficulties of the government during the War of 1812.

Although foreign stockholders were not permitted to vote by proxy, and the twenty-five directors were required to be citizens of the United States, the bank was attacked on the ground of foreign ownership, and it was also claimed that Congress had no const.i.tutional power to create such an inst.i.tution.

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

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

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

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

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

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE XCIV.--Interior and Chancel, Old Swedes' Church; St. Paul's Church, South Third Street near Walnut Street.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE XCV.--Mennonite Meeting House, Germantown. Erected in 1770; Holy Trinity Church, South Twenty-first and Walnut Streets.]

Certain alterations to the interior were made in 1836, and in 1882 it was restored to its ancient character, but the high old-fashioned winegla.s.s pulpit of 1770 remains, as does the font. A silver bowl, weighing more than five pounds, presented in 1712 by Colonel Quarry of the British Army, is still in use, while a set of communion plate presented by Queen Anne in 1708 is brought forth on special occasions.

The bra.s.s chandelier for candles has hung in its central position since 1749. Bishop White officiated as rector during Revolutionary days, and his body lies under the altar. Many well-known figures of American history worshiped here, both Washington and Franklin maintaining pews which are still preserved. That in which Washington sat was placed in Independence Hall in 1836.

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

In the southeast part of the city, at Swanson and Christian streets, just east of Front Street, is located the ivy-clad Old Swedes' Church, one of the most venerable buildings in America. It stands on the site of a blockhouse erected by the Swedish settlers in 1677. The present structure of brick was begun in 1698 and finished two years later. For one hundred and forty-three years it remained a worshiping place of the Swedish Lutherans, and for one hundred and thirty years it was in charge of ministers sent over from Sweden. The baptismal font is the original one brought from Sweden, and the communion service has been in use since 1773. In the adjoining churchyard the oldest tombstone bearing a legible epitaph is dated 1708. Here Alexander Wilson, the celebrated naturalist, was buried at his own request, saying that the "birds would be apt to come and sing over my grave."

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

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

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

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

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

St. Paul's Protestant Episcopal Church, South Third and Walnut streets, was designed by William Strickland and built some years later than St.

Peter's. The exterior remains the same, but the interior has been considerably altered. It is a simple gable-roof structure of plastered rubble masonry, and its facade with broad pilasters, handsome round-topped windows and simple doorway is heavily vine-clad. A handsome fence with highly ornamental wrought-iron gates and large ball-topped posts lends a touch of added refinement to the picture. Edwin Forrest, the eminent American actor, is buried in one of the vaults of the church.

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