The Colonial Architecture of Philadelphia Part 5

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

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

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

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE XL.--Footsc.r.a.per, Wyck; Old Philadelphia Footsc.r.a.per; Footsc.r.a.per, Third and Spruce Streets; Footsc.r.a.per, Dirck-Keyser House, Germantown.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE XLI.--Footsc.r.a.per, 320 South Third Street; Footsc.r.a.per, South Third Street; Footsc.r.a.per, Vernon, Germantown; Footsc.r.a.per, 239 Pine Street.]

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

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

Nothing quite like Bartram House is to be found anywhere in America.

Situated on the Schuylkill River at Kingsessing, West Philadelphia, just to the south of what was once the lower or Gray's Ferry, this curious structure was begun in 1730, and the main part of it was completed the following year, as indicated by a stone in one of the gables bearing the inscription in Greek, "May G.o.d save", followed in English by "John and Ann Bartram, 1731." Successive additions and alterations have changed the inside arrangement more than the exterior appearance, and it can hardly be said that the house now has any particular floor plan.

Probably the latest important changes were made when a stone bearing the following inscription was placed over the study window:

It is G.o.d above almyty Lord The holy One by me ador'd.

John Bartram, 1770.

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

Clothed as it is with clinging ivy and climbing roses, the house suggests an effect of both stateliness and rusticity.

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

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

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

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

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

In this building on December 6, 1759, then the home of Daniel Mackinett, the public school of Germantown, the Germantown Academy, was organized, its building being erected the following year. In Revolutionary times this old house was known as "Widow Mackinett's Tavern", and it was a famous resort for driving parties from the city.

Many persons of note were entertained at the Green Tree Inn, and when La Fayette visited Germantown in 1825 it was the intention to tender him a dinner there. It was concluded, however, that the tavern could not accommodate the party, and a breakfast at Cliveden was given instead, to which reference has already been made.

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

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE XLII.--Iron Stair Rail and Footsc.r.a.per, South Seventh Street (section); Iron Stair Rail and Footsc.r.a.per, South Fourth Street (section); Iron Stair Rail and Footsc.r.a.per, Seventh and Locust Streets (section); Iron Stair Rail and Footsc.r.a.per, Seventh and Locust Streets (section).]

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE XLIII.--Detail of Window and Shutters, Morris House.]

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

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

CHAPTER VII

DOORWAYS AND PORCHES

Invariably one a.s.sociates a house with its front entrance, for the doorway is the dominant feature of the facade, the keynote so to speak.

Truly utilitarian in purpose, and so lending itself more logically to elaboration for the sake of decorative effect, the doorway became the princ.i.p.al single feature of a Colonial exterior. When designed in complete accord with the house it lends distinction and charm to the building as a whole.

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

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

Like the houses, the doorways range in architectural pretension from the unaffected simplicity of Wyck to the stately elaboration of Cliveden and Mount Pleasant, and possess distinctive characteristics not seen elsewhere. Wealth made Philadelphia the most fashionable American city of the time, with all the attendant rivalries and jealousies of such a condition. Desiring to put the best foot foremost, elaboration of the doorway provided a ready means to display the self-esteem, affluence and social position of the owner. Naturally the Quaker severity of former years was reflected in many of these outward manifestations of home life, and it is a study of absorbing interest to note the proportions and resulting spirit, so unlike New England doorways, which the local builders gave to their adaptations from the same Renaissance motives.

Summed up in a sentence, the high, narrow doorways of Philadelphia, for the most part without the welcoming side lights of New England, speak truly of Quaker severity and the exclusiveness of the old aristocratic families.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE XLIV.--Window and Shutters, Free Quakers' Meeting House, Fifth and Arch Streets; Second Story Window, Free Quakers'

Meeting House.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE XLV.--Detail of Windows, Combes Alley; Window and Shutters, Cliveden; Window, Bartram House.]

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

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

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

Eight-panel single doors were employed extensively throughout the eighteenth century, and this is one of the most picturesque and distinctive of Philadelphia types. For the most part the panels were arranged as shown by the doors of the Perot-Morris, Powel and Wharton houses with a pair of small and large panels in alternation. Other notable instances are to be seen at Loudoun, Chalkley Hall and the Blackwell house. The top or first and third pairs were about half as high as their width, while the second and fourth pairs were oblong and usually of the same size, their height about one and one-half times their width. The door at Upsala is a rare instance of the fourth pair of panels lower than the second, whereas that at Number 301 South Seventh Street shows this type with molded flat panels. As is well shown by the door of the Perot-Morris house, the fourth rail was the broad lock rail, and as in those days the latch was often separate, it was frequently placed on the rail above, and hence often referred to as the latch rail.

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

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

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

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

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE XLVI.--Window, Stenton; Window and Shutters, 128 Race Street.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE 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.]

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

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

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

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

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