The Colonial Architecture of Philadelphia Part 7

The fourth type of stoop has double or wing flights each side of the platform before the door. The doorway at Number 301 South Seventh Street, already referred to, is the most notable instance of straight flights in Philadelphia, while that at the southeast corner of Eighth and Spruce streets occupies the same position in respect to curved flights. The wrought ironwork of the latter is superb. Rich in effect, yet essentially simple in design, it has grace in every line, is not too ornate and displays splendid workmanship. Again a spiral design is conspicuous in the stair bal.u.s.trades, and the curved newel treatment recalls that of the foregoing stoop. The bal.u.s.trade of the platform consists of a simple diaper pattern of intersecting arcs with the familiar evolute band above and below. The wing flight was a convenient arrangement for double houses, as instanced by the old Billmeyer house in Germantown, with its exceedingly plain iron handrail and straight spindles. Of more interest is the bal.u.s.trade at Number 207 La Grange Alley with its evolute spiral band and slender ball spindles beneath.

During the nineteenth century more attention was given to newels in ironwork, and elaborate square posts combining cast and wrought pieces were constructed, such as that at Fourth and Liberty streets. In the accompanying bal.u.s.trade are to be seen motives much employed in the other examples here ill.u.s.trated. Scroll work is conspicuous, as are rosettes, but a touch of individuality is given by a Grecian band instead of the more common evolute spiral above the diaper pattern. The pineapple, emblem of hospitality, was attractive in cast iron and as utilized at Number 1107 Walnut Street provided a distinctive newel.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE LVIII.--Detail of Staircase Bal.u.s.trade and Newel, Upsala; Staircase Bal.u.s.trade, Roxborough.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE LIX.--Staircase Detail, Upsala; Staircase Bal.u.s.trade, Gowen House, Mount Airy.]

The roads on the outskirts of all Colonial cities were very bad, and many of the less important streets of Philadelphia had neither pavements nor sidewalks. After rains shoes were bemired in walking, and as rubbers were then unknown it was necessary to remove the mud from the shoes before entering a house. Foot sc.r.a.pers on the doorstep or at the foot of the front steps were a necessity and became ornamental adjuncts of the doorways of early Colonial homes. For the most part of wrought iron, some of the later ones were cast in molds, that at Wyck being a particularly interesting example. It consists of two grotesque griffins back to back, their wings joined tip to tip forming the sc.r.a.per edge, and the whole being mounted in a large tray with turned-up edges.

This sc.r.a.per can thus be moved about as desired, and the tray catches the sc.r.a.pings, which can be emptied occasionally without sweeping the entire doorstep.

Some of the earlier and simpler sc.r.a.pers, such as that at Third and Spruce streets, consisted merely of two upright standards with a sharp-edged horizontal bar between them to provide the sc.r.a.per proper.

This horizontal part was made quite broad to take care of antic.i.p.ated wear, which in this particular instance has been great during the intervening years.

Similar to this, except for the well-wrought tops of the standards and the curved supplementary supports, is the sc.r.a.per of the Dirck Keyser doorway, Number 6205 Germantown Avenue, Germantown. Regarded as a whole this design suggests nothing so much as the back and arms of an early English armchair.

On the same page with these is shown another strange Philadelphia sc.r.a.per. Apart from its outline it has no decoration, and what the origin of the design may be it is difficult to determine. To a degree, however, it resembles two crude, ancient battle-axes, the handles forming the sc.r.a.per bar.

A favorite design consisted of a sort of inverted oxbow with the curved part at the top and the sc.r.a.per bar taking some ornamental pattern across the bottom from side to side. At the top, both outside and inside the bow, and sometimes down the sides, spiral ornaments were applied in the Florentine manner. Accompanying ill.u.s.trations show two sc.r.a.pers of this type at Number 320 South Third Street and another one elsewhere on the same street. The use of a little urn-shaped ornament at the top of the latter sc.r.a.per is most effective.

At Number 239 Pine Street is seen a sc.r.a.per employing two large spirals themselves as supports for the sc.r.a.per bar. The turn of the spiral is here outward as contrasted with the inward turn of the sc.r.a.pers at Upsala.

A sc.r.a.per of quaint simplicity standing on one central standard at Vernon, Germantown, suggests the heart as its motive, although having outward as well as inward curling spirals at the top.

Another clever device of Philadelphia ironworkers was to make the foot sc.r.a.per a part of the iron stair rail. Usually in such a scheme it was also made part of the newel treatment on the lower step of the stoop, but at Seventh and Locust streets, for example, it stands on the second step beside and above the ornate round newel with its surmounting pineapple. Here, as in the case of the simpler handrail in South Seventh Street, one of the iron spindles of the rail is split about a foot from the bottom, and the two halves bent respectively to the right and left until they meet the next spindle on each side, the sc.r.a.per bar of ornamental outline being fastened across from one to the other of these spindles below. The princ.i.p.al charm of the South Seventh Street rail lies in its extreme simplicity, the twisted section of the spindles near the bottom being a clever expedient. The pleasing effect of the design at Seventh and Locust streets is largely due to appropriate use of the evolute spiral band. Only a little more ornate than the South Seventh Street stair rail is that in South Fourth Street. A special spiral design above the foot sc.r.a.per, however, virtually becomes a newel in this instance. The same is true of another much more elaborate stair rail at Seventh and Locust streets with its attractive diaper pattern between an upper and lower Grecian band, the whole grille being supported by a graceful three-point bracket.

CHAPTER VIII

WINDOWS AND SHUTTERS

Philadelphia windows and window frames during the Colonial period were not so much a development as a perpetuation of the initial types, although of course some minor changes and improvements were made with pa.s.sing years. From the very beginning sliding Georgian sashes were the rule. Penn's house has them and so have all the other historic homes and buildings of this vicinity now remaining. There are none of the diamond paned cas.e.m.e.nt sashes, such as were employed in the first New England homes half a century earlier, for builders in both the mother country and the colonies had ceased to work in the Elizabethan and Jacobean manner and were completely under the influence of the Renaissance. In the earlier houses the upper sash was let into the frame permanently, only the lower sash being movable and sliding upward, but in later years double-hung sashes with weights began to be adopted. Stiles, rails and sash bars were all put together with mortise and tenon joints and even the sash bars were pegged together with wood. The gla.s.s was set in rabbeted edges and held in place by putty according to the method still in use.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE LX.--Detail of Stair Ends, Carpenter House, Third and Spruce Streets; Detail of Stair Ends, Independence Hall (horizontal section).]

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE LXI.--Chimney Piece in the Hall, Stenton; Chimney Piece and Paneled Wall, Great Chamber, Mount Pleasant.]

At first the panes were very small, and many were required in large windows, but as gla.s.s making advanced, the prevailing size was successively enlarged from about five by seven inches to six by eight, seven by nine, eight by ten, and nine by twelve. As the size of individual panes of gla.s.s was increased, their number in each sash was in some instances correspondingly decreased, although oftener larger sashes with the same number of panes resulted. Philadelphia architects always manifested a keen appreciation of the value of scale imparted by the sash bar divisions of their windows, and for that reason small-paned sashes never ceased to be popular.

Although numerous variations exist, the custom of having an equal number of panes in both upper and lower sashes predominated. Six, nine and twelve-paned sashes forming twelve, eighteen and twenty-four paned windows were all common throughout the Colonial period. Twelve-paned sashes were used chiefly in public buildings and the larger private mansions, six-paned sashes in houses of moderate size. While there are several notable instances of nine-paned upper and lower sashes, particularly Hope Lodge, Cedar Grove in Harrowgate, Northern Liberties, and the Wharton house at Number 336 Spruce Street, this arrangement frequently, although not always, resulted in a window rather too high and narrow to be pleasing in proportion. A comparison of the accompanying photographs of the window of a Combes Alley house with that of a house at Number 128 Race Street well ill.u.s.trates the point.

Sometimes, where used on the lower story, six-paned upper and lower sashes are found in the windows of the second story.

Waynesborough, in Easttown Township, Chester County, not far from Philadelphia, is a well-known case in point. Grumblethorpe presents the anomalous reverse arrangement of six-paned sashes on the first story and nine-paned sashes on the second story. Still oftener six-and nine-paned sashes were combined in the same window, the larger sash being sometimes the upper and again the lower. Bartram House and the Johnson house are instances of nine-paned upper and lower sashes on the first story and nine-paned lower and six-paned upper sashes on the second story. Greame Park in Horsham, Montgomery County, not far from Philadelphia, has nine-paned upper and lower sashes on the lower story and twelve-paned lower and nine-paned upper on the second floor. Penn's house in Fairmount Park and Glen Fern are instances of nine-paned lower and six-paned upper sashes on the first story and six-paned upper and lower sashes on the second story. Solitude and the Blackwell house, Number 224 Pine Street, exemplify the reverse arrangement of nine-paned upper and six-paned lower sashes on both stories.

Six-paned upper and lower sashes on both the first and second floors were, perhaps, more common on houses of moderate size and some large mansions throughout the Colonial period than any other window arrangement. Notable instances are The Highlands; Upsala; Vernon; Wynnestay in Wynnefield, West Philadelphia; Carlton in Germantown; the Powell house, Number 244 South Third Street; the Evans house, Number 322 De Lancy Street; and the Wistar house, Fourth and Locust streets.

Among the more pretentious countryseats and city residences having twelve-paned upper and lower sashes on both the first and second stories may be mentioned Cliveden, Stenton, Loudoun, Woodford, Whitby Hall, the Morris house, the Perot-Morris house, Chalkley Hall and Port Royal House in Frankford.

Twelve-paned sashes were also used in various ways in combination with six, eight and nine paned sashes. For example, the Waln house, Number 254 South Second Street, has twelve-paned upper and lower sashes on the first story with six-paned upper and lower sashes on the second story, whereas Mount Pleasant has the reverse arrangement. Laurel Hill, in the Northern Liberties, Fairmount Park, has twelve-paned upper and lower sashes on the first story and eight-paned upper and lower sashes on the second story, whereas the Billmeyer house has all twelve-paned sashes except the lower ones on the second story, which are eight-paned. Wyck, consisting as it does of two buildings joined together, probably has the most heterogeneous fenestration of any house in Philadelphia. On the first floor are windows having nine-paned lower and six-paned upper sashes, while on the second story are windows having twelve-paned lower and eight-paned upper sashes and others having six-paned upper and lower sashes. The Free Quakers' Meeting House at Fifth and Arch streets has twelve-paned upper and lower sashes on the first story and eight-paned upper and twelve-paned lower sashes on the second floor.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE LXII.--Chimney Piece and Paneled Wall, Parlor, Whitby Hall.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE LXIII.--Chimney Piece, Parlor, Mount Pleasant; Chimney Piece, Parlor, Cliveden.]

To reduce their apparent height, three-story houses were foreshortened with square windows. Two-piece sashes were used, and the number of panes differed considerably. While a like number in both upper and lower sashes was the rule, the Blackwell house, Number 224 Pine Street, and the Powel house, Number 244 South Third Street, are notable instances of foreshortened windows having three-paned upper and six-paned lower sashes. The Wharton house, Number 336 Spruce Street, and the Evans house, Number 322 De Lancy Street, have foreshortened windows with six-paned upper and lower sashes. The Waln house, Number 254 South Second Street, the Stocker house, Number 404 South Front Street, and Pen Rhyn in Bensalem Township, Bucks County, have foreshortened windows with three-paned upper and lower sashes. Such foreshortened windows as all the above were usually employed with six-and nine-paned sashes on the stories below. Where eight-and twelve-paned sashes were used for the princ.i.p.al windows of the house, the foreshortened windows of the third story usually had eight-paned upper and lower sashes, as on the Morris house, the Wistar house at Fourth and Locust streets, Whitby Hall and Chalkley Hall in Frankford.

Most Philadelphia houses, whether gable or hip-roofed, have dormers to light the attic. Two or three on a side were the rule, although a few small houses have only one. For the most part they were pedimental or gable-roofed. Segmental topped dormers were rare, although a row of them is to be seen in Camac Street, "the street of little clubs", and occasional individual instances are to be found elsewhere. Lean-to or shed-roof dormers never found favor, the only notable instances about Philadelphia being at Glen Fern, Cedar Grove in Harrowgate, Northern Liberties, and Greame Park in Horsham, Montgomery County.

An accompanying ill.u.s.tration of a dormer on the Witherill house, Number 130 North Front Street, shows the simplest type of gable-roof dormer with square-headed window and six-paned upper and lower sashes. Similar dormers, differing chiefly in the detail of the moldings employed, are features of the Morris house; Wistar house, Fourth and Locust streets; Wynnestay, Wynnefield, West Philadelphia; Wyck; the Johnson house; Carlton, Germantown; and Chalkley Hall, Frankford. Grumblethorpe and Bartram House have dormers of this sort with a segmental topped upper window sash. Solitude has this sort of dormer with three-paned upper and six-paned lower sashes, while Stenton and the Evans house, Number 322 De Lancy Street, have eight-paned upper and lower sashes.

Houses usually of somewhat later date and notable for greater refinement of detail had gable-roof dormers with round-headed Palladian windows extending up into the pediment. As in the accompanying ill.u.s.tration showing a dormer on the house at Number 6105 Germantown Avenue, Germantown, the casings usually take the form of fluted pilasters, supporting the pediment with its nicely molded cornice, often, as in this instance, with a prominent denticulated molding. Narrower supplementary pilasters supported a molded and keyed arch, forming the frame within which the window is set. The lower sash is six-paned, while the upper one has six rectangular panes above which six ornamental shaped panes form a semicircle.

Similar dormers, differing chiefly in ornamental detail, are features of Loudoun, Vernon, Upsala, Hope Lodge, Port Royal House, the Perot-Morris house, the Billmeyer house, the Wharton house, Number 336 Spruce Street; the Powel house, Number 244 South Third Street; and the Stocker house, Number 404 South Front Street. The dormers of Cliveden and Mount Pleasant are of this type but further elaborated by projecting ornamental scrolls at the sides.

As the architecture of Philadelphia is almost exclusively in brick and stone, there were none of the architrave casings and ornamental heads consisting of a cornice above the architrave and often of a complete entablature which characterized much contemporary New England work in wood. Brick and stone construction require solid rather than cased wood frames let into the reveals of the brick wall and have no projections other than a molded sill, as on the Morris house, while a stone lintel or brick arch must replace the ornamental head, often such a pleasing feature of wood construction. The frames were of heavy construction held together at the corners by large dowel pins and were ornamented by suitable moldings broken around the reveals of the masonry and by molded sash guides in the frame. In the earlier brick houses the square-headed window openings had either gauged arches, as at Hope Lodge, or relieving arches of alternate headers and stretchers with a brick core, as at Stenton. Later, as in the case of hewn stonework, prominent stone lintels and window sills were adopted. Marble was much favored for this purpose because it harmonizes with the white-painted woodwork, brightens the facade and emphasizes the fenestration. Most of the lintels take the shape of a flat, gauged arch with flutings simulating mortar joints that radiate from an imaginary center below and mark off voussoirs and a keystone. Usually there is no surface ornamentation, the shape of the parts being depended upon to form a decorative pattern, the shallow vertical and horizontal scorings on the lintels of the Morris house being exceptional. These, the lintels of Cliveden and of the Free Quakers' Meeting House, exemplify the three most common types.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE LXIV.--Chimney Piece and Paneled Wall on the Second Floor of an old Spruce Street House; Detail of Mantel, 312 Cypress Street.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE LXV.--Parlor Mantel, Upsala; Detail of Parlor Mantel, Upsala.]

Unquestionably the most distinctive feature of the window treatment of this neighborhood was the outside shutters. Colonial times were troublous, and gla.s.s was expensive. In the city, protection was wanted against lawlessness at night, and in the country there was for many years the ever-present possibility of an Indian attack, despite the generally friendly relations of the Quakers with the tribes of the vicinity. There were also some British soldiers not above making improper use of unshuttered windows at night. Except for a relatively few country houses which had neither outside shutters nor blinds--notably Stenton, Solitude, Mount Pleasant, Bartram House and The Woodlands--the use of shutters on the first story was the rule. Above that the custom varied greatly. Where outside shutters were totally absent, inside hinged, folding and sometimes boxed shutters were almost invariably present. Only a few important instances of old Colonial houses having blinds on the lower story now remain. Port Royal House, for example, two and a half stories high, has blinds on the first story and none above. The Highlands has blinds on both the first and second stories, while Chalkley Hall in Frankford has blinds on all three of its stories.

Often there are shutters on the lower story and none above. Three-story instances of this are the Waln house, Number 254 South Second Street; the Blackwell house, Number 224 Pine Street; and the Wistar house, Fourth and Locust streets. Two and a half story instances are Cliveden, Hope Lodge, Vernon, Woodford, the Johnson house and Laurel Hill in the Northern Liberties, Fairmount Park.

Less common are three-story houses having shutters on the first and second stories and none on the third. Whitby Hall, the Morris house and the Wharton house, Number 336 Spruce Street, are examples. Rare are two and a half story houses having shutters on both the princ.i.p.al stories.

Wyck, Cedar Grove in Harrowgate, Northern Liberties, and Wynnestay in Wynnefield, West Philadelphia, are good examples. Most two and a half story houses have shutters on the first story and blinds on the second, as instanced by Upsala, Grumblethorpe, Loudoun, Glen Fern and the Perot-Morris house. The Powel house, Number 244 South Third Street, is a rare instance of shutters on all three stories, while the Evans house, Number 322 De Lancy Street, and Pen Rhyn in Bensalem Township, Bucks County, are rare instances of shutters on the first story and blinds on the second and third stories.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE LXVI.--Mantel at Upsala; Mantel at Third and De Lancey Streets.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE LXVII.--Mantel, Rex House, Mount Airy; Mantel at 729 Walnut Street.]

These outside shutters are of heavy construction like doors, the stiles and rails having mortise and tenon joints held together by dowel pins and the panels being molded and raised. Usually frieze and lock rails divide the shutter into three panels, the two lower ones being the same height and the upper one square. Accompanying ill.u.s.trations show eighteen-paned windows having shutters arranged in this manner at Number 128 Race Street and in Combes Alley. At Cliveden the upper panel is not quite high enough to be square, and the same is true of the Morris house shutters, which are also notable for the fact that the lower panel is not quite so high as the middle one. Sometimes an opening of ornamental shape was cut through the top panel to admit a little light, as for instance the crescent in the shutters at Wynnestay, Wynnefield, West Philadelphia. On a relatively few houses the shutters had four panels, the most common arrangement being a small and a large panel in alternation from the top downward. Such shutters were features of Loudoun, the Wistar house, Fourth and Locust streets; the Blackwell house, Number 224 Pine Street; the Powel house, Number 244 South Third Street; the Evans house, Number 322 Spruce Street; and the Wharton house, Number 336 Spruce Street. An accompanying ill.u.s.tration shows an unusual four-panel arrangement on the Witherill house, Number 130 North Front Street, the three upper almost square panels being of the same size and the lowest one being about twice as high as one of the small ones. Top, frieze and lock rails are usually the same width as the stiles, and the bottom rail is about double width. The meeting stiles and sometimes those on the opposite side have rabbeted joints, the latter fitting the jambs of the window frame.

As indicated by an accompanying ill.u.s.tration showing the typical treatment of a second-floor twelve-paned window at Number 6105 Germantown Avenue, Germantown, most blinds were strengthened by a lock rail about midway of the height, or slightly below, dividing the blind into an upper and lower section. Blinds of this sort are to be seen at Loudoun, Grumblethorpe, Upsala, The Highlands and Port Royal House. At Waynesborough in Easttown Township, Chester County, this division is considerably below the middle, making the upper section much the larger.

Less common are blinds divided into three sections by two lock rails, such as those of the Perot-Morris house. The Evans house, Number 322 De Lancy Street, has two-section blinds on the third story and three-section blinds on the second story. Unusual indeed are blinds having only top and bottom rails. They are found now and then on small upper windows, as at Glen Fern. Chalkley Hall in Frankford is a rare instance of such blinds on all three stories of a large countryseat.

All of these blinds are of heavy construction, having top and lock rails about the same width as the stiles, and bottom rails about double width.

Except for heavy louvers instead of panels, they are much like shutters.

The frame is of the same thickness, with mortise and tenon joints doweled together.

A picturesque feature of Philadelphia window treatment is the quaint wrought-iron fixtures with which shutters and blinds are hung and fastened. As clearly shown by the accompanying detail photograph of a window of the Morris house, outside shutters are generally hung by means of hinges to the frame of the window. As these frames are set back in the reveal of the masonry, these hinges are necessarily of special shape, being of large projection to enable the shutters to fold back against the face of the wall. They were strap hinges tapering slightly in width, corresponding in length to the width of the shutter and fastened to it by means of two or three bolts. Small pendant rings on the inside of the meeting stiles were provided for pulling the shutters together and closing them. They were fastened together by a long wrought-iron strap, usually bolted to the left-hand shutter, that projects to overlap the opposite shutter five or six inches when the shutters are closed. Near the projecting end of the strap a pin at right angles to it sticks through a hole in an escutcheon plate in the lock rail of the opposite shutter, and an iron pin, suspended by a short length of chain to prevent loss, is inserted through a vertical drilling in the pin. Later, sliding bolts were used, as seen on the shutters at Number 128 Race Street and the blinds at Number 6105 Germantown Avenue, Germantown.

Shutters and blinds were held back against the face of the wall in an open position by quaint wrought-iron turn buckles or gravitating catches and other simple fasteners. That on the shutters of the Perot-Morris house is the most prevalent pattern. The scroll at the bottom is longer and heavier than the round, flattened, upper portion, so that the fixture is kept in position by gravity. In this instance it is placed in the masonry wall near the meeting stile of the shutter. A similar fastener on the Chew house is placed in the window sill near the outer stile of the shutter. Another type of turning fastener that was quite popular is seen at Number 6043 Germantown Avenue, Germantown. It is held in place by a long iron strap screwed to the window sill, and the weight of the gravitating catch consists of a casting representing a bunch of grapes. More primitive and less satisfactory in use and appearance is the spring fastener bearing against the edge of the shutter seen at Wyck. Crude as these fixtures were, they have hardly been improved upon in principle, and similar designs of more finished workmanship are still used in modern work.

Twelve appears to be the largest number of panes employed in a sliding sash in Philadelphia architecture, even in public buildings, except a few churches. There are such sashes in Independence Hall, Congress Hall, Carpenters' Hall, the Free Quakers' Meeting House at Fifth and Arch streets and the main building of the Pennsylvania Hospital. In Congress Hall and Carpenters' Hall there are also round-topped windows with twelve-paned lower sashes and upper sashes having ten small ornamental panes to make up the semicircle above twelve rectangular panes. A few similar windows with seven ornamental panes in the round top are to be seen in Christ Church.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE LXVIII.--- Parlor, Stenton; Reception Room, Stenton.]