The Colonial Architecture of Philadelphia Part 9

CHAPTER X

MANTELS AND CHIMNEY PIECES

In Colonial times fireplaces were a necessity. They supplied the only means of heating the house, and much of the cooking was done by them also. Indeed, the hanging of the crane was regarded as a signal event in establishing a new home, and often a cast-iron fireback bore the date of erection of the house and the name or initials of its owner. Each of the princ.i.p.al rooms had its fireplace and often a large parlor, drawing-room or library had two fireplaces, usually at opposite ends or sides, though rarely on the same side, as in the library at Stenton. The hearthstone was the center of family life, and architects, therefore, very properly made the mantels and chimney pieces with which they embellished the fireplace the architectural center of each room,--the gem in a setting of nicely wrought interior woodwork.

Then came the Franklin stove, throwing more heat out into the room and less up the chimney. Fireplaces were accordingly bricked up to accommodate it, a pipe was run into it, and presently the air-tight stove supplanted Franklin's open grate. Later central heating plants for hot air, steam and hot water were developed in the bas.e.m.e.nt and connected by pipes with registers and radiators in the various rooms above. They gave greater and more even heat, consumed less fuel and were more easily taken care of than several fires in various parts of the house. For a time houses were built for the most part without fireplaces, but gradually a sense of loss began to be generally felt.

These registers and radiators warmed the flesh, but they left the spirit cold; there was no poetry or sentiment whatever about them.

The outcome was obvious. The central heating plant has of course remained, but recent years have witnessed the general reopening of bricked-up fireplaces in old houses large and small, and to-day few new houses are built without a fireplace in the living room at least. To a degree it is a luxury, perhaps, though not a very expensive one, yet it is something for which all able to do so are very glad to pay. Besides, on chilly spring and autumn days and rainy summer evenings it provides a cheap and convenient auxiliary heating plant. But an open fire warms more than the hands and feet; it reaches the heart. Its appeal goes back to the tribal camp-fire and stirs some primitive instinct in man.

"Hearth and home" are synonymous; there is a whole ritual of domestic worship which centers around an open fire. A blaze on a hearth is more than a luxury, more than a comfort; it is an altar fire.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE LXXVIII.--Stairway Landing, Independence Hall; Palladian Window at Stairway Landing.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE LXXIX.--Declaration Chamber, Independence Hall.]

And so in building the modern Colonial home we find ourselves ever going back to study the creations of the master builders of provincial times in America, when fireplaces meant even more than they do to-day, and finding in their achievements ideas and inspiration of great beauty and practical value. The neighborhood of Philadelphia is as rich in its collection of fine old mantels and chimney pieces as in its splendid interior woodwork generally. Like the latter they are for the most part of the early Georgian period, mostly chimney pieces, many without shelves, and usually somewhat heavy in scale and detail.

As in other important architectural features the development of mantels and chimney pieces in America followed to a degree the prevailing mode in the mother country. For many years after the Italian cla.s.sic orders were brought to England by Inigo Jones, early in the seventeenth century, chimney pieces usually consisted merely of a mantel shelf and cla.s.sic architraves or bolection moldings about the fireplace opening, the chimney breast above being paneled like the rest of the room. Toward the end of that century, and for several decades following, the shelf was omitted and the paneling on the chimney breast took the form of two horizontally disposed oblongs, the upper broader than the lower.

Such an arrangement in its simplest form is to be seen in the great hall at Stenton, where a fireplace is located across one corner. The elliptical arch of the white pilastered brickwork and the height of the horizontal architrave above this arch impart a touch of quaint distinction. One notices with admiration the beautiful bra.s.s andirons and fire set, and with interest the floreated cast-iron fireback.

Going to the other extreme we find in the parlor at Whitby Hall a magnificently ornate example of the chimney piece without a mantel shelf which, as in many Colonial houses, has been made the central feature of one side of the room, symmetrically arranged and architecturally treated with wood paneling throughout. A heavy cornice with prominent double denticulated string course or crenelated molding runs entirely around the room, tying the fireplace end of the room into the general scheme.

The chimney piece projects slightly, lending greater emphasis, and at each side the wall s.p.a.ce is given over to high round-topped double doors of closets divided into upper and lower parts, beautifully flush-paneled and hung with quaint iron H hinges. Like those of the other doors and windows, the casings are of architrave pattern and in the center of the round arch is a keystone-shaped ornament hand-tooled in wood. The fireplace opening is faced beautifully with cut black marble brought from Scotland and outlined with a nicely chiseled ovolo molding in wood similar to the familiar egg and dart pattern, but incorporating the richer Lesbian leaf instead of the dart, a closely related reed-like motive replacing the conventional bead and reel. Two handsomely carved consoles resting on the fillet of this ovolo molding support the superb molded panel of the overmantel some three by five feet, in which to this day not a joint is to be seen. A band of exquisite floreated carving in high relief fills the long, narrow, horizontal panel between the consoles. The precision of the tooling in this intricate tracery is indeed remarkable. Nicely worked but simple parallel moldings with the favorite Grecian fret sharply delineated between them and Lesbian leaf ornaments in the square projections at the corners compose a frame of exceptional grace of detail and proportion. Rarely is an ensemble so elaborate accompanied by such a marked degree of good taste and restraint.

In the great chamber on the second floor, which is believed to have been the boudoir of the mistress of Mount Vernon, there is a very similar, though even more elaborate, architectural treatment of the fireplace and of the room. Closets with round-topped doors again occupy the s.p.a.ces each side of the fireplace; the cornice surrounding the entire room with its conspicuous Grecian fret motive again ties the paneled end of the room into the general scheme, and in this instance the relation is made closer by the paneled wainscot which is carried about all four walls. In this wainscot two panel sections under each closet are hung as double doors opening into small supplementary closets. Owing to the loftiness of the room, the closet doors have been elaborated by ornate broken pedimental heads repeating the cornice on a smaller scale, and which are supported by paneled pilasters and large consoles superbly carved with an acanthus leaf decoration.

Beautiful as these doorways are in themselves, they are so much heavier in treatment than the overmantel as to detract from it; they do not occupy an un.o.btrusive subordinate position, as do the closet doors of the parlor at Whitby Hall. Moreover, the trim of each door occupies such a breadth of wall s.p.a.ce that the fireplace and overmantel are narrowed, the latter taking the form of a vertical rather than a horizontal oblong. In fact, the dominant lines throughout are here vertical as contrasted with the dominant horizontal lines at Whitby Hall. The loftiness and stateliness of the room are thereby emphasized, but the effect is less restful.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE Lx.x.x.--Judge's Bench, Supreme Court Room, Independence Hall; Arcade at Opposite End of Court Room.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE Lx.x.xI.--Banquet Hall, Second Floor, Independence Hall; Entrance to Banquet Hall.]

In architectural detail the fireplace and overmantel recall that of the Whitby Hall chimney piece. There are similar black marble facings about the fireplace opening outlined by a hand-tooled molding, and similar elaborately carved consoles supporting a handsomely molded panel with projecting ornamental corners, but in this instance the panel is surmounted by a highly ornamental top, consisting of a swag or broken pediment with an exquisitely hand-carved floreated design in high relief between the volutes which imparts a charming lightness and grace to the ensemble. Pilaster projections bearing nicely delineated leaf ornaments above the corners of the overmantel panel tie into corresponding projections in the cornice and unify the whole construction. Otherwise the chimney piece differs from that of Whitby Hall chiefly in its moldings, in which the Lesbian leaf is prominent. The ovolo about the marble facings of the fireplace bears the conventional bead and reel and egg and dart motives, the latter having a leaf design in alternation with the egg. The ogee molding outlining the overmantel panel is enriched with a larger and a smaller leaf motive in alternation, while the torus of the inner molding of this panel bears a little conventionalized flower in alternation with crossed flat fillets.

Altogether more pleasing is the chimney piece in the parlor at Mount Pleasant. In fact, it is regarded as one of the handsomest chimney pieces without a mantel shelf in America. Its excellence is due not to superiority of detail, but to better proportion, the breadth of the chimney breast being sufficient to make the overmantel panel practically square. This great fireplace construction for burning four-foot logs projects into the room some eighteen inches, with wood-paneled sides, the adjoining walls being plastered. Around it are carried the chaste Ionic cornice with its prominent dentil course; and the paneled wainscot below corresponds to the pedestal of the order. In the general arrangement of the design, this chimney piece follows closely that of the one above, except that top, sides and bottom of the overmantel panel frame are alike. As at Whitby Hall the familiar Grecian fret very acceptably occupies the s.p.a.ce between the inner and outer moldings of this frame and obviates the need of any elaborate carved decoration above the panel. Contrasting pleasingly with this fret and on opposite sides of it are a plain molded ovolo outlining the panel and a small floreated torus supplemented by a molded cymatium within. The pilaster projections tying the panel treatment to the cornice bear three nicely tooled vertical flower designs in a row, an unusual conception. An ovolo of conventional egg and dart motive with the customary bead and reel astragal outlines the black marble facings of the fireplace opening. The console ornamentation is strongly reminiscent of that at Whitby Hall.

The mantel shelf proper was far too practical and attractive a feature of the fireplace to be long abandoned, however. It furnished a convenient place for clocks, candlesticks, china and other ornaments, and it appealed to the eye because of the homelike, livable appearance these articles of decoration gave to the room. About the middle of the eighteenth century the shelf of former times was reinstated and the overmantel was developed into a single large and elaborately framed panel over the chimney breast in which often hung a family portrait, a gilt-framed mirror or girandole.

Such a chimney piece is to be seen in the parlor at Cliveden, its fireplace opening partly closed up to convert it for use with the coal grate shown by the accompanying ill.u.s.tration. In this instance the carved consoles support the shelf rather than the panel of the overmantel, which engages neither the shelf nor the cornice with its prominent double denticulated molding. Otherwise, the chimney piece is essentially the same in arrangement as that in the parlor at Mount Pleasant. It has the same pleasing breadth and generally good proportions, but is severely simple in detail, the conventional ovolo of egg and dart motive without the astragal which outlines the black marble fireplace facings being the only enriched molding. As was customary, the shelf takes the form of a cymatium, and the projections above the consoles and central panel are characteristic details.

Much like this, though simpler in the absence of any enriched moldings and having less projection, is the chimney piece on the second floor of an old Spruce Street house shown by an accompanying ill.u.s.tration. It has substantially the same overmantel frame and mantel treatment.

Incidentally it furnishes an excellent example of the complete paneling of one end of a room with the familiar six-panel ordinary inside doors each side of the fireplace. The architrave casings of the doors with their horizontal projections over the lintel are in pleasing accord with the corresponding projections of the overmantel frame and of the facing of the fireplace opening.

Toward the end of the eighteenth century and for some years thereafter, mantels with a shelf, but without any overmantel treatment of the chimney breast, became the rule. The whole construction was usually projected from twelve to eighteen inches into the room, however, and as the surbase and skirting or a paneled wainscot and the cornice above was carried around it, the effect was much like that of a chimney piece, especially when a large, ornamental framed mantel mirror occupied the s.p.a.ce over the chimney breast.

The mantel itself took the form of a complete entablature above the fireplace opening, supported by pilasters at each side, the pilasters usually being carried up through the entablature by projections in architrave, frieze and cornice respectively, and the cymatium of the cornice forming the mantel shelf. The cla.s.sic orders supplied much of the ornamental detail with which these mantels were embellished, and the work gave full scope to the genius of English and American wood-carvers, of whom there were many of marked ability in America.

The thriving condition of the ship-building industry in the colonies was instrumental in attracting and developing skilled wood-carvers. Many of them became apt students of architecture and proficient in executing hand-tooled enriched moldings and other ornament for mantels and chimney pieces. Not content with the conventional detail of the cla.s.sic orders, they varied it considerably to suit their purposes, using familiar motives in new ways, securing cla.s.sic effects with detail of their own conception, and at times departing far from all precedent. For the most part their achievements displayed that good taste and restraint combined with a novelty and an ingenuity which have given our best Colonial architecture its princ.i.p.al charm and distinction.

Numerous examples of this sort of hand-carved mantels are to be found in Philadelphia, but none elicits greater admiration than those in two rooms at Upsala which are shown by accompanying ill.u.s.trations. Enriched with a wealth of intricate, fine-scale hand-tooling of daintiness and precision, they indicate the influence of Adam design and detail, although quite unlike the typical Adam mantel. They form an especially interesting study for comparison because of the marked similarity of the general scheme in all three and the difference in effect resulting from variations in detail.

The simplest of the three is a mantel for an iron hob grate with dark marble facings outlined by simple moldings. Familiar fluted pilasters support a mantel board entablature of rare beauty. Beneath a conventional cymatium and corona, with projections above the pilasters and central panel of the frieze, is a nicely worked dentil course,--a band of vertical flutes with a drilled tooth in the upper half of each alternate flute. The pilaster projections of the frieze are fluted in dots and dashes arranged in vertical lines, while a similar treatment of the central panel is so arranged that a pattern suggesting four festoons and five straight hanging garlands is produced. The upper fascia is enriched with groups of five vertical flutes in alternation with an incised conventionalized flower.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE Lx.x.xII.--Congress Hall, Sixth and Chestnut Streets.

Completed in 1790; Congress Hall from Independence Square.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE Lx.x.xIII.--Stair Hall Details, Congress Hall.]

Resembling the foregoing, but more elaborate, is the mantel in the parlor with its richer moldings and intricate carving. An astragal with the customary bead and reel separates the cymatium and the corona, while a drilled rope supplies the bed molding above the dentil course. The latter consists of a continuous pattern of vertical and shorter horizontal flutes, the alternate vertical half s.p.a.ces above and below the cross line of the H being cut out flat and deeper. The pilaster projections of the frieze, the central panel and the pilasters at each side of the fireplace opening supporting the entablature are vertical fluted in short sections which break joints like running bond in brickwork. In both the pilaster projections and the central panel the carving has been done in such a manner as to leave four-sided decorative figures with segmental sides in slender outline flush with the surface.

The upper fascia of the architrave is adorned by shallow drillings suggesting tiny festoons and straight hanging garlands with a conventionalized flower above each festoon. A cavetto molding, enriched with a bead and reel astragal and another drilled rope torus, outlines the dark marble facings about the fireplace opening. Handsome bra.s.s andirons, fender and fire set, together with the large gilt-framed mirror above, combine with the mantel to make this one of the most beautiful fireplaces in Philadelphia.

The third example in another room at Upsala is virtually the same as the mantel just described, except for the greater elaboration of the pilasters, pilaster projections of the frieze and central panel. Apart from these three features, the only essential differences are a dentil course in the cornice like that of the first Upsala mantel described and a vertical fluted belt in the capital of the pilasters and a.s.sociated moldings. In the pilaster projections of the frieze there are flush outline ornaments taking the form of a shield, while other graceful outline patterns running through the flutings adorn the upper half of the pilasters proper. The lower half is fluted in the short running bond sections. The central panel of the frieze retains and elaborates the motive of festoons and straight hanging garlands, the s.p.a.ce above the festoons in this instance being left flush except for an incised conventionalized flower design in each of the three sections.

Rarely are three mantels of such attractive design, good proportion, distinctive detail and dainty appearance to be found in a single house.

Seldom are three mantels to be found which are so similar and yet so different. They present an eloquent ill.u.s.tration of the infinite possibilities of minor variation in architectural design.

The same influences were at work elsewhere, however, and two other mantels shown by accompanying ill.u.s.trations, one in a house at Third and DeLancy streets and another in the Rex house, Mount Airy, show numerous variations of similar motives. In both, vertical flutings are depended upon chiefly for decoration, ornamental patterns being formed by flush sections where the cutting of the flutes is interrupted. In both instances the original fireplace opening has been partially closed up, in one case for a Franklin stove, and in the other for a hob grate, both for burning coal.

The mantel at Number 312 Cypress Street, with its well-proportioned entablature and paneled pilasters, displays a central panel in the frieze similar to the foregoing examples, but possesses a more distinct Adam character in the human figures in composition applied to the pilaster projections of the frieze, and in the drillings of the upper fascia of the architrave, simulating festoons. A reeded ovolo and deeply cut and drilled denticulated member lend sufficient emphasis to the string course of the cornice.

At Number 729 Walnut Street is to be seen a typically Adam mantel of exceptional grace and beauty. Instead of the usual pilasters the entablature is supported by two pairs of slender reeded colonnettes, and the fireplace opening is framed by moldings in which a torus enriched with a rope motive is prominent. The shelf or cymatium of the entablature has round corners and is supported by pilaster projections above the colonnettes at each end and by a projecting central panel, all of these projections being vertical fluted in the frieze portion. Both the central panel and the sunken panels each side of it bear graceful festoons and straight hanging garlands suspended from flower ornaments, the central s.p.a.ce of both sunken panels being occupied by a small, sharply delineated medallion in white, suggestive of wedgewood. This composition work was nicely detailed and is still well preserved. Below, the upper fascia of the architrave is enriched in accord with the Adam spirit. Drillings forming festoons with a tiny ornament above alternate with groups of seven vertical dotted lines. The fireplace opening has been closed up with stone slabs to inclose a Franklin stove for burning coal, the effect being much the same as a hob grate. In terms of dainty grace and chaste simplicity this is one of the best mantels in Philadelphia.

CHAPTER XI

INTERIOR WOOD FINISH

Mantels and staircases, the most important architectural features of interiors, were very properly elaborated considerably beyond the somewhat negative character of background accessories by the builders of Colonial times. Virtually furnishings as well as necessary parts of the house, the application of tasteful ornamentation to them seems amply justified. Each is a subject in itself, as indicated by the fact that stair building and mantel construction still remain independent trades quite apart from ordinary joinery. For that reason two separate chapters of this book have been devoted to these important subjects, the present chapter being devoted to interior woodwork in general.

What the interior wood trim of the average eighteenth-century Philadelphia house consists of is shown by accompanying photographs, especially those in Stenton, Mount Pleasant and Whitby Hall. It is found that the princ.i.p.al rooms of pretentious mansions, such as the hall, parlor and reception room at Stenton, were sometimes entirely paneled up on all sides. About this time, however, hand-blocked wall paper began to be brought to America, and a favorite treatment of Colonial interiors, including halls, parlors, dining rooms and even the princ.i.p.al bedrooms of large houses, combined a cornice, or often a cornice and frieze, and sometimes a complete entablature, with a paneled wainscot or a flat dado with surbase and skirting, the wall between being papered.

Sometimes a dado effect was secured by means of a surbase above the skirting, the plaster s.p.a.ce between being left white as in the parlor at Cliveden or in the hall and dining room at Whitby Hall, or papered like the wall above, as in the parlor at Whitby Hall and in some of the chambers at Upsala. Later the skirting only was frequently employed with a simple cornice or picture mold, even in the princ.i.p.al rooms of the better houses, as in the dining room at Whitby Hall. Several accompanying ill.u.s.trations show it with the dado, while a few interiors of Mount Pleasant, Upsala and Cliveden show it with the paneled wainscot. This general scheme const.i.tutes a pleasing and consistent application of the cla.s.sic orders to interior walls, the dado, the wall above it and whatever portion of the entablature happens to be employed corresponding to the pedestal, shaft and entablature of the complete order respectively. In a room so treated the dado becomes virtually a continuous pedestal with a base or skirting and a surbase above the die or plane face of the pedestal. Usually this surbase is molded to resemble the upper fascia or the complete architrave of the various orders. Again it may be hand-carved with vertical flutings, continuous, as in the parlor at Upsala, or in groups of three or more in alternation with an incised flower pattern, as in the Rex house.

For the most part the surmounting cornice and frieze of the room was of wood, beautifully molded and often hand-carved, the architrave usually being omitted. In the library at Solitude, however, is to be seen a handsome cornice and frieze entirely of plaster or composition work in the Adam manner, including familiar cla.s.sic detail in which enriched cavetto and ogee moldings, festoons, flower ornaments and draped human figures are prominent. When chandeliers for candles began to be used in private houses they were hung from ornamental centerpieces of plaster on the ceiling, the motives usually being circles, ovals, festooned garlands and acanthus leaves. Such a centerpiece and ornamental treatment of the ceiling is also a feature of this room.

In most of the better houses during the Provincial period, important rooms had paneled wainscots, papered walls and molded cornices, as in the parlor and second-story hall at Mount Pleasant and in the parlor at Upsala. Sometimes the plaster walls were left white or painted, as in the hall at Cliveden and the library at Stenton. A fireplace with paneled chimney piece was an important feature of most rooms, and the entire wall including it was often completely paneled up, closely relating the fireplace, doors or windows in a definite architectural scheme, as already shown by examples in Stenton, Whitby Hall and Mount Pleasant. Embrasured windows with two-part paneled folding shutters and seats jutting somewhat into the room were customary in early brick and stone houses, as at Stenton. These were fastened by bars of wood thrust across from side to side and fitting into slots in the jambs. Later, outside shutters came into vogue, and the jambs and soffit of the embrasures were paneled, as at Whitby Hall, the treatment of the Palladian window on the staircase landing in this house being an especially fine example.

The parlor at Stenton is among the most notable instances in Philadelphia of this architectural treatment of the fireplace in a room with wood paneling throughout. Along Georgian lines and decidedly substantial in character, it is essentially simple in conception and graceful in form and proportion, the s.p.a.cing of the large bolection molded raised panels being excellent. First attention properly goes to the wide chimney piece with its unusual, but attractive overmantel paneling, low arched and marble-faced fireplace opening, beautiful bra.s.s fender and andirons. The symmetrical arrangement of two flanking china closets, with round-headed double doors recalling those shown at Whitby Hall and Mount Pleasant, is most effective. The work is executed in a masterly manner, the proportions being well calculated and the precision of the hand tooling remarkably well maintained. Both the doors and embrasured windows of this room merit careful study.

Of more modest, but generally similar treatment, is the paneling of the reception room at Stenton, the fireplace opening here having been closed for installation of a Franklin stove.

At Whitby Hall there are two interesting and characteristic examples of embrasured windows with paneled jambs and soffits, and molded architrave casings. In the dining room the embrasures are cased down to the window seats, while in the parlor the casings with their broader sections at top and bottom do not extend below the surbase, although the embrasure continues to the floor. In this latter room one of the Colonial builder's favorite motives, ever recurring with minor variations throughout many houses, occupies the string course of the cornice. This double denticulated member or Grecian fret band is formed by vertical cross cuttings, alternately from top and bottom of a square molding, the plain ogee molding beneath giving it just the proper emphasis.

Conforming to the characteristic panel arrangement of the time, most of the inside doors of Philadelphia have six panels, the upper pair being not quite square and the two lower pairs being oblong, the middle pair being longer than the lower. Like outside doors they were for the most part molded and raised with broad bevels, although occasionally, as on the second floor at Mount Pleasant, they were flat and bolection molded, giving the door a considerably different aspect. Generally speaking, the workmanship was excellent, the beveling of the panels and the molding of the stiles and rails manifesting the utmost painstaking. A simple k.n.o.b and key-plate, usually of bra.s.s, completed the complement of hardware, apart from the H hinges of early years and the b.u.t.ts which soon followed. It will be noted that all of these six-panel doors have stiles and muntins of virtually equal width, any variation being slightly wider stiles. Top and frieze rails are alike and about the same width as the muntin, but the bottom rail is somewhat broader and the lock rail the broadest of the four. Moldings are very simple and confined to the edge of the panels, with the splayed or beveled panels of earlier years gradually being abandoned in favor of plain, flat surfaces.