The Colonial Architecture of Philadelphia

Philadelphia occupies a unique position in American architecture. Few of the early settled cities of the United States can boast so extensive or so notable a collection of dwell...

Throughout the Colonial period, and to a degree during the early years of the American nation, Philadelphia clung to the manners and customs of the mother country as did few oth...

As the city of Philadelphia grew and became more densely populated, land values increased greatly, and the custom developed of building brick residences in blocks fronting direc...

The use of natural building materials available on or near the site, when they are suitable or can be made so, always elicits hearty commendation; it gives local color and disti...

It is quite possible to preserve random shapes and rock faces in stonework that is structurally good, yet still fail in a measure to please the eye and satisfy the artistic sens...

Cost was not an object in building many of the larger old countryseats about Philadelphia, for their owners were men of wealth and station, prominent in the affairs of the provi...

Invariably one associates a house with its front entrance, for the doorway is the dominant feature of the façade, the keynote so to speak. Truly utilitarian in purpose, and so l...

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 an...

The hall is of particular moment in the design of a house. There guests are welcomed to the fireside, and there their first impressions of the home are formed. The architectural...

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...

Mantels and staircases, the most important architectural features of interiors, were very properly elaborated considerably beyond the somewhat negative character of background a...

As in its domestic architecture of Colonial times, Philadelphia is so rich in its fine old public buildings that a readable and instructive book could be made about them alone....