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
passing 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 casement 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 glass was set in
rabbeted edges and held in place by putty according to the method still
in use.
[Illustration: PLATE LX.--Detail of Stair Ends, Carpenter House, Third
and Spruce Streets; Detail of Stair Ends, Independence Hall (horizontal
section).]
[Illustration: 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 glass 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 glass 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 illustrates 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.
[Illustration: PLATE LXII.--Chimney Piece and Paneled Wall, Parlor,
Whitby Hall.]
[Illustration: 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
principal 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 illustration 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 illustration
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.
[Illustration: PLATE LXIV.--Chimney Piece and Paneled Wall on the Second
Floor of an old Spruce Street House; Detail of Mantel, 312 Cypress
Street.]
[Illustration: 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 glass 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 principal 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.
[Illustration: PLATE LXVI.--Mantel at Upsala; Mantel at Third and De
Lancey Streets.]
[Illustration: 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 illustrations 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 illustration 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 illustration 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.
[Illustration: PLATE LXVIII.--- Parlor, Stenton; Reception Room,
Stenton.]
[Illustration: PLATE LXIX.--Dining Room, Stenton; Library, Stenton.]
The Old Swedes' Church has a few rectangular windows with fifteen-and
sixteen-paned upper and lower sashes, while over the front entrance
there is a window having a twelve-paned upper and a sixteen-paned
lower sash. In Christ Church are to be seen two windows having ten-paned
upper and fifteen-paned lower sashes set in a recessed round brick arch.
For the most part, however, the church windows of this period were
round-topped, the upper sash being higher than the lower. Most of the
windows of St. Peter's Protestant Episcopal Church have fifteen-paned
lower sashes, the upper sashes consisting of twenty rectangular panes
above which twelve keystone-shaped panes and one semicircular pane form
the round top.
The windows of Christ Church are larger still and particularly
interesting because of the heavy central muntin to strengthen the sash.
On the first story the lower sashes have twenty-four panes and the upper
ones eighteen rectangular panes with sixteen keystone-shaped and two
quarter-round panes to form the semicircular top. On the second floor
the windows are the same except for the eighteen-paned lower sashes.
Each side of the steeple on the lower story is a window of this size,
notable for the ornamental spacing of twenty-one sash bar divisions, the
sweeping curves of which form spaces for glass reminiscent of the Gothic
arch.
These windows slide in molded frames set in the reveals of the brickwork
under plain arches with marble or other stone imposts, keystone and
sill. The imposts and keystone were often molded and otherwise
hand-tooled, as on Christ's Church, and the sills were sometimes
supported by a console at each end, as on St. Peter's Protestant
Episcopal Church. Some of the windows of both of these churches
illustrate the frequent employment of slightly projecting brick arches
and pilaster casings at the sides.
The great Palladian chancel windows of Renaissance churches were often
much larger. Usually they were stationary, especially the central
section, although sometimes, as in Christ's Church, the two side windows
had sliding sashes. The central section of this window has ninety-six
rectangular panes with twenty-four keystone-shaped and two quarter-round
panes forming the round top. The narrow side windows have fifteen-paned
upper and twelve-paned lower sashes. The treatment of this chancel end
with heavy brick piers and pilasters, stone entablature, projecting
brick spandrels and the bust of George II, King of England, between
them, above the arch of the Palladian window, is most interesting.
The chancel window of St. Peter's Protestant Episcopal Church has one
hundred and eight rectangular panes in its central section with
twenty-eight keystone-shaped panes and a semicircular pane forming the
round top. Each side of this end of the church, with four smaller
round-headed windows ranged about the chancel window and a circular
window in the pediment above, is a superb example of symmetrical
arrangement.
Although large and more ornate, the Palladian window above the entrance
to Independence Hall on the Independence Square side is more like that
found in domestic architecture. All three of its lower sashes are
sliding. The central window consists of a twenty-four-paned lower sash
and an upper sash with twenty-one ornamental-shaped panes forming the
round top above twenty-four rectangular panes. The narrow side windows
have six-paned upper and twelve-paned lower sashes. Owing to its good
proportion, the chaste simplicity of the detail and the pleasing
combination of brick pilasters with wood trim, this has been referred to
by architects as the best Palladian window in America. The use of such a
window in the Ionic order above a Doric doorway adds another to the many
notable instances of free use of the orders by Colonial builders.
In domestic architecture Palladian windows were employed chiefly to
light the stairway landing, as at Whitby Hall; to light the upper hall,
as at Mount Pleasant; and rarely to light the principal rooms each side
of the front entrance, as at The Woodlands. They not only charm the eye
as interior features, but when viewed outdoors relieve the severity of
many ranging square-headed windows and provide a center of interest in
the fenestration, lending grace and distinction to the entire facade.
No Palladian windows in Philadelphia so thoroughly please the eye or so
convincingly indicate the delightful accord that may exist between gray
ledge-stone masonry and white woodwork as those set within recessed
arches at The Woodlands. The proportion and simple, clean-cut detail
throughout are exquisite. The engaged colonnettes of the mullions
contrast pleasingly with the pilasters of the frame, each of the two
supporting an entablature notable for its fine-scale dentil course, and
these two in turn supporting a keyed, molded arch. The central window
has twelve-paned upper and lower sliding sashes with an attractively
spaced fanlight above. The narrow ten-paned side windows are stationary.
Unusual as is the use of these Palladian windows, their charm is
undeniable, and they are among the chief distinctions of the house.
[Illustration: PLATE LXX.--Pedimental Doorway, First Floor, Mount
Pleasant; Pedimental Doorway, Second Floor, Mount Pleasant.]
[Illustration: PLATE LXXI.--Doorways, Second Floor Hall, Mount Pleasant;
Doorway Detail, Whitby Hall.]