Within are the original square box pews with doors, and seats facing
both ways, those of the galleries being similarly arranged. The whole
aspect is one of great plainness and simple dignity, yet withal
pleasing. A unique feature is the location of the organ and altar at the
eastern end and the reading desk and lofty wineglass pulpit, with
sounding board overhead, at the western end. This compels the rector to
conduct part of the service at each end of the church and obliges the
congregation to change to the other seat of the pews in order to face in
the opposite direction. In the adjoining churchyard are buried many
distinguished early residents of the city, including Commodore Stephen
Decatur.
Trinity Church, Oxford, stands on the site of a log meetinghouse where
Church of England services were held as early as 1698. The present brick
structure was erected in 1711. Standing among fine old trees in the
midst of a picturesque churchyard, it has an appearance rather English
than American. The detail of the wood trim is obviously Colonial,
however, and the brickwork corresponds to the best in Philadelphia. The
influence of Flemish brickwork is seen in the large diamond patterns
each side of the semicircular marble inscription tablet above the
principal doorway.
St. Paul's Protestant Episcopal Church, South Third and Walnut streets,
was designed by William Strickland and built some years later than St.
Peter's. The exterior remains the same, but the interior has been
considerably altered. It is a simple gable-roof structure of plastered
rubble masonry, and its facade with broad pilasters, handsome
round-topped windows and simple doorway is heavily vine-clad. A handsome
fence with highly ornamental wrought-iron gates and large ball-topped
posts lends a touch of added refinement to the picture. Edwin Forrest,
the eminent American actor, is buried in one of the vaults of the
church.
Although the Friends were the first sect to erect a meetinghouse of
their own in Germantown, about 1693, the Mennonites built a log
meetinghouse in 1709, the first of this sect in America, and their
present stone church on Germantown Avenue, near Herman Street, in 1770,
a modest one-story gable-roof structure of ledge stone. It would be
impossible to conceive anything simpler than the tall, narrow, double
doors with the little hood above a stone stoop with plain, iron handrail
on one side. In the churchyard in front of it lie the remains of the man
who shot and mortally wounded General Agnew during the Battle of
Germantown.
INDEX
Abacus, 109, 112
Acanthus leaf, 81, 164
Adam, mantels, 92, 179, 183;
design, in American building, 166;
cornice and frieze, 187
Agnew, General, 63
Allen, Nathaniel, 3
Ambler, Doctor W. S., 121
American flag, the first, tradition concerning the making of, 51, 52
Andirons, 172, 181
Andre, Major John, 14, 22
Arch Street, house at No. 229 (Ross house), 51, 52
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account