Bartram was a farmer, but his interest in plants, shrubs and trees was
such that he became one of the greatest botanists of his day. In autumn,
when his farm labors were finished for the year, he journeyed
extensively about the colonies, gathering specimens with which to
beautify his grounds. His greatest enjoyment in life was to make his
collection of rare species ever more complete, and his remarkable
accomplishments in this direction, despite many handicaps, entitle him
to be known as the father of American botanists. After Bartram's death
his son William, also an eminent botanist, carried on the work, and
later his son-in-law, Colonel Carr, did likewise until the place became
one of the most interesting botanical gardens in the country. In 1851
the estate was purchased by Andrew Eastwick, a railway builder just
returned from an extended commission in Russia, who erected a large
residence in another part of the grounds. In 1893 the city bought
Bartram House and its immediate grounds and in 1897 acquired the balance
of the estate, the whole being converted into a public park and the old
house being furnished and put in excellent condition by the descendants
of the Bartram family.
Undoubtedly the most notable instance of the use of "brick" stone with
the so-called Colonial or "barn" pointing is the Johnson house at Number
6306 Germantown Avenue, Germantown. Typical of the first homes that
lined the street of this historic old town for nearly two miles, it is
solidly built of dark native ledge stone, the front being of dressed
rectangular blocks considerably smaller, somewhat rougher and hence less
formal than the surfaced blocks of Cliveden, for example. It is a single
gable-roofed structure two and a half stories high with ranging windows
throughout, a large chimney at each end and two dormers in the front
between them. Like many others of the time it had a small penthouse roof
at the second-floor level which, with the overhanging eaves of the roof
above, afforded protection from rainy weather for the joints of the
stonework which was at first laid up in clay. Lime for making more
permanent mortar was far from plentiful for many years after America was
first settled, and numerous makeshifts had to be resorted to unless the
builder could afford to import lime from England at great expense. Over
the doorway, with its simple flanking seats, there is the familiar
pedimental and slightly projecting hood, while the door itself is of the
quaint divided type, permitting the upper half to be opened while the
lower half is closed. On the first floor the windows have nine-paned
sashes, both upper and lower, together with nicely paneled shutters,
while on the second floor the upper sashes are foreshortened to six
panes, and there are neither shutters nor blinds.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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