Two excellent doorways of this general type having paneled instead of
fluted pilaster casings may be seen at Number 6504 Germantown Avenue,
Germantown, and Number 701 South Seventh Street. The former is broad and
has a six-panel door much like that at Number 5011 Germantown Avenue,
but the fanlight is of simpler pattern and withal more pleasing. A
fine-scale dentil course lends interest to the pedimental cornice, while
the frieze portions of the entablature section of the pilasters are
elaborated by flutings and drillings, the latter suggestive of a
festoon. A knocker of slender grace is the best feature of the hardware.
The South Seventh Street entrance, higher and narrower, presents another
example of the dark-painted door rendered the more interesting by reason
of its eight-panel arrangement, the spacing being that usually employed
for double doors. The wood trim, molded but nowhere carved, commends
itself for effective simplicity. Two marble steps, the upper one very
deep, with an attractive iron rail on the buttresses at each side,
complete a doorway picture that is typically Philadelphian.
[Illustration: PLATE XLVIII.--Shutter Fastener, Cliveden; Shutter
Fastener, Wyck; Shutter Fastener, Perot-Morris House; Shutter Fastener,
6043 Germantown Avenue.]
[Illustration: PLATE XLIX.--Detail of Round Headed Window, Congress
Hall; Detail of Round Headed Window, Christ Church.]
Surpassing both of the foregoing, however, is the doorway at Number 709
Spruce Street. Indeed, it is among the best of its type in the city. It
has the simple excellence in detail of the South Seventh Street doorway,
with better proportion, less height of pediment and greater apparent
breadth, owing to the six-panel arrangement of the door and the fact
that it is white like the wood trim about it. The only carved molding is
the Grecian fret of the dentil course in the pedimental cornice. Here
again another favorite knocker pattern greets the eye.
Engaged round columns, usually smooth and standing in front of wide
pilasters, were often pleasing features of these pedimental doorways. In
such instances the projection was so great that the entablature sections
above the columns were square, and the soffit of the corona in the
pediment was paneled. Two notable instances may be cited at Number 5200
Germantown Avenue, Germantown, and Number 4927 Frankford Avenue. Both
have the familiar six-panel doors with corresponding paneled jambs and
arch soffit, attractively simple fanlights and much fine-scale hand
carving in the pedimental cornice and architrave casing of the keyed
arch. The former displays better taste. Effective use is made of a
reeded ovolo, and the fascia of the architrave bears a pleasing
hand-tooled band of vertical flutes with a festooned flat fillet
running through it. The most distinctive feature, however, is the double
denticulated molding of the pedimental cornice with prominent drilled
holes in each dentil alternately at top and bottom.
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