Another clever device of Philadelphia ironworkers was to make the foot
scraper a part of the iron stair rail. Usually in such a scheme it was
also made part of the newel treatment on the lower step of the stoop,
but at Seventh and Locust streets, for example, it stands on the second
step beside and above the ornate round newel with its surmounting
pineapple. Here, as in the case of the simpler handrail in South Seventh
Street, one of the iron spindles of the rail is split about a foot from
the bottom, and the two halves bent respectively to the right and left
until they meet the next spindle on each side, the scraper bar of
ornamental outline being fastened across from one to the other of these
spindles below. The principal charm of the South Seventh Street rail
lies in its extreme simplicity, the twisted section of the spindles near
the bottom being a clever expedient. The pleasing effect of the design
at Seventh and Locust streets is largely due to appropriate use of the
evolute spiral band. Only a little more ornate than the South Seventh
Street stair rail is that in South Fourth Street. A special spiral
design above the foot scraper, however, virtually becomes a newel in
this instance. The same is true of another much more elaborate stair
rail at Seventh and Locust streets with its attractive diaper pattern
between an upper and lower Grecian band, the whole grille being
supported by a graceful three-point bracket.
CHAPTER VIII
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.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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