Chain of Colonial Houses

Philadelphia was the most important city in the colonies and the home of many leaders of thought and action in the days which saw the birth of the American nation. We are fortunate in having preserved for us the few historic landmarks in Fairmount Park, which have been restored through the leadership of the Pennsylvania Museum of Art and cooperative institutions and by the generosity of Philadelphians. This book contains pictures and sketches of eight old colonial houses, several of which date back to the middle of the eighteenth century.

Of the houses described, Cedar Grove, Belmont, The Cliffs, Woodford and Mount Pleasant antedate the Revolution, and are examples of early Georgian and mid-Georgian styles. The simple stone cottages which stand on the grounds at Belmont, Woodford and Strawberry antedate in style the mansion-houses there. Even the oldest portion of Cedar Grove, 1721, already shows a front of squared masonry, while the oldest part of Woodford has on the end the glazed headers which characterize the earliest brick buildings of the colony. The later houses are generally covered with stucco.

By the middle of the century there were bold classic doorways, as at Belmont, Woodford (then enlarged) and Mount Pleasant. Rich ornamented ceilings from about 1760 are found at Belmont; the principal rooms at Woodford and Mount Pleasant are adorned with elaborate carving in the Chippendale style. After the Revolution the more slender proportions of the Adam style were adopted, in the later part of Cedar Grove and at Lemon Hill, Sweetbrier and Strawberry. The wings at Strawberry show the severe classic detail of the Greek Revival.