per, South
Seventh Street (section); Iron Stair Rail and Footscraper, South Fourth
Street (section); Iron Stair Rail and Footscraper, Seventh and Locust
Streets (section); Iron Stair Rail and Footscraper, Seventh and Locust
Streets (section).]

[Illustration: PLATE XLIII.--Detail of Window and Shutters, Morris
House.]

Erected in 1727 as a single dwelling, this house was occupied during the
battle by the widow Deshler and her family. At that time there was no
building of any sort between the Billmeyer and Chew houses. It was in
front of this house that Washington stopped in his march down Germantown
Avenue on October 4, 1777, having discovered that the Chew house was
occupied by the British. There he conferred with his officers, ordered
the attack and directed the battle. The tradition is that Washington
stood on a horse block, telescope in hand, trying in vain to penetrate
the smoke and fog and discover the force of the enemy intrenched within
the Chew mansion. The stone cap of the horse block is still preserved,
and the telescope is in the possession of Germantown Academy. The house
suffered greatly at the hands of the British soldiers who were quartered
there, and its woodwork still bears the marks of bullets and attempts to
set it on fire. In 1789 it became the home of Michael Billmeyer, a
celebrated German printer who carried on his trade there.

Homes such as the Johnson and Billmeyer houses and numerous similar
ones, two and a half stories high with gable roofs, dormer windows and a
penthouse roof at the second-floor level, are characteristic examples of
the best Pennsylvania farmhouse type which architects of the present day
are perpetuating to a considerable extent. Whether of dressed local or
ledge stone, they are distinct from anything else anywhere that comes
within the Colonial category. In their design and construction sincerity
of purpose is manifest; their sturdy simplicity and frank practicability
give them a rare charm which appeals strongly to all lovers of the
Colonial style in architecture.

CHAPTER VII

DOORWAYS AND PORCHES

Invariably one associates a house with its front entrance, for the
doorway is the dominant feature of the facade, the keynote so to speak.
Truly utilitarian in purpose, and so lending itself more logically to
elaboration for the sake of decorative effect, the doorway became the
principal single feature of a Colonial exterior. When designed in
complete accord wit