mansions of Colonial times. With very few exceptions molded and raised
panels with broad bevels were used in all, and it is according to the
arrangement of these panels that the different types of doors are best
classified.

One of the earliest and simplest was the six-panel single door with
three stiles of about equal width, top and frieze rail about the same,
bottom rail somewhat wider and lock rail about double the width of the
frieze rail. The upper pair of panels were not quite high enough to be
square, while the middle and lower pairs were oblong in shape, the
middle one being higher than the lower. Rarely this relation was
reversed, and the lower pair was higher than the middle pair, the door
at Number 6504 Germantown Avenue being an example. As found in the
farmhouses of Germantown and thereabouts, notably Wyck, Glen Fern, the
Green Tree Inn and the Johnson and Billmeyer houses, these six-panel
doors were split horizontally through the lock rail, dividing them into
an upper and lower part. This arrangement made it possible to open the
upper part for ventilation while keeping the lower part closed to
prevent stray animals and fowls from entering the house. Numerous
examples of undivided six-panel doors are shown by accompanying
illustrations and referred to in detail in succeeding paragraphs. Of
these the door of Grumblethorpe is unique in having a double stile in
the middle, giving almost the appearance of double doors.

Three-panel double doors, such as those of Mount Pleasant, Solitude and
Port Royal House, were less common than any of the four principal types
mentioned, and were little used except for a few decades after the
middle of the eighteenth century. Like six-panel single doors, the upper
panel was often almost square, and the middle oblong panel higher than
the bottom one of the same shape. At Mount Pleasant the middle and lower
panels were of the same size.

Eight-panel single doors were employed extensively throughout the
eighteenth century, and this is one of the most picturesque and
distinctive of Philadelphia types. For the most part the panels were
arranged as shown by the doors of the Perot-Morris, Powel and Wharton
houses with a pair of small and large panels in alternation. Other
notable instances are to be seen at Loudoun, Chalkley Hall and the
Blackwell house. The top or first and third pairs were about half as
high as their width, while the second and fourth pairs were oblong and
usual