e to Solitude. Conventionally Ionic in detail, with smooth
columns and voluted capitals, it pleases the eye but lacks the
impressiveness of the doorway at Cliveden. The three-panel double doors
are narrower, and this fact is emphasized by the deep recess with
paneled jambs. There is but one broad step, which also serves as the
threshold.

The doorway of the Perot-Morris house, deeply recessed because of the
thick stone walls, presents at its best another variation of this
sturdiest of Philadelphia types with a single, eight-panel, dark-painted
door and a very broad top stone step before it. Virtually a pure Tuscan
adaptation, it differs in a few particulars from others of similar
character, notably in the pronounced tapering of the columns toward the
top and the recessing of the entablature above the door to form pilaster
projections above the columns. In other words, the recessed entablature
of this doorhead replaces the fanlight of another type already referred
to and of which the doorways at Number 5200 Germantown Avenue and
Number 4927 Frankford Avenue are examples. The brass knob, the heavy
iron latch and fastenings inside are the ones Washington, Jefferson,
Hamilton, Knox and Randolph handled in passing in and out during
Washington's occupancy.

[Illustration: PLATE LII.--Chancel Window, Christ Church; Palladian
Window and Doorway, Independence Hall.]

[Illustration: PLATE LIII.--Palladian Window, The Woodlands.]

Above the pediment is to be plainly seen the picturesque, cast-iron,
hand-in-hand fire mark about a foot high, consisting of four clasped
hands crossed in the unbreakable grasp of "My Lady Goes to London" of
childhood days. This ancient design, to be seen on the Morris, Betsy
Ross and numerous other houses, was that of the oldest fire insurance
company in the United States, organized in 1752 under Franklin's
leadership. This and other designs, such as the green tree, eagle, hand
fire engine and hose and hydrant still remain on many old Philadelphia
buildings, indicating in earlier years which company held the policy.
For a long time it was the custom to place these emblems on all insured
houses, the principal reason for doing so being that certain volunteer
fire companies were financed or assisted by certain insurance companies
and consequently made special efforts to save burning houses insured by
the company concerned.

Porches were the exception rather than the rule in the early
architecture of