.]

[Illustration: PLATE LXV.--Parlor Mantel, Upsala; Detail of Parlor
Mantel, Upsala.]

Unquestionably the most distinctive feature of the window treatment of
this neighborhood was the outside shutters. Colonial times were
troublous, and glass was expensive. In the city, protection was wanted
against lawlessness at night, and in the country there was for many
years the ever-present possibility of an Indian attack, despite the
generally friendly relations of the Quakers with the tribes of the
vicinity. There were also some British soldiers not above making
improper use of unshuttered windows at night. Except for a relatively
few country houses which had neither outside shutters nor
blinds--notably Stenton, Solitude, Mount Pleasant, Bartram House and The
Woodlands--the use of shutters on the first story was the rule. Above
that the custom varied greatly. Where outside shutters were totally
absent, inside hinged, folding and sometimes boxed shutters were almost
invariably present. Only a few important instances of old Colonial
houses having blinds on the lower story now remain. Port Royal House,
for example, two and a half stories high, has blinds on the first story
and none above. The Highlands has blinds on both the first and second
stories, while Chalkley Hall in Frankford has blinds on all three of its
stories.

Often there are shutters on the lower story and none above. Three-story
instances of this are the Waln house, Number 254 South Second Street;
the Blackwell house, Number 224 Pine Street; and the Wistar house,
Fourth and Locust streets. Two and a half story instances are Cliveden,
Hope Lodge, Vernon, Woodford, the Johnson house and Laurel Hill in the
Northern Liberties, Fairmount Park.

Less common are three-story houses having shutters on the first and
second stories and none on the third. Whitby Hall, the Morris house and
the Wharton house, Number 336 Spruce Street, are examples. Rare are two
and a half story houses having shutters on both the principal stories.
Wyck, Cedar Grove in Harrowgate, Northern Liberties, and Wynnestay in
Wynnefield, West Philadelphia, are good examples. Most two and a half
story houses have shutters on the first story and blinds on the second,
as instanced by Upsala, Grumblethorpe, Loudoun, Glen Fern and the
Perot-Morris house. The Powel house, Number 244 South Third Street, is a
rare instance of shutters on all three stories, while the Evans house,
Number 322 De Lancy Street,