nt and prospective home
builder.

Interesting as was the provincial life of this community; absorbing as
are the reminiscences attaching to its well-known early buildings;
important as were the activities of those who made them part and parcel
of our national life, the Colonial architecture of this vicinity is in
itself a priceless heritage--extensive, meritorious, substantial,
distinctive. It is a heritage not only of local but of national
interest, deserving detailed description, analysis and comparison in a
book which includes historic facts only to lend true local color and
impart human interest to the narrative, to indicate the sources of
affluence and culture which aided so materially in developing this
architecture, and to describe the life and manners of the time which
determined its design and arrangement. Such a book the authors have
sought to make the present volume, and both Mr. Riley in writing the
text and Mr. Cousins in illustrating it have been actuated primarily by
architectural rather than historic values, although in most instances
worthy of inclusion the two are inseparable.

For much of the historic data the authors acknowledge their indebtedness
to the authors of previous Philadelphia books, notably "Philadelphia,
the City and Its People" and "The Literary History of Philadelphia",
Ellis Paxon Oberholtzer; "Old Roads Out of Philadelphia" and "The
Romance of Old Philadelphia", John Thomson Faris; "The History of
Philadelphia" and "Historic Mansions of Philadelphia", T. Westcott; "The
Colonial Homes of Philadelphia and Its Neighborhood", Harold Donaldson
Eberlein and Horace Mather Lippincott; "Colonial Mansions ", Thomas
Allen Glenn; "The Guide Book to Historic Germantown", Charles Francis
Jenkens; "Germantown Road and Its Associations", Townsend Ward. Ph. B.
Wallace, of Philadelphia, photographed some of the best subjects.

The original boundaries of Philadelphia remained unchanged for one
hundred and seventy-five years after the founding of the city, the
adjoining territory, as it became populated, being erected into
corporated districts in the following order: Southwark, 1762; Northern
Liberties, 1771; Moyamensing, 1812; Spring Garden, 1813; Kensington,
1820; Penn, 1844; Richmond, 1847; West Philadelphia, 1851; and Belmont,
1853. In 1854 all these districts, together with the boroughs of
Germantown, Frankford, Manayunk, White Hall, Bridesburg and Aramingo,
and the townships of Passyunk, Blockle