ar fire.

[Illustration: PLATE LXXVIII.--Stairway Landing, Independence Hall;
Palladian Window at Stairway Landing.]

[Illustration: PLATE LXXIX.--Declaration Chamber, Independence Hall.]

And so in building the modern Colonial home we find ourselves ever going
back to study the creations of the master builders of provincial times
in America, when fireplaces meant even more than they do to-day, and
finding in their achievements ideas and inspiration of great beauty and
practical value. The neighborhood of Philadelphia is as rich in its
collection of fine old mantels and chimney pieces as in its splendid
interior woodwork generally. Like the latter they are for the most part
of the early Georgian period, mostly chimney pieces, many without
shelves, and usually somewhat heavy in scale and detail.

As in other important architectural features the development of mantels
and chimney pieces in America followed to a degree the prevailing mode
in the mother country. For many years after the Italian classic orders
were brought to England by Inigo Jones, early in the seventeenth
century, chimney pieces usually consisted merely of a mantel shelf and
classic architraves or bolection moldings about the fireplace opening,
the chimney breast above being paneled like the rest of the room. Toward
the end of that century, and for several decades following, the shelf
was omitted and the paneling on the chimney breast took the form of two
horizontally disposed oblongs, the upper broader than the lower.

Such an arrangement in its simplest form is to be seen in the great hall
at Stenton, where a fireplace is located across one corner. The
elliptical arch of the white pilastered brickwork and the height of the
horizontal architrave above this arch impart a touch of quaint
distinction. One notices with admiration the beautiful brass andirons
and fire set, and with interest the floreated cast-iron fireback.

Going to the other extreme we find in the parlor at Whitby Hall a
magnificently ornate example of the chimney piece without a mantel shelf
which, as in many Colonial houses, has been made the central feature of
one side of the room, symmetrically arranged and architecturally treated
with wood paneling throughout. A heavy cornice with prominent double
denticulated string course or crenelated molding runs entirely around
the room, tying the fireplace end of the room into the general scheme.
The chimney piece projects slightly, lending g