act, the financier of the War of
1812.

No less interesting than the governmental and commercial public
buildings of Philadelphia are its churches, of which several of noble
architecture date back to the Colonial period.

On North Second Street, just north of Market, is located Christ Church,
Protestant Episcopal, the first diocesan church of Pennsylvania. It is a
fine old building designed mainly by Doctor John Kearsley, a vestryman
and physician. The corner stone was laid in 1727, and the building was
completed in 1744, but the steeple, in part designed by Benjamin
Franklin and containing a famous chime of eight bells, was not erected
until 1754. Franklin was one of the managers of a lottery in 1753 for
raising funds for the steeple and bells, the latter being imported at a
cost of five hundred pounds sterling. On July 4, 1776, after the
Declaration of Independence had been read, these bells "rang out a merry
chime."

This imposing edifice eloquently indicates what architectural triumphs
can be achieved in brickwork in the Colonial style. Apart from the
spire, interest centers in the fenestration, which has already been
treated in Chapter VIII, and in the wood trim. As in much contemporary
architecture, the woodwork is conspicuous for the free use of the
orders. For example, one immediately notes the mutulary Doric cornice
and frieze along the sides, and the pulvinated Ionic entablature across
the chancel gable above the Palladian window. The roof is heavily
balustraded in white-painted wood with the urns on the several pedestals
holding torches with carved flames. A brick belfry rises square and
sturdy above the roof and then continues upward in diminishing
construction of wood, first virtually four-sided, then octagonal and
finally in a low, tapering spire surmounted by a weather-vane. A
distinctive feature is the simple iron fence along the street with two
wrought-iron arched gates, as beautiful as any in America, hung from
high, ball-topped stone posts.

Imposing in its simplicity, the interior is generally Doric in
character, but the Ionic entablatures over the side sections of the
beautiful Palladian chancel window reflect the treatment outside. Fluted
columns standing on high pedestals, with square, Doric entablature
sections above, support graceful, elliptical arches, which separate the
nave from the aisles in which are panel-fronted galleries. The organ
loft over the main entrance is bow-fronted and high