ntial
character than any contemporary work to be found above the Mason and
Dixon line which later became in part the boundary between the North and
the South. Erected and occupied by the leading men of substance of the
Province of Pennsylvania, the fine old countryseats, town residences and
public buildings of the "City of Brotherly Love" not only comprise a
priceless architectural inheritance, but the glamour of their historic
association renders them almost national monuments, and so object
lessons of material assistance in keeping alive the spirit and ideals of
true Americanism.

Much of the best Colonial domestic architecture in America is to be
found in this vicinity, a great deal of it still standing in virtually
its pristine condition as enduring memorials of the most elegant period
in Colonial life. Just as men have personality, so houses have
individuality. And as the latter is but a reflection of the former, a
study of the architecture of any neighborhood gives us a more intimate
knowledge of contemporary life and manners, while the history of the
homes of prominent personages is usually the history of the community.
Such a study is the more interesting in the present instance, however,
in that not merely local but national history was enacted within the
Colonial residences and public buildings of old Philadelphia. Men
prominent in historic incidents of Colonial times which profoundly
affected the destiny of the country lived in Philadelphia. The fathers
of the American nation were familiar figures on the streets of the city,
and Philadelphians in their native city wrote their names large in
American history.

Philadelphia was not settled until approximately half a century later
than the other early centers of the North,--Plymouth, New York, Salem,
Boston and Providence. Georgian architecture had completely won the
approval of the English people, and so it was that few if any buildings
showing Elizabethan and Jacobean influences were erected here as in New
England. Although several other nationalities were from the first
represented in the population, notably the Swedish, Dutch and German,
the British were always in the majority, and while a few old houses,
especially those with plastered walls, have a slightly Continental
atmosphere, all are essentially Georgian or pure Colonial in design and
detail.

To understand how this remarkable collection of Colonial architecture
came into being, and to appreciate