apter,
serve, as might many others, to show that white-painted interior
woodwork, although one of the greatest charms of the Colonial house,
finds its principal mission in providing the only architectural
background that sets off satisfactorily the warmth of color and grace of
line possessed by eighteenth-century furniture in mahogany and other
dark woods. Bright and cheerful, chaste and beautiful, it emphasizes the
beauties of everything before it, yet seldom forces itself into undue
prominence. It is a scheme of interior treatment which has stood the
test of time and indicates what excellent taste the Colonial builders
manifested in resorting to its subtle influence to display their rare
pieces of furniture brought from England and the Continent.

The admirable work of Philadelphia joiners indicates conclusively the
many possibilities of white-painted soft woods. Unlike hardwood finish,
the natural grain of the wood is concealed by painting, so that broad
flat surfaces and simple moldings would be monotonous. Beauty of form is
therefore substituted for the beauty of wood grain. Classic motives and
detail are brought to bear upon the interior woodwork in such a manner
as to delight the eye, yet not to detract unduly from the furnishings
of the room. And the charm of much of the resulting woodwork indicates
an early realization by American craftsmen of the fact that a nice
balance between plain surface and decoration is as important as the
decoration itself. It was by their facility in the design and execution
of this woodwork that skilled wood-carvers were able to impart that
lightness, grace and ingenuity of adaptation to which the Colonial style
chiefly owes its charm.

CHAPTER XII

PUBLIC BUILDINGS

As in its domestic architecture of Colonial times, Philadelphia is so
rich in its fine old public buildings that a readable and instructive
book could be made about them alone. Intended for religious, political
and commercial purposes, erected from one to two centuries ago and
ranging from the frugal simplicity of the Mennonite Meeting House in
Germantown to the stately beauty of Independence Hall, these noble
edifices of bygone days were the scenes of momentous events in the most
glorious and troublous period of the world's first republic. Their
histories are inspiring and likewise their architecture. Exigencies of
space in a book of this sort render it impossible to include all worthy
examples, but an effo