PHILADELPHIA REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES - (Continued)

Entering the property from the north, at Gay Street, the first view of the property is from the rear alongside its massive stone flank (see below). Walking to the front of the house, the property slopes down so that where the rear of the house is slightly less than four stories high, the front gains a full additional story. This change in grade makes the entrance facade far grander than would be anticipated on the approach. The formal entrance to the property lies between two large gateposts or hanging posts built of stone, standing as sentinels and turret-like in design. There is a brick apron between them at Gay Street. Stepping onto the grounds, there is a large circular forecourt (about 75 feet by 90 feet) occupying the flat open space between the house and the rock cliff, directing one towards the front of the house. The central portion of the forecourt surface reveals large sections of remaining red brick paving laid on edge, and there is a yellow brick walkway that outlines the curved concrete pavement of the extending house apron and separates it from the red brick forecourt. This yellow brick walkway is about three feet wide, extending around to the south of the building to a set of stairs. This walkway appears to be both functional and decorative.

"Fairview Cottage" stands alone on its large-for-a-city-lot overlooking the formerly industrial valley of Manayunk which gave both this region and this house their raisons d'être. The building stands four and a half stories high, set back from the edge of a promontory 100 feet above Silverwood Street below. Constructed of Wissahickon Schist, the local stone that makes up the hilly terrain of this Piedmont Province, it is built in a distinctive pattern known as random ashlar masonry. Masonry construction with this type of stone is unique to this geographically separate area of Philadelphia that falls between the deep ravines and high peaks of the Schuylkill River and the Wissahickon Creek.

"Fairview Cottage's" composition is formal and symmetrical in a T- shape plan, which will be discussed and described here in three distinct though interconnected and interrelated segments:

A section: The front facade, or top of the T, faces west to the Schuylkill River and is five bays in width (four bays in depth) with the center bay dividing the house axially and providing a vertical thrust upward toward the centered gable of this Gothic Revival- inspired structure. B section: The back part of the house, or base of the T, which is two bays deep (two bays wide),and intersects the A block perpendicularly. C section: A small shed (one bay by one bay) added at the back- most part of the B section.

A section:

When standing in front of "Fairview Cottage" one is impressed with how massively structured and symmetrical it is. The first level is an exposed, ground-floor basement, and jutting from it is the foundation for the full-width porch which spans the facade. (Although no photographic evidence or architects' plans exist to note this, it appears that this entire porch structure more Classical Revival than Gothic Revival in style was altered sometime after Fairview Cottage's construction, possibly during the early 20th Century.) There are six large stone piers that support the porch and, at the same time, create a ground-level portico on the west basement facade. This ground-level facade has an entry door at the north end and four large windows of equal size and spacing spanning the west face. The four windows are filled with cinder block and the door is steel with bars.2

The piers that support the porch and main entry level above, on the first floor, are battered in shape and are equidistantly spaced with the two center piers flanking the parapets of the grand staircase and becoming engaged at the stair walls. If one stands directly facing the front entrance there is an eight-feet-high by eight-feet-wide stone wall, 13 feet out from the porch and parallelling the facade, with armlike stone projections on both sides sloping and curving out alongside two stairways which go up one flight to a landing, turn 90 degrees and merge into one straight flight onto the porch directly facing the main entrance. The walls of the monumental stair are ashlar masonry parapets with formed concrete coping that peak slightly in their centers.

The main entrance at the raised first floor level is a centrally placed double-leaf door with a fanlight and it is flanked by four floor-to-ceiling rectangular windows, two on each side, equidistantly spaced across the facade. These windows, as all others on the house, have wooden sills and some remnants of curved wooden moldings. The window furthest to the north has been cinder block infilled, the adjacent window converted to a door. The main entrance is barred and the fanlight boarded. The door jamb of the main entrance is at least twelve inches wide and has a recessed undulating molding carved into its wooden panels. The two front doors are paneled and glazed with a three-quarter light which currently is a jalousy type.3 There is a wooden box-like structure that has been built over the two windows to the south of the main entrance. This "box office" (presumably for the building's current use as a private club) has a small covered window on the left front and a central access door. The box is painted black.

The entire porch is frame construction, the floor supported by the battered piers that emerge through the floor as six square pedestals and make up the structural elements of the balustrade enclosing the porch. At present the connecting sections are wrought iron railings and porch roof supports.4

The porch roof is fairly flat and spans the entire width of the house. Above it, on the second floor, is the central window with fanlight directly above and it is as large as the main entrance. It is flanked, as below, by four floor-to-ceiling rectangular windows, two on each side and equidistantly spaced. The four matching windows are 1/1 double-hung sash whereas the large central window is boarded over.5

The third floor has a central arched window, significantly smaller than the one directly below it, and is flanked by four small square windows, two on each side, which line up directly above the fenestration of the preceding stories. These four windows are single- hung sash and have eight individual panes of glass. The central arched window is boarded-over.6

Above the arched window and directly below the center gable peak is a small gothic arch window partially boarded with a large security light in the bottom half and two vertically divided panes at the peak.7

The roof is gabled with raking molding and has box cornices. Although the soffits have been covered with aluminum siding there are visible sections of wooden rafter ends. The roof surface of the front part of the house is covered with asphalt shingles which are in poor condition.8

The south face of A section has three large equally-spaced windows across the ground floor, or basement; where a fourth window would be, there is a staircase up to the rear yard. With this four bay symmetry in mind, the first, second, and third stories have two windows each centered over the two central bays; that is, in the second and third bays. Of the two windows on the first floor, the one at the west end is boarded completely, while the one to the east is divided into thirds with the bottom-most section boarded and a smaller 1/1 double-hung sash above it. The two windows on the second floor, as well as the two slightly smaller ones on the third floor, are 1/1 double-hung sash. The ever-present gothic arch window (boarded over) hovers above, under the gable peak.

A cement flight of stairs elevates the south rear yard and the east wall of A section. This east facade is interrupted by the perpendicular juncture of B section and is one bay wide. There is a door at ground level (cinder block infilled), a large window directly above it (boarded) and a small square window (boarded) on the third floor under the roof line with a small rusted iron or steel balcony supported by angled brackets just beneath the window. Below the balcony, between the first and second floors there is a noticeable band of patched cement about a foot high which starts at the east face of the A section, above the door, continues around the south face of B section and onto the south face of C section.9

The east face of A section on the north side is nearly identical in configuration to the south side but with the door opening below grade, enveloped by a curving stone retaining wall. This door is cemented over. Directly above it, on the second floor, is a window of similar size to the second floor sash on the south side, although the bottom half is boarded and the top half has a jalousy window in place of the sash. At the third floor there is a small squarish window, also boarded over.

Moving around to A section's north side the least fenestrated facade there are four bays across the ground floor level. The eastern-most of these windows is square and half the size of the adjacent three, which are large openings, almost the size of doors, now cemented over, and equidistantly spaced across the span of the north facade. The first, second, and third stories have only one window each, aligned above the eastern-most of the ground floor's large windows; all three of these windows are boarded except for the top half of the one on the second story that contains a jalousy sash. Above these openings but centered under the gable peak is a small gothic arch window that is boarded over. The entire north side is covered with ivy.

B section:

On the south facade of the T base there is a still-functional door (barred) at its west end and a large window (boarded) adjacent to it. Directly above the door and the window are two large windows on the second floor, both boarded. The third floor sports only one window directly above the two at the east end. There is a shed dormer jutting out from the roof centered above the three stacked windows and it has two adjacent windows (boarded) that are spaced on either side of the stacked windows below. The face of the dormer is sided in a fishscale pattern of slate shingles.

On the east face of B section there is only one window at the fourth floor level. It is a 1/1 double-hung sash (boarded) in the center of the gable that falls between the dormer just mentioned (on the south side) and an identical one on the north side. A large stone chimney (probably grouped) is visible on the north corner of the house. There is also a smaller corbelled brick chimney emerging from the top of the south dormer.

B section's north facade has the appearance of having been the service area of the house, having one door below grade level at the east end (in addition to the previously mentioned door on the northeast face of A section). This north side of the B section is, as was the south side, two bays wide and three stories high with an additional two window shed dormer jutting from the gable roof and built against the stone chimney to the east. The dormer configuration is identical to the south side's, with slate fishscale shingles and two boarded windows. At the second story, directly above the door at the east end is a 1/1 double-hung sash window and adjacent to it is a smaller square window about half its size, now boarded over. Above these, on the third story, is an identical configuration but the larger window is an 8/8 double-hung sash that could be one of the structure's few original windows. The gabled roof above B section is hipped into the east side of A section's roof and has a painted standing seam metal surface.

C section:

Jutting from B section's east facade is a two-story stone wing- like shed, approximately one bay by one bay. It has an unusual long sloping hood-like roof that is almost a story high as it arabesques down the east facade of B section below the single gable window. The small attached shed has, on its south face, a ground-level door that is cinder block infilled. Above this door, but not centered over it, is a large boarded window with a small opening next to it (cinder block infilled). On the east face there is one centered window on each floor of the shed. The ground floor is boarded and the second floor is filled with cinder block. There are no openings on the north face of C section.

On May 22, 1999 I had a brief glimpse of the interior of A section.

The basement has what looks like the original (mahogany or cherry?) banisters and handrail on its stairs descending from the first floor. The floor of the basement is poured concrete formed in a grid to look like tile.

The main entrance floor has been altered the most with walls removed to create a large open room. A long wooden bar from the 1930's spans the north wall. The walls are panelled. The center staircase no longer has its wooden handrail and banisters; these have been replaced with wrought iron. Starting at the second floor the original banisters resume.

The second floor has four rooms. One is now a ladies lounge at the northeast corner. There is a center room that retains the original panelled doors. There are two front rooms which overlook the full width porch. They both have wainscoting and very old floral patterned wallpaper. The floor-to-ceiling windows reveal a breathtaking view of the Schuylkill Valley and, through the growth of trees, Center City in the distance. There is an outline of a fireplace in the north corner of the second room. Old gaslight fixtures protrude from the walls.

The third floor is one large room that has a hammer-beam roof that accentuates the structure of the steep gables. The dark wooden trusses that make up the roof structure are either mahogany or cherry and have the same color wood tongue-and-groove slats filling the angled spaces between them. The room is a salon des fêtes and on its east side there is a raised orchestra pit that floats over the dance floor like a private box at the opera. The small square windows of the third floor west facade, inside, start at floor level and go up to the approximate height of a standard wainscot, meeting the large carved trusses that slide down from the roof peak. The oak floors are laid on a 45-degree angle imitating the trusses above. The gothic arch windows hover overhead.