advertised in the Royal Gazette on June 3, 1780. In 

 Philadelphia, a "public vendue" announced in the 

 Pennsylvania Packet of September 28, 1784, listed "stair 

 carpeting" among "a variety of Household Furniture" 

 to be sold "on Tuesday next." 



Then, in the final year of the 18th century, a new 

 venture in retailing was launched. On May 22 of that 

 year the New-York Gazette and General Advertiser 

 carried the following announcement which read in 

 part: 



Carpet Store. A. S. Norwood, impressed with a deep 

 sense of gratitude for the many favours he has received 

 in the line of Upholsterer, takes this method to inform his 

 friends and the public in general, that he has now opened 

 a Carpet Store, at No. 127 William Street, where he 

 has just received from some of the first manufactories in 

 Europe, an assortment of carpets and carpeting. 



Floor coverings had become a specialized business. 

 The future development of the carpet industry in this 

 country, with its great growth of manufactories 

 beginning in the 1830s and the concurrent widespread 

 use of floor coverings in 19th-century American houses, 

 was foreshadowed by the appearance of this advertise- 

 ment in 1 799 announcing the establishment of a 

 "Carpet Store." 



Miscellaneous Uses 



Floor carpets and carpeting, as pointed out, were 

 uncommon in terms of household furnishings generally 

 in 18th-century America. Stairs, nevertheless, were 

 sometimes carpeted. The use of stair carpeting in 

 this country seems to date from the middle of the 

 18th century. The practice was being followed in 

 the 1 750s by such wealthy Boston residents as Sir 

 Charles Henry Frankland for he noted in his journal 

 on January 4, 1757: "Gave manufacturer of stair 

 carpet £5.""" 



Since the carpet presumably was made locally it 

 might have been either a woven one, such as ingrain, 

 or a floorcloth. Or perhaps Frankland's stair carpet 

 was list, another type of carpeting that was manu- 

 factured domestically as well as being imported, and 

 also was used on stairs and available in Boston as the 

 advertisements of 1761 in the Boston Gazette reveal. 

 In the same newspaper on January 26 and again on 



December 6 of the following year, "a quantity of 

 stout Carpeting both for Floors and Stairs" was 

 advertised for sale. "Hair Cloth for Stairs and Pas- 

 sages" is reported to have been available in 1762 in 

 New York. This, too, probably provided a stout 

 covering for stairs if, as the name suggests, it resembled 

 the sturdy horsehair fabric used for upholstery. 

 In Baltimore, "painted Oil Cloths for . . . Stairs, of 

 various Sizes and Patterns" could be obtained in 1 764 

 according to the August 2 issue of the Maryland 

 Gazette, and "staircloth, with iron rods and holdfasts" 

 were among the items "To be Sold, at Public Vendue" 

 in 1777 according to the June 24 issue of the Maryland 

 Journal and Baltimore Daily Advertiser. 



In Philadelphia stairs were carpeted, too. Accord- 

 ing to the Pennsylvania Packet of September 28, 1 784, 

 "stair carpeting" was among "a variety of Household 

 Furniture" that was advertised to be sold at auction. 

 Another notice appearing four years later reseals that 

 there had been stair and entry carpeting in the Chest- 

 nut Street house of John Penn, Senior. And at the 

 Philadelphia residence of President Washington on 

 High Street, the stairs also were carpeted when an 

 Englishman, Thomas Twining, called upon the Gen- 

 eral and his wife in 1795. Of this occasion Twining 

 wrote: "I was conducted up a neat but rather narrow 

 staircase, carpeted in the middle, and was shown into a 

 middling-sized well-furnished drawing-room on the 

 left of the passage. Nearly opposite the door was the 

 fireplace, with a wood-fire in it. The floor was 

 carpeted." "^ 



Wilton was another kind of carpeting that was 

 available in this coimtry for use on stairs, according 

 to the fio^/ow Am' j-Z.f//(T of May 23, 1771. That it was 

 used for this purpose by Bostonians is revealed by the 

 Gould inventory of 1 777. "1 Wilton Carpet 40/ [and] 

 19 yds. Do. Stair Carpet 60/" are listed among the 

 contents of the front chamber of the merchant's 

 house. There also was "1 Stair Carpet 18/" in the 

 chamber entry. Information about the dimensions 

 of such floor coverings is provided by Sheraton's 

 1803 publication. The Cabinet Dictionary. According 

 to the section on carpets: "stair carpets are, half yard, 

 half ell [or 22J2 inches], and three quarters wide." 



One method for holding in place the carpeting 

 running up the middle of the staircase was to lay 



"' Elias Nason, Sir Charles Henry Frankland, Baronet, or 

 Boston in the Colonial Times (Albany, N.Y.: J. Munsell, 1865), 

 p. 76. 



1" Travels in America 100 Years Aro. Being Notes and Reminis- 

 cences by Thomas Twining (New York: Harper and Brothers 

 Pubis., 1894), p. 128. 



P.\PER 59: FLOOR COVERINGS IN 1 RTH-CENTURY AMERIC.X 



51 



