A House at Germantown , Philadelphia 
THE FRONT 
passageways and the bath-room. A special 
care was taken to make the servants’ quarters 
convenient in every way, as upon this depends 
more than is usually admitted the happiness 
of the household. A stairway of liberal 
width leads from the pantry to the third 
floor and in no way disturbs the privacy of 
the second. 
On the west side is the tradesmen’s path 
leading to the kitchen and communicating 
directly with the cellar by a full vertical door, 
—an improvement on the customary lean-to 
hatchway and accomplished by lowering the 
grade on this side. The adjoining property 
here having been filled in to the level of the 
street, a retaining-wall, surmounted by a low 
iron fence, extends from the large chimney 
northward to the rear of the lot. This fence 
will soon be covered with honeysuckle, while 
a privet hedge and several Lombardy poplars 
will complete a distinct boundary-line toward 
the street. Across the front a simple white 
picket fence is to be placed in front of the 
hedge. 
The most pleasing feature of the exterior 
of the house is its color, The bricks are 
hand-made and of a rough surface. Their 
color is a dark red, of varying shades, and 
they are laid in the English coursing with 
a mortar of cement and of yellow and gray 
gravel. The joints are wide, and match in 
color the light brownish gray and very rough 
plaster which covers the walls above the first 
floor. The shutters, belt mouldings and eave 
rafters are of cypress, and have been stained 
a very dark brown, while the sash and win¬ 
dow trimmings are white, slightly tinted to a 
warm tone. The largest, roughest and heav¬ 
iest split cypress shingles from the swamps 
of Florida have been used for the roof, and 
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