“ IVyck ” 
ing of rest and content which is the very 
atmosphere of the place? No busy, daz¬ 
zling pattern of Flemish bond brickwork 
awakens our curiosity, nor even the chaste 
beauty ot Chestnut Hill stone reminds 
us of contemporaries in the neighborhood. 
“Wyck” is quite individual in its white¬ 
washed stucco, which seems from the first to 
have been intended as an immaculate and 
effective background for the mass of honey¬ 
suckle and roses which have gladly accepted 
the invitation extended by a lattice which 
covers the entire front. So carefully is this 
support for the vines arranged that the effect 
is almost that of a broad jointing, and would 
of itself alone prove no mean decoration. 
Wyck is so charmingly consistent that one 
is not surprised to find a quaint entrance 
door of the “Dutch” pattern—two-faced, 
paneled without, and covered with matched 
boards within, adorned with knocker and 
knob of gleaming brass; the latter coming 
curiously through the panel, since the stile 
is insufficient to hold the ponderous lock 
within. 
Wyck tells its own story in the plan. The 
original house, begun about 1690, is now 
the rear, its age being clearly in evidence 
without and attested within by a brick floor 
in the old dining-room, primitive lamps tor 
the burning of whale-oil, and locks, knobs 
and hinges of patterns rude and long since 
obsolete. The portion which now adjoins 
the street was added later; but at that 
time there was no intruding highway, the 
road passing far to the rear of what is 
now the kitchen end. Curiously enough, a 
broad opening was left between the old and 
new portions, which cut the house in two on 
the first floor and served as a carriage drive¬ 
way. Still later, the Main Street, now 
Germantown Avenue, having changed its 
direction and encroached upon the seclusion 
of Wyck, in 1824 its owner removed the 
55 2 
