Fences were the exception rather than the rule in Colonial times, although rarely employed along the front of a house to prevent passers from accidentally stepping into areaways in the sidewalk in front of basement windows. The danger of such a catastrophe was remote, however, for Philadelphia sidewalks were very broad in order to make room for the customary stoop before the doorway and the frequent rolling way or basement entrance. These sidewalk obstructions being the rule, people formed the habit of walking near the curb, and accidents were thus avoided. It was not until late in the nineteenth century, when basement entrances with an open stairway along the front of the house began to be provided, that fences came into vogue, except in the suburbs, where a small front yard was sometimes surrounded by an iron fence.
Stoops divide themselves into four principal classes, of which the first, consisting only of a single broad stone step before the doorway, perhaps hardly[127] warrants the term. As at Grumblethorpe and the Morris house, these broad stone steps often had no ironwork other than a foot scraper set in one end or in the sidewalk near by. Again, as at the entrance to the Wistar house, there were iron handrails or balustrades at both sides. Less common, though by no means infrequent, were the stoops of this sort with a single handrail at one side.
These handrails or balustrades, replacing the stone parapets so common in other American cities, are patterned after the cathedral grilles and screens of the Middle Ages and consist of both Gothic and Classic detail utilized with ingenuity and good taste. Most of the earlier designs are hand wrought. Later, cast iron came into use, and much of the most interesting ironwork combines the two. The balustrade at the Wistar house just referred to is a typical example of excellent cast-iron work, the design consisting of a diaper pattern of Gothic tracery with harmonious decorative bands above and below.
The Germantown farmhouse presents another variant of this first and simplest type of stoop with a hooded penthouse roof above and quaint side seats flanking the doorway. As at the Johnson house, the broad stone step was sometimes flush with the sidewalk pavement.
The second type of stoop consists of a broad stone step or platform before the door with a straight flight of stone steps leading up to it. Cliveden,[128] Mount Pleasant and Doctor Denton's house are notable instances of such stoops without handrails of any sort. The Powel house stoop of this type has one of the simplest wrought-iron rails in the city, while that of the house at Number 224 South Eighth Street, with its effective Gothic detail, combines wrought and cast iron. Two very effective wrought-iron handrails for stoops of this type, depending almost entirely upon scroll work at the top and bottom for their elaboration, are to be seen at Number 130 Race Street and Number 216 South Ninth Street, the handsome scroll pattern of the latter being the same as at the southeast corner of Seventh and Spruce streets, already referred to, and the former being given a distinctive touch by two large balls used as newels. Sometimes, as at Number 701 South Seventh Street, there was only one step between the platform of the stoop and the sidewalk, when its appearance was essentially the same as a stoop of the first type such as that of the Wistar house.
The third type of stoop has the same broad platform before the door, but the flight of steps is along the front of the house at one side rather than directly in front. While these were oftener straight, as in the case of the doorway at the northeast corner of Third and Pine streets, already referred to, they were frequently curved, as at Number 316 South Third Street. Both have a wrought-iron rail with[129] the same scroll pattern of effective simplicity, a pattern much favored in modern adaptation. Another stoop of this type at Number 272 South American Street is high enough to permit a basement entrance beneath the platform. The ironwork is beautifully hand-wrought in the Florentine manner, its elaborate scroll pattern beneath an evolute spiral band combining round ball spindles with flat bent fillets, and the curved newel treatment at each side adding materially to the grace of the whole.