The fourth type of stoop has double or wing flights each side of the platform before the door. The doorway at Number 301 South Seventh Street, already referred to, is the most notable instance of straight flights in Philadelphia, while that at the southeast corner of Eighth and Spruce streets occupies the same position in respect to curved flights. The wrought ironwork of the latter is superb. Rich in effect, yet essentially simple in design, it has grace in every line, is not too ornate and displays splendid workmanship. Again a spiral design is conspicuous in the stair balustrades, and the curved newel treatment recalls that of the foregoing stoop. The balustrade of the platform consists of a simple diaper pattern of intersecting arcs with the familiar evolute band above and below. The wing flight was a convenient arrangement for double houses, as instanced by the old Billmeyer house in Germantown, with its exceedingly[130] plain iron handrail and straight spindles. Of more interest is the balustrade at Number 207 La Grange Alley with its evolute spiral band and slender ball spindles beneath.
During the nineteenth century more attention was given to newels in ironwork, and elaborate square posts combining cast and wrought pieces were constructed, such as that at Fourth and Liberty streets. In the accompanying balustrade are to be seen motives much employed in the other examples here illustrated. Scroll work is conspicuous, as are rosettes, but a touch of individuality is given by a Grecian band instead of the more common evolute spiral above the diaper pattern. The pineapple, emblem of hospitality, was attractive in cast iron and as utilized at Number 1107 Walnut Street provided a distinctive newel.
The roads on the outskirts of all Colonial cities were very bad, and many of the less important streets of Philadelphia had neither pavements nor sidewalks. After rains shoes were bemired in walking, and as rubbers were then unknown it was necessary to remove the mud from the shoes before entering a house. Foot scrapers on the doorstep or at the foot of the front steps were a necessity and became ornamental adjuncts of the doorways of early Colonial homes. For the most part of wrought iron, some of the later ones were cast in molds, that at Wyck being a particularly interesting [131]example. It consists of two grotesque griffins back to back, their wings joined tip to tip forming the scraper edge, and the whole being mounted in a large tray with turned-up edges. This scraper can thus be moved about as desired, and the tray catches the scrapings, which can be emptied occasionally without sweeping the entire doorstep.
Some of the earlier and simpler scrapers, such as that at Third and Spruce streets, consisted merely of two upright standards with a sharp-edged horizontal bar between them to provide the scraper proper. This horizontal part was made quite broad to take care of anticipated wear, which in this particular instance has been great during the intervening years.
Similar to this, except for the well-wrought tops of the standards and the curved supplementary supports, is the scraper of the Dirck Keyser doorway, Number 6205 Germantown Avenue, Germantown. Regarded as a whole this design suggests nothing so much as the back and arms of an early English armchair.