The expiration of the charter of the bank, in 1811, was the occasion for a party contest which prevented renewal and added greatly to the financial difficulties of the government during the War of 1812. Although foreign stockholders were not permitted to vote by proxy, and the twenty-five directors were required to be citizens of the United States, the bank was attacked on the ground of foreign ownership, and it was also claimed that Congress had no constitutional power to create such an institution.
Thereupon the bank building and the cashier's house in Philadelphia were purchased at a third of the original cost by Girard, who, in May, 1812, established the Bank of Stephen Girard and thereafter assisted the government very materially. He was, in fact, the financier of the War of 1812.
No less interesting than the governmental and commercial public buildings of Philadelphia are its churches, of which several of noble architecture date back to the Colonial period.[219]
On North Second Street, just north of Market, is located Christ Church, Protestant Episcopal, the first diocesan church of Pennsylvania. It is a fine old building designed mainly by Doctor John Kearsley, a vestryman and physician. The corner stone was laid in 1727, and the building was completed in 1744, but the steeple, in part designed by Benjamin Franklin and containing a famous chime of eight bells, was not erected until 1754. Franklin was one of the managers of a lottery in 1753 for raising funds for the steeple and bells, the latter being imported at a cost of five hundred pounds sterling. On July 4, 1776, after the Declaration of Independence had been read, these bells "rang out a merry chime."
This imposing edifice eloquently indicates what architectural triumphs can be achieved in brickwork in the Colonial style. Apart from the spire, interest centers in the fenestration, which has already been treated in Chapter VIII, and in the wood trim. As in much contemporary architecture, the woodwork is conspicuous for the free use of the orders. For example, one immediately notes the mutulary Doric cornice and frieze along the sides, and the pulvinated Ionic entablature across the chancel gable above the Palladian window. The roof is heavily balustraded in white-painted wood with the urns on the several pedestals holding torches with carved flames. A brick belfry rises square and[220] sturdy above the roof and then continues upward in diminishing construction of wood, first virtually four-sided, then octagonal and finally in a low, tapering spire surmounted by a weather-vane. A distinctive feature is the simple iron fence along the street with two wrought-iron arched gates, as beautiful as any in America, hung from high, ball-topped stone posts.
Imposing in its simplicity, the interior is generally Doric in character, but the Ionic entablatures over the side sections of the beautiful Palladian chancel window reflect the treatment outside. Fluted columns standing on high pedestals, with square, Doric entablature sections above, support graceful, elliptical arches, which separate the nave from the aisles in which are panel-fronted galleries. The organ loft over the main entrance is bow-fronted and highly ornate.
