![]() ![]() The hall-and-parlor plan was common by the 1720s. Inside, the earliest houses were primitive, often just one room with a large fireplace on an end wall. Interior of the Wentz homestead, which has been interpreted to Revolutionary times. Many houses built after the 1750s are fine, and some are even grand. One part of the house may be stone another brick or wood-framed, as additions were common. The pitch of the roof, pent eaves (between floors), and the design of windows and door are all clues. German masons used techniques slightly different from those of the more dominant English, whose work is a reminder of an ancient Cotswold vernacular. ![]() But there is also limestone, mica schist, and a gray-green stone called serpentine. (Stones most often came from farm fields being cleared.) The local reddish sandstone and bluish granite are most common. ![]() House walls are generally made up of rubble, not large dressed stones. Take a careful look and you’ll see that different types of stone, and different masonry traditions, are in evidence. Gideon Gilpin House, a very early frame house (with stone addition), was built by an English Quaker. English and German settlers, especially Quakers, built these structures during the 18th and early 19th centuries. A rich legacy of old stone buildings survives, too, in the surrounding counties: Montgomery, Berks, Bucks, and Lancaster. The historic Brandywine Valley, which runs from Chester and Delaware counties in southeastern Pennsylvania and into the state of Delaware, remains dotted with early stone houses. This is a storied region, settled by William Penn and at the center of the American Revolution. The original section of the Caleb Pusey House dates to 1683, in the English post-medieval vernacular. ![]()
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