Rhoads-Barclay House

c1750

217 Delancey St., Philadelphia PA

Exterior
4/5
Interior
0/5
Site
0/5
History
3/5
Overall
4/5

This early row house shows the transition from vernacular building to a more formal Georgian Style

Private

HABS

This early Georgian house is several notches up on the social scale from the slightly earlier Arbour-Winemore house nearby on Spruce Street, but it shares a pent eave and a plain door with a simple transom with its less affluent cousin. It was built by Samuel Rhoads, master carpenter and a mayor of Philadelphia for Alexander Barclay who was Comptroller of the Port of Philadelphia. 

While only two stories, it has a gambrel roof which makes the attic space more useful. Some touches, like the decorative modillions at the cornice, a water table and a front façade laid in a Flemish bond make it more self-consciously Georgian than the Arbour-Winemore house.