William F. B. Johnson Townhouse - 1708 Rittenhouse Squre - John W. Keyes, Architect - Inquirer 30 Nov 1948

Compact Mid-City House

by A. H. Alexander

ON a narrow street leading from Philadelphia's famous Rittenhouse Square there is a row of buildings that once served as stables for nearby city mansions. The horses vacated their quarters long ago; most of the mansion owners departed, and the buildings were transformed, in gradual stages, into garages, shops, warehouses and a miscellaneous array of business places. 

Perhaps the most interesting recent transformation in this Philadelphia Britannia Mews is the town house of Mr. and Mrs. William F. B. Johnson. When the Johnsons bought the property it already had gone through several stages, ending as a warehouse. The dirt floor of the stable still remained; the arch of the carriage entrance was there; the brick walls were sturdy, but the rest of the building was crumbling toward decay. John W. Keyes, the architect, was forced to rip the building down to a skeleton before he could make it over into a solid and comfortable home. 

The result is a compact three-story living unit, that benefits from a somewhat dramatic treatment of the first floor, and of a quite conventional treatment of the other floors. The third holds the bedroom and bath, and closets, of the Johnsons' son, who usually is away at college. The second floor, which is fulllength, holds two sizable bedrooms, two dressing rooms and two baths, nicely arranged so that guests can be housed in the front bedroom without inconvenience to the Johnsons in the bedroom at the rear of the house. 

The first floor, however, is the most interesting. Two-thirds of its area has been made into a giant, 41-foot-long living room and dining room. The high arch of the carriage doors has been made into a big studio window at the front of the living room. The entrance doorway flanks this window. Behind the entrance doorway the stairs rise to the second floor, and in the corner made by the stairs there is a neatly arranged library nook and a desk. The concrete floor has been heavily padded and carpeted in soft gray. The walls, also gray, have been covered with fabric and then painted. 

The long, narrow living room runs back to contain the dining space. Here the walls have been painted with a decorative floral design. Behind the living room is the kitchen, also long and narrow. At one end of the kitchen is a dining alcove. Beside this back end of the kitchen is a small bedroom and bath for the maid. The heater room also is just off the kitchen. 

As house has neither attic nor basement, the architect provided plenty of closet space. In all, the house has about twenty closets, and these are augmented by various built-in spaces. 

In the living room, for example, there is a connected sequence of cabinets, bookshelves and cupboards that lines one complete wall. One section of this built-in wall detail includes space for a radio phonograph, television set, and for a motion picture screen. At the dining end of this long room, the built-in fixtures include a glassed-in cupboard. All of the cabinet work is done in attractive natural birch. 

The front of the house is severely plain. Its surface is white-painted brick. The shutters are bright red. An attractive lantern flanking the front door, slightly relieves the severity of the facade. The house has been thoroughly sound-proofed against traffic noises, and some of its rear windows, which overlook a rather drab prospect have been fitted with fluted glass. This lets in the light, keeps out the view. For the rest, it is a small, self-contained unit, a sort of island in the mid-city section that lends itself to relaxed living. 

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