Room by Room

I know you by your shoes. The cautious heel at midnight, the bright clatter before a party, the felt hush of a caretaker in July. Step up; I'll teach you the house the way people taught me—by crossings and turns, by where sound gathers and where it slips away.

Threshold & Door

A Philadelphia signature—white-marble stoop and threshold fronting a mid-nineteenth-century brick façade. The marble was chosen for hard wear and easy cleaning; it still frames the ceremony of arrival. Look for hinge scars or locksets that show successive security fashions over 170 years of use.

This same threshold welcomed the Rosets in 1854, received the Plumb wedding party in 1901, felt suffragette feet in 1915, and now greets your arrival. Protect the marble with low-profile mats during events—but keep the step visible for photos. Guests love a stoop shot that reads 'Rittenhouse.'

The Side Hall

The house's traffic spine, drawn to separate show from service. It's why the property works so well for events and shoots today—guests flow right, staff flow past. Notice floorboard wear by the stair newel; patched bell-pull escutcheons; an umbrella stand exactly where 1890s etiquette would expect it.

This same hall saw suffrage organizers in 1915 and now welcomes wedding guests. The card-tray logic of the front hall—where calling cards accumulated during winter 'At Homes'—explains why the pier table sits where it does. The plan logic hasn't changed; only the cards have become escort cards.

The Double Parlors

Two rooms in file with pocket doors—weddings, wakes, musicales, meetings—the social operating system of the block since the 1850s. The 1899 Duhring, Okie & Ziegler commission likely refreshed finishes, lighting, and circulation here. The 1905 fireplace anchors the front parlor, the same hearth where Mrs. Davis held her 'At Homes.'

Use the aisle down the axis for ceremonies; the second parlor for bar or quartet; close the pocket doors for a reveal. The same proportions that made Victorian ceremonies possible make modern events feel natural. One axis equals ceremony aisle, runway, or dolly track; the other equals bar, breakout, or B-camera position.

Dining Room & Pantry Line

A hospitality hinge between show and service. French doors to the garden and a straight shot to the rear corridor keep catering invisible. Look for odd strips of nail holes at chair-rail height—picture molding history—and lath patches near the bell button, scars from the old staff-call system.

The Rolin-Plumb wedding breakfast was served here in 1901. The same table positions that worked for that celebration work for yours.

Rear Corridor to Waverly

The original service axis. The lot runs approximately 22 by 90 feet to Waverly, where stables and coach access once lived. The same geometry makes quiet load-in and load-out effortless now. Stage vendor arrivals on Waverly; protect thresholds; keep the front hall photogenic.

The Stair & Landings

A long, readable side stair—public below, family midway, servants high and rear. Stand on the half-landing and you can see how the house orchestrates privacy with a turn of the rail. These stairs carried the Spencer family's grief in 1891, the Davis women's activism through 1918, doctors' patients through the 1910s, and apartment tenants through the mid-century.

The Chambers

In the Roset-Davis years: second-floor principal chambers, third-floor family and guests, rear and attic for staff. The late-1890s work likely sharpened the service boundary. Today the house sleeps sixteen comfortably, up to eighteen with a sofa-bed—an honest, code-compliant echo of the house's historic capacity to host many, minus the live-in staff.

Materials: How to Read the House

Mantels: Marble profiles that skew Greek Revival to Edwardian show the building's two main stylistic beats. Plaster and medallions: Original ceiling heights and rosettes telegraph mid-nineteenth-century scale; small asymmetries suggest hand work, not catalogue parts. Floors: Wide, old-growth boards in back-of-house; tighter, later oak where a parlor refit likely happened. Hardware: A mixed drawer—earlier classical escutcheons with a few later Eastlake and Colonial Revival pieces after 1899.