John Lloyd House
90 Church Street • c. 1760.
This single house and the three single houses to the north of it at nos. 92–96 Church Street are examples of the best constructed single houses of the second half of the 18th century.
These outstanding examples are typical in being of brick, three-stories, and three-bays wide with hipped roofs.
No. 96 is also a row house—attached to no. 100—but nos. 90–94 are typical in being detached.
Church Street was initially part of the commercial area of the city and, like most buildings in the original walled area, had shops on the ground floor. These houses were built near the level of the street to facilitate access, and no. 90 originally had a commercial entrance in the center of its street front.
Above the center window of the ground floor is a flat arch that extends beyond the width of the window, indicating that the opening was a door and was later closed down when this house became exclusively a dwelling.
(The detail picture below shows clearly where masonry work, done with far less skill than the original, was later added to cover the door area.)
Most, if not all, of the earliest single houses initially had two entrances, and nearly all now have only one. The private entrance was always through the piazza door as it still is. South of Broad Street, a business entrance is a distinguishing mark of an early house.
The piazza was added to the side of the detached house to provide a sheltered walk equivalent to the archway through row houses.
The earliest piazzas were one-storied, but they provided the opportunity to add a second-story to them to function more as a livable outdoor space than as a passage. They also functioned as a servant’s passage with an outside staircase placed in the back corner of the L-shaped piazza.
This c. 1760 house had an Adamesque piazza added in about 1800 and Greek Revival details added around 1840 (also see this link about architects Robert and James Adam). Piazzas were often updated stylistically, and unless they were kept painted and in good repair, they often needed to be rebuilt. Frequently they are less old than the house itself, and the earliest houses are known from the 1739 waterfront view to have had front porches rather than side piazzas.
John Lloyd is mentioned as having owned this property in 1770 when Peter Leger sold the small adjacent lot to the south. •
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Imagine a 10-day Fall festival of Shakespearean plays. In the theatre and in the park. With college and local talent partnering with professional actors. Like the idea? 








