235 S. 21st St.
Hockley House
c. 1875, Frank Furness
This early Furness house for lawyer Thomas Hockley includes many elements of the conventional French Empire: mansard roof, dormers and projecting bays. What impresses, however, is the bold use of texture and pattern: cut, pressed, diapered and diagonally laid brick beguile the eye. Several of Furness’s favorite elements appear on the entrance porch. The compact columns, famously compared to driving pistons, and the over-scaled vegetal reliefs under the pointed arches became hallmarks of his idiosyncratic style. Furness’s way with materials would be copied but never equaled by Philadelphia developers for decades to come.