Doorway from Chalkley Hall, Frankford, Pennsylvania

Doorway from Chalkley Hall, Frankford, Pennsylvania

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This granite and wood doorway was the former entrance to Chalkley Hall, a house formerly located at Frankford, Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia. The main portion of the house, including the doorway, was erected in about 1776 for Abel James, a Philadelphia merchant. It was attached to a smaller, lower wing built in 1723 by Thomas Chalkley, merchant, ship owner, and Quaker missionary, whose daughter married Abel James. The house, built of cut Manchester stone brought as ballast from England, marked the culmination of English Georgian design in the Philadelphia area. Its front facade was nearly identical in detail to John Hawks' 1767 plan and elevation for Governor Tryon's Palace at New Bern, North Carolina. While it is impossible to attribute the Philadelphia structure to Hawks, it is known that he was in Philadelphia just prior to the construction of Chalkley Hall. Regardless of its designer, Chalkley Hall's granite portal is one of the most imposing in America.

The American Wing

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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The American Wing's ever-evolving collection comprises some 20,000 works of art by African American, Euro American, Latin American, and Native American men and women. Ranging from the colonial to early-modern periods, the holdings include painting, sculpture, works on paper, and decorative arts—including furniture, textiles, ceramics, glass, silver, metalwork, jewelry, basketry, quill and bead embroidery—as well as historical interiors and architectural fragments.