According to James Mease,
The wings [of the building], opened by large windows, recede a little from front, above, but project below, twelve feet, to the line of the street, faced with marble; these pavilions are decorated with emblematic figures, in tablets, and connected together by a colonnade of ten fancy Corinthian columns. . .Through the[se] projecting wings or pavilions, you pass to the stairs of the galleries . . ." [In Mease' Picture of Philadelphia, 1811. pp. 330-31]*
Two views from the computer model reveal the relationship between the stairs in the west "projecting wing" and the remainder to the west portion of the building.
The stairway to the gallery is shown in dark blue. It provides no access to the second lobby, ending its ascent instead at the gallery lobby.
The second view is a section through the west wing, showing the relationship between the gallery stairs and the Main, Second and Gallery lobbies. |