KENNETH DAY

8220 MILLMAN STREET

BUILT 1938

KENNETH MACKENZIE DAY (1901-1958), a native of Chestnut Hill, designed 8220 Millman for George Woodward. As the most prominent example of the International Style in Chestnut Hill, the house embodies many of the characteristic formal qualities of the movement including an emphasis on abstraction, a rejection of applied ornamentation and decoration, and a belief in the potential of machine age technology and materials. The clearly expressed volumes and finely rendered openings are of brick construction painted with a white-wash finish to convey a sense of abstraction. A steel structure provides for expansive interior spaces which, on the garden side, open gracefully to the exterior. The handsomely proportioned front door suggests the 2-story entry hall beyond—a space dominated by a spectacular free standing circular stair. The stair is supported, in part, by a parapet rail of birch plywood which was a novel material for the domestic market at the time. The curvilinear wall adjacent to the entry originally housed a service court (now enclosed) and beyond, a large, two-car garage (now filled in) signalled the increasing importance of the automobile in American life.

William Whitaker
Curator, Architectural Archives
University of Pennsylvania