CHARLES MARQUEDANT BURNS
to the property, would have provided against any future need for expansion, was allowed to be sacrificed to the base uses of commerce. With a little thought and a moderate expenditure the Johnson house might have become the home of another Wallace Collection, and South Broad Street redeemed in part from the slough into which it has been allowed to sink.
Travellers with an observant sense for the beautiful, going between New York and Philadelphia, may have been struck with the design of an old-world-looking building, near Torresdale, on the right of the railway, which in autumn is covered with rust-coloured creeping vines that harmonize with the tone of the structure. This convent is also Burns' design: and it would not be surprising to discover that when, throughout the length and breadth of the land, some unusually picturesque bit of architecture comes into view, it is the handiwork of that matchless builder, Charles Marquedant Burns.
He arrived years before his country was ready to receive him, before the field was cleared of the horrors of the "Centennial" period. It was Burns who ploughed the field and prepared the soil; and he has lived long enough to see younger men reap the harvest.
He might have been first among the husbandmen, had he not been the pioneer of Gothic renaissance in America.
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