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One of the characteristics of Greek Revival style is symmetry.Drawing by Theresa Coleman.
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By Chuck Ross
Greek Revival design has been called the United States' first truly national architectural style, and surely its diversity of application and appearance helped it gain that status. From grandly porticoed Southern plantation homes to austere, gable-fronted New England residences, Greek Revival styling and proportions formed the most popular approach to commercial and residential building design for much of the 19th century.
Ancient roots
Greek Revival draws on the same archeological roots that propelled Georgian and Federal styles into popularity. Wealthy intellectuals traveling abroad were captivated with the ruins then being excavated in southern Italy, Sicily and Greece and sought to recreate idealized versions of their own. However, the reputation of ancient Greece as the world's first democracy gave this style a philosophical edge over the Roman-rooted Georgian and Federal schools. This association proved especially potent in the United States, which saw itself as an inheritor to Greece's role as a bastion of democratic ideals.
Banks were the first to adopt the powerful Greek temple design, according to Victor Deupi, director of education for the New York City-based Institute of Classical Architecture & Classical America. An example is the 1801 Bank of Pennsylvania, designed by Benjamin Latrobe, who went on to design the rebuilt U.S. Capitol building following its destruction in the War of 1812. The same pedimented portico became a hallmark of Southern design, along with column-lined second-floor galleries, which allowed cooling breezes to flow freely throughout the homes.
"The colonnade was very popular in the South," says Joe Oppermann, AIA, principal of Joseph K. Oppermann Architects, P.A., in Winston-Salem, N.C., and past chair of the American Institute of Architects' Historic Resources Committee. "The climate had a lot to do with this."
West with the expansion
In New England and many other areas of the country, Greek Revival often assumed a more humble appearance. Simple frame, clapboard-clad Greek Revival homes were popular with both the East Coast middle class and the settlers who followed the nation's expanding western borders. Though symmetry is one of Greek Revival's key components, these smaller homes often featured the front door to one side, at the gable end of the house. And, though low-pitch roofs were favored by Greek Revival purists, the roofs on these more vernacular versions were often steeply pitched, with the triangular space below the eaves echoing the triangular pediment fronts of grander residences.
In both cases, exteriors were generally white: either painted, in the case of frame construction, or stuccoed and painted when brick was used.
Deupi and Oppermann note a number of characteristics common to Greek Revival homes: - Symmetry in the façade (though, as noted, this wasn't universal)
- Windows that were larger, with fewer individual panes, than in previous styles, as manufacturers were able to fabricate and ship glass in larger pieces
- Conspicuously Greek decorative elements, such as the horizontal Greek key motif
- Entrance porticos using Greek columns – Doric, Ionian and Corinthian – with no arching or vaulting
- In many cases, low-pitched gables and hipped roofs
Greek Revival's popularity waned following the Civil War, when more picturesque styles took hold. However, Oppermann notes, the style continued popular in pockets throughout the country, such as in Galveston, Texas, where it remained in favor through the 1870s.
Chuck Ross is a New England-based freelance writer who specializes in construction topics.
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