| Overview |
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| Style |
Material |
Orientations of structure |
| |
| Refined |
Wood |
Vertical |
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| Key features |
| |
Wide trim below roofline; portico with prominent Greek
columns; double-hung sash windows with decorative crowns.
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| Architectural Features |
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| Entrance Door |
| |
- One two, or four panels
- Narrow, rectangular lites on the sides and top
- Elaborate surrounds
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|
| |
|
 |
| Shutters |
| |
- Commonly, louvre on second floor and/or panel on ground floor
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| |
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| Garage Door |
| |
- Vertical orientation of surface material
- Raised panels of consistent size
- Layered trim boards with decorative molding
- Multi-pane symmetrical windows
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| Style Summary |
The final years of the 18th century brought an increasing
interest in classical buildings to both the United States and
Western Europe. This was first based on Roman models,
but interest soon shifted to Grecian models. Two additional
factors enhanced Greek interest in this time period. Greece’s
involvement in a war for independence (1821–1830) aroused
much sympathy in the newly independent United States; at the
same time, the War of 1812 diminished American affection for
British influence, including the still dominant Adam style.
Greek Revival became the dominant style of American domestic
architecture in the mid-19th century—so popular it was
referred to as the National Style. It occurs in all areas settled
by 1860, and especially flourished in those regions that were
rapidly settled in the decades of the 1830s, 1840s, and 1850s,
including (in descending order) New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio,
Illinois, Virginia, Massachusetts, Indiana, Missouri, Tennessee,
Alabama, Wisconsin, Georgia, Mississippi, Michigan, Texas,
Kentucky, and Louisiana.
Excerpted from A Field Guide to American Houses, Virginia and
Lee McAlester, Alfred Knopf, New York, © 2000. |
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