Real Estate

Post-election 2024 may be an appropriate moment to reflect on the Greek Revival architectural style, which dominated residential building from around 1820 to just before the Civil War. Based on Greek temples, the style continues today, not only in our public institutions from post offices to banks and churches, but also reimagined in elegant new homes and even pool houses.

After the American Revolution and the War of 1812, a spirit of pride, optimism and rejection of all things British, including the more ornate Georgian style, swept through our new nation. Around the same time, the Greek fight for independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1821 fueled democratic ideals with the Parthenon in Athens as a symbol of democracy, civic virtue, and cultural achievement. 

The Greek Revival style represented American optimism before the Civil War, at a time when the country’s democratic system, adapted from the ancient Greek model, appeared to be flourishing. New towns were being named after classical cities – Rome, Utica, Syracuse, Athens, Troy. 

American Empire furniture makers like Duncan Phyfe drew on classical themes. Dressers with columns and acanthus trim and desks with animal claw feet decorated the homes of the new republic. Greek Revival was the first truly American architectural style.

Columns, entablature, and pediments

Buildings in the Greek temple-inspired revival style are easy to identify because of key exterior features that characterize the style. Typically, Greek Revival houses are clad in wood, not brick or stone, and were originally painted white to resemble marble. The windows are paned, often six over six, tall and narrow, and close to the floor. Entry doors are elaborately framed with sidelights. Bold columns frame the front of the building and create a covered porch or portico at the entrance. The design reference was the front of a Greek temple. 

The columns themselves could be round, fluted, or even square topped by Doric, Ionic, or Corinthian columns. Roofs in the pure Greek Revival style have a low pitch, in contrast to the steeper roof lines of the Victorian style. 

One- or two-story columns hold up the entablature, which is the horizontal band between the top of the columns and the roof. Above the entablature at the gable end is a triangular pediment. 

In Greek Revival buildings, there are no arches or domes, as those have a Roman origin. With clean lines and a boxy style, a Greek Revival home can have a modern feel. The homes in Lakeville on Belgo Road and Main Street and Great Elm in Sharon are perfect examples of the style, while the structure in Ancramdale shows a pared down version for a simple country store.

Inside, the original floor plans are symmetrical and the colors are neutral: white or off-white or stone colors (gray, pale-blue gray, gray-brown, or tan) or straw (ochre and yellow). The style was spread not on Instagram, but on “pattern” books for builders like The Practical House Carpenter: The Builder’s Guide by Asher Benjamin and The Beauties of Modern Architecture (1835) by Minard Lafever, which allowed developer/builders easy patterns to reproduce Greek architectural elements and apply them to houses, banks, churches, and state capitals.

Greek Revival buildings reveal history

The presence of Greek Revival buildings can reveal a town’s history. Falls Village and Salisbury have many Greek Revival homes because they were constructed in the early stages of the industrial revolution when the Great Falls provided water power for factories and Lakeville mined iron ore. 

The centers of towns and villages that grew up around the railroad, like the hamlet of Canaan and villages like Millbrook and Millerton, are lined with Victorian revival houses, which came into fashion just as trains arrived. A stellar Greek Revival example like Temple Farm built in 1818 by Nathaniel Lockwood, a notable New York City architect, on Mabbettsville Road, shows that affluent farmers arrived early in the countryside of Millbrook. The home on 142 acres recently sold for $6,900,000.

Greek Revival today

The Greek Revival style never disappeared and has affected design in America for the last 200 years. The pool house that Bunny Williams built to resemble an early Greek temple with classical proportions is a perfect example. 

“I looked at my property and decided to put the pool house up on a hill, so I would be able to walk through the orchard to get to it,” Williams told Main Street. “Behind the pool house are the woods, and I wanted it to look like a part of the woods. Since Falls Village, CT, is filled with Greek Revival architecture, I immediately thought of a Greek temple. Greek temples were originally made of wood, and the logs make it look like it has emerged from the woods.” 

The newly constructed Greek Revival inspired homes on Caulkinstown Road in Sharon appear to have always been there. “What I like about Greek Revival homes is the simplicity of the architecture, clean lines, and a strong presence,” mused Richard Lambertson who has lived in his Upright and Wing home designed by Robert Fish since 2012, “classic and timeless.” •