Greek Revival - Table of Contents..... Illustrated Architecture Dictionary ..... Styles of Architecture
Greek
Revival - Table of
Contents.....
Illustrated
Architecture
Dictionary
..... Styles
of
Architecture
Greek
Revival Style
in Buffalo,
NY
1820-1860
Table of Contents:
Overview of the Greek Revival StyleThe final years of the 18th century brought an increasing interest in classical buildings to both the United States and Europe. This was first based on Roman models (Federal style), but archaeological investigation in the early 19th century emphasized Greece as the Mother of Rome which, in turn, shifted interest to Grecian models.
The style is an adaptation of the classic Greek temple front employing details of Doric, Ionic or Corinthian order
To the popular mind the Greek temple was associated with the origins of American democracy in ancient Greece.
Greece's involvement in a war for independence (1821-30) aroused much sympathy in the newly independent United States.
Further, the War of 1812 fought against England diminished American affection for British influence, including the still dominant Adam ("Federal" in U.S.) style in domestic architecture.
The popularity of Greek Revival led it to be called the National Style. Newly established towns throughout the country even took names such as Athens, Sparta, and Ithaca.
Identifying features:
- Most have porticos (either entry or full-width) supported by prominent square or rounded columns, typically of Doric style, but also Ionic and Corinthian
- Gabled or hipped roof of low pitch
- Cornice line of main roof and porch roofs emphasized with wide band of trim (this represents the classical entablature and is usually divided into two parts: the frieze above and architrave below)
- Enormous windows and doors
- Front door surrounded by narrow sidelights and a rectangular line of transom lights above, door and lights usually incorporated into more elaborate door surround (ancient Greek structures did not use arches)
- Window sashes most commonly with six-pane glazing
- Small frieze-band windows, set into the wide trim beneath the cornice (attic), are frequent. These are often covered with an iron or wooden grate fashioned into a decorative Greek pattern.
- Most Greek Revival frame houses were painted white because it was not then known that the white marble of ancient Greece buildings had often been polychromed
Greek Revival buildings in Buffalo:
- Wilcox House / Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural Site
- First Unitarian Church / Title Guarantee Building
- Dr. E. J. Meyer Building
- Sizer House - DEMOLISHED
- Boies-Lord House (Hamburg)
See also:
- James Battaglia, American Athens: Greek Revival Architecture in Western New York State
- Rose Hill Mansion, Geneva, New York
- Livingston- Backus House, Genesee Country Village, & Museum
Illustrated Greek Architecture Features
Used in the Greek Revival Style,
as well as in Neoclassical, Georgian Revival, Renaissance Revival, Second Empire, Colonial Revival, and Beaux Arts Classicism styles
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Abacus
(AB a
kis, a BACK is) A slab on the top of a capital of a column. Illustration from Buffalo & Erie County Historical Society Museum |
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Acanthus
(a KAN this) Perennial plants or small shrubs with bold flower spikes and spiny decorative leaves, native to Mediterranean regions. Illustration from the Williams-Butler House |
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Anthemion An ornament of honeysuckle or palm leaves in a radiating cluster. Also called honeysuckle ornament. Illustration from the Albright-Knox Art Gallery |
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Architrave
(AR ka
trave) The lowest of the 3 main parts of an entablature: the undecorated lintel resting on the columns. Illustration from Buffalo & Erie County Historical Society Museum |
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Bead-and-reel A convex molding having the form of disks alternating with spherical or elongated beads. Illustration from the Albright-Knox Art Gallery |
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Capital The head or crowning feature of a column or pilaster. Illustration of Corinthian capital from the Williams-Butler House (Neoclassical style building) |
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Caryatid
(CARE
ee AT id) Sculpted female figure used in place of a column to support an entablature. Illustration from the Albright-Knox Art Gallery (Neoclassical style building) |
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Column A supporting pillar usually consisting of a base, a cylindrical shaft, and a capital. Illustration of Ionic style column from the Albright-Knox Art Gallery (Neoclassical style building) |
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Corinthian
Order The most ornate of the five classical orders, characterized by a slender fluted column having an ornate, bell-shaped capital decorated with acanthus leaves. Illustration from the Williams-Butler House For an interesting historical account of the origin of the Corinthian order, see Vitruvius Pollio, "The Ten Books on Architecture" |
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Cornice
(KOR
nis) A decorative molded projection at the top of a wall, window or construction. The upper part of an entablature. Raking Cornice: The sloping sides of a pediment. |
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Dentil
(Root:
"dent" means tooth) A small rectangular block used in a series forming a molding under a cornice. Illustration from the Albright-Knox Art Gallery |
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Door Single panel grained door - Boies-Lord House (Hamburg) |
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Doric
Order The oldest and simplest of the three orders of classical Greek architecture, characterized by heavy, fluted columns with plain saucer-shaped capitals and no base. Developed on the mainland among the Dorian people and was the most common style in Greece from the 7C onwards. The columns, which had twenty flutes (see below) rested directly on the stylobate without bases; the capitals were plain. the entablature consisted of three parts, one above the other: the architrave, the frieze and the cornice. For an interesting historical account of the origin of the Doric order, see Vitruvius Pollio, "The Ten Books on Architecture" Illustration from the Birge Memorial |
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Drop Small drop-like projections carved below a triglyph or below a Doric entablature. Also called a "gutta." |
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Echinus
(i
KY nis) |
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Egg-and-dart
A molding consisting of egg-shaped figures alternating with arrow heads. Illustration from the Albright-Knox Art Gallery |
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Engaged
column A column attached to, or partly sunk into, a wall of pier. Also called an "applied column" or "attached column." Illustration from the Albright-Knox Art Gallery |
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Entablature The upper part of an order, consisting of architrave, frieze, and cornice. Illustration from the Buffalo & Erie County Historical Society Museum |
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Entasis
(en
TAY sis) The very slight convex curve used on Greek and later columns to correct the optical illusion of concavity which would result if the sides were straight. Also used on spires and other structures for the same reason. Illustration from St. Francis RC Church. |
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Fluting
(FLOO
ting) A decorative motif consisting of a series of uniform, usually vertical, flutes (grooves). Illustration from Forest Lawn Cemetery Main Street Entrance Gate |
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Fret A decorative design contained within a band or border, consisting of repeated, often geometric figures. Also called "key pattern." Illustration from the Albright-Knox Art Gallery |
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Frieze
(freez)
The plain or decorated horizontal part of an entablature between the cornice and the architrave. Illustration from the Albright-Knox Art Gallery |
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Gutta
(GUT a)
Plural: guttae (GUT ee) Small drop-like projections carved below a triglyph or below a Doric entablature. Also called a "drop." |
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Honeysuckle An ornament of honeysuckle or palm leaves in a radiating cluster. Also called anthemion. Illustration from the Albright-Knox Art Gallery |
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Ionic
Order An order of classical Greek architecture characterized by two opposed volutes in the capital. This style developed among the Ionians who had settled in Asia Minor in the 5C BC and was considered a feminine style. Its delicate grace and rich ornament contrasted with the austere strength of the Doric order. Its main characteristics are tall slim columns with 24 flutes resting on molded bases and crowned by capitals in the form of a double scroll; an entablature consisting of an architrave, a continuous sculpted frieze and a cornice decorated with egg and dart and leaf and dart molding; a pediment with "acroteria" shaped like palm leaves at the angles. The best example is the temple of Athena Nike in the Acropolis. For an interesting historical account of the origin of the Ionic order, see Vitruvius Pollio, "The Ten Books on Architecture" Illustration from the Albright-Knox Art Gallery |
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Ionic and Doric Orders: a comparison |
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Leaf-and-dart Ornamentation. Illustration from a door in the Albright-Knox Art Gallery. |
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Lintel
(LIN tl)
The horizontal beam that forms the upper member of a window or door frame and supports the structure above it. Illustration from the Harlow C. Curtiss House |
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Metope
(MET a
pee) Any of the spaces between two triglyphs on a Doric frieze. Illustration to the left from the Buffalo & Erie County Historical Society Museum |
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Modillion
(mo DILL
yin) An ornamental bracket, usually in the form of a scroll with acanthus, used in series beneath a Corinthian, Composite, or Roman Ionic cornice. Illustration from the Williams-Butler House |
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Newel Illustration from the Boies-Lord House (Hamburg) |
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Order In classical architecture, a column with base (usually), shaft, capital, and entablature, decorated and proportioned according to one of the accepted modes - Doric (Greek Doric and Roman Doric), Tuscan, Ionic, Corinthian, or Composite. Illustration from the Doric Temple at Segesta, Sicily |
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Pediment
(PED a
ment) In classical architecture a low-pitched triangular gable above a facade, or a smaller version over porticos A triangular gable end of the roof above the horizontal cornice, often with sculpture. Illustration from the Albright-Knox Art Gallery above the doorway or above a window. Broken pediment: A pediment open or broken either at the apex. Open-bed or broken-bed pediment: pediment with a gap in the base molding. |
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Pediment:
Open-topped or
Broken-apex: A
pediment where the sloping
sides are returned before reaching the apex. Illustration from 470 Linwood Ave. |
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Pediment:
Swan's neck:
A broken pediment having an
outline formed by a pair of S-curves tangent to the horizontal
cornice
at the ends of the pediment and rising to a pair of scrolls on
either
side of the center, where a finial often rises between the
scrolls. Illustration from 447 Linwood Ave. |
| Peristyle A series of columns surrounding a building or enclosing a court. |
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Pilaster (pi LAS ter) A shallow rectangular column projecting only slightly from a wall and, in classical architecture, conforming with one of the orders. Illustration from the Albright-Knox Art Gallery |
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Rosette
(row
ZET) A rose-shaped patera . In the illustration, there is a rosette in the middle of the quatrefoil. Illustration from the Stephen M. Clement House |
| Stylobate
(STEYE low bate) A course of masonry forming the foundation for a row columns, esp. the outermost colonnade of a classical temple. |
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Triglyph
(TRY
glif) Ornament in a Doric frieze, consisting of raised blocks of three vertical bands separated by V-shaped grooves, alternating with plain or sculptured panels called metopes. Illustration from the Buffalo & Erie County Historical Society Museum |
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Tympanum
(TIM pa
nim) The ornamental recessed space or panel enclosed by the molding of a pediment. Also the space between an arch and the lintel of a door or window. Illustration from Buffalo & Erie County Historical Society Museum |
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Volute
(va
LOOT) A spiral scroll on an Ionic capital; smaller versions appear on Ionic, Composite and Corinthian capitals. Illustration from the Albright-Knox Art Gallery |
