Greek Revival

Windham Town Hall // 1798

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The town of Windham, New Hampshire, was initially home to the Pawtucket people, later joined by Scots-Irish immigrants began to settle in the area in 1719. The town was established in 1742, being the the second town designated by Governor Benning Wentworth following the establishment of the New Hampshire-Massachusetts border a year prior. In colonial-era New England, every town needed a meetinghouse to serve as a base of religious and civic functions for the community. Windham built an early meetinghouse which lasted decades until this building was constructed in 1798 as the town’s second. This structure was used for town meetings and religious services for the community until the 1830s when, after he began with the passage of the Toleration Act of 1819, which ended compulsory taxation to support established churches and religious institutions. Area congregations built their own churches and the meetinghouse was converted to the Town Hall. In 1868, the Town voted to repair and remodel the exterior of the building and finish a room on the second story for town meetings, giving the structure its current appearance.

Boylston Farmhouse // 1830

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Built on the once 3,000-acre estate of Ward Nicholas Boylston’s country house in Princeton, Massachusetts, this historic farmhouse was built as the old Villa became a year-round residence. When Ward Nicholas Boylston (1747-1828) died in 1828, his Princeton estate was inherited by his grandson, Dr. Ward Nicholas Boylston (1816-1870), who further developed the property. By 1830, Ward Boylston built this Greek Revival style farmhouse where he operated the property as a gentleman’s farm, with agricultural fields, dairy cows, and out-buildings. The farm was one of the largest in central Massachusetts and was known around the state. When Dr. Boylston died in 1870, his son, Ward Nicholas III, inherited the property but eventually sold it out of the family in 1918. Boylston Villa and the adjacent Boylston Farmhouse are separately owned, but retain their architectural and historical significance thanks to great stewards to maintain the properties.

Congregational Church of Princeton // 1838

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The First Meeting House in Princeton, Massachusetts, was completed in June 1762, just three years after the community incorporated. The original meetinghouse was a plain structure that was eventually outgrown and replaced in 1796. By the 1830s, the church was dated and the congregation voted to erect a new house of worship, the first built without tax revenue. The third church, this building, was constructed at the northern edge of the Town Common but was moved to its present location in 1884 to facilitate the construction of Bagg Hall. Completed in 1838, the Greek Revival style Congregational Church of Princeton features a recessed portico, fluted Doric columns and pilasters, and a tall multi-stage steeple. Changes to the building are minor, and date to the 1884 move. The changes include a full basement and the installation of a rose window from the 1762 meetinghouse. Inside, an ornate chandelier said to have been saved from the Maverick Congregational Church in East Boston hangs above the pews.

Ivory Wilder House // c.1842

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In 1842, Ivory Wilder, a shopkeeper in the village of Princeton, Massachusetts, demolished the old store formerly on the edge of the town common and oversaw construction of this residence. Ivory Wilder (1804-1886) worked for a time as the town constable and post master, and operated a store in the main village. He had this residence built as a double-house, where he resided with his family and rented the other half to boarders, including resident, Reverend Willard M. Harding and later Reverend Alfred Goldsmith, both pastors at the Congregational Church. The property later converted back to a single-family residence and was recently renovated. The Wilder House now serves as one of the important landmarks to greet those arriving to Princeton’s town common.

East Princeton Mechanic’s Hall & Schoolhouse // 1852

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Suffering from neglect, the grand East Princeton Mechanic’s Hall & Schoolhouse stands on Main Street in East Princeton, Massachusetts, as a lasting landmark of the once thriving industrial village. The site was originally home to a one-room schoolhouse built in 1843. Originally a schoolhouse built in 1852 for $600 with timbers from the original schoolhouse that was built in 1843. After about 10 years, the village’s growth necessitated a larger District school. A committee was established to oversee construction and funds for a new schoolhouse, which the committee decided should also include a meeting hall on the top floor, above two classrooms on the ground floor. The Greek Revival style structure is said to have been partially built with timbers salvaged from the earlier building, hence the 1843 date in the pediment. The building operated as a public school until it closed in the 1940s as district schools consolidated. For decades, the meeting hall was used occasionally by the Princeton Farmers and Mechanics Association and later by the East Princeton Village Improvement Society and local American Legion Post until the building was vacated entirely. The building has been left to decay by the town, who own the building, letting this become yet another example of a demolition by neglect.

What would you like to see this building become?

United Church of Strafford // 1832

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After the public support of religion ended in Vermont in 1807, when before this tax dollars were used to support the Congregational Church in towns and villages all over the state, many congregations split and erected their own purpose-built houses of worship. The Congregaional Church of Strafford was once located in the Strafford Meetinghouse, a 1799 structure at the edge of the town green. In 1832, the churches left the building, with the Unitarians building a church in the South Strafford Village, and Congregationalists building this church that same year. The old Congregational Church blends Federal and Greek Revival styles both in the vernacular, but it retains much of its original features. The Free Will Baptists sold their church building in the lower village (South Strafford) and the Baptists joined the Congregationalists to form the United Church of Strafford in 1967, occupying this church building.

Universalist Church of Strafford // 1833

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The Universalist Society of Strafford, founded in 1798, is the second oldest in Vermont and fourth oldest in the nation. In the early years, Universalists met in Strafford’s Town House, sharing the building with other denominations. Eventually the Universalists, Baptists, and Congregationalists all built their own churches, with the Universalists building this handsome structure in 1833 in the South Strafford Village. Blending late Federal and Greek Revival styles, the white clapboarded church is sited on a small hill and is characterized by its belfry and large stained glass windows.

Harris Store // 1833

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In 1833, Jedediah H. Harris, who had run a general store in Strafford village since 1805, commissioned a local contractor to build a new brick and granite store. The brick store was added onto the early 19th century wood-frame building. Harris and his business partner, Justin Morrill, opened the store in 1834, selling provisions to locals and visitors to the small town. Morrill would later go on to construct a stunning Gothic Revival style home nearby and become a leading U.S. Senator. For more than one hundred years the store passed through a succession of owners, until C. William Berghorn Jr. closed it in 1951 to make it his residence. The Greek Revival style building has since been converted to the local post office branch with the early wood-frame wing housing a local coffee shop/cafe.

Westminster Arcade // 1828

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Westminster Street Facade

The Westminster Arcade, also known as the Providence Arcade, in Downtown Providence, was built in 1828 as the first enclosed shopping mall in the United States. Built in 1828, the Arcade extends a full block between Westminster and Weybosset streets and is a landmark early example of the Greek Revival style. The Arcade was designed by architect, Russell Warren who collaborated with Tallman & Bucklin on the design, who were likely inspired by early shopping arcades in Europe. When the granite building opened, the mall featured three floors of shops, each designed around the central promenade illuminated by skylights in the ceiling, which provided illumination until the incorporation of electric light, which in this sense, is strikingly similar to the modern shopping malls of the mid-to-late 1900s. As suburbanization and retail shopping struggles post-WWII occurred in Downtown Providence, the Arcade experienced high tenant turnover, with the upper floors particularly struggling to attract businesses. After various restorations of the National Historic Landmark, the building reopened in 2013 with office and retail spaces on the ground floor and 48 affordable apartments on the upper two stories, providing an innovative mixed-use way to preserve and fund this important building.

Weybosset Street Facade

Old Providence Custom House and Post Office // 1857

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One of the finest buildings in Downtown Providence, the old Custom House and Post Office is a landmark, showcasing how Federal buildings were once well designed and meant to show stability through high-quality design and materials. The stately building was completed in 1857 from plans by architect, Ammi Young, who became the Supervising Architect of the U.S. Treasury Department in 1852. Ammi Young designed a number of notable buildings all over New England, with his finest being the many custom houses and other Federal buildings. For the Providence Custom House and Post Office, he utilized granite from quarries in Quincy, Massachusetts for its walls to show strength, with a hipped roof and metal dome and corner quoins as additional design elements. The building can be classified as a blending of Greek Revival and Italianate styles with the use of both pedimented and arched window treatments and blocky form. The building housed federal offices until November 1909, when a new and larger Federal Building was erected a few blocks away. The Federal Government vacated the structure in 1989 and was ultimately bought by the State of Rhode Island and converted to office space for the State Courts System. After extensive renovation at a cost of $550,000, the building was opened by the state in 1992 as the John E. Fogarty Judicial Complex.

Beneficent Congregational Church // 1809

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Located on Weybosset Street in Downtown Providence, the Beneficent Congregational Church, affectionately nicknamed “Round Top” for its striking dome, is significant architecturally and historically as an early Federal/Greek Revival style church and the oldest in Downtown Providence. The congregation was founded in 1743 during the “First Great Awakening” as a separatist spin-off of College Hill’s First Congregational Church (now First Unitarian Church). The offshoot occurred after when Deacon Joseph Snow, Jr. (1690-1773), a fiery preacher who was also a carpenter by trade, began preaching a more evangelical brand of Congregationalism than the more reserved members of the church could tolerate. Eventually, Father Snow, and his ardent followers established a second congregation on the west side of the Providence River in what was then an area of scattered residences and farms. The current church, the congregation’s second on the site, was constructed in 1809 from designs by Barnard Eddy and John Newman, but it was largely reworked into its present form in 1836 by the firm Tallman & Bucklin, who swapped the original Federal-era details for bolder Greek Revival trim, including the chunky Doric columns of the entrance portico, a paneled parapet, and an octagonal drum beneath the dome. That dome, along with the two-story front portico, survived the remodel unchanged in its overall form, and today it is sheathed in durable copper rather than the gold leaf that once covered it.

Captain Hadley House // c.1850

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Built around 1850 for Captain Hadley this stately home in Marion, Massachusetts, is significant as a two-story transitional Greek Revival/Italianate landmark that has ties to one of the most prominent local families and has spent nearly two centuries as the visual entrance to the historic village. The home was built for sea captain, Stephen Delano Hadley (1814-1892) and his wife, Mary Soule. The home was at the northern end of the Old Landing, near the working harbor, and saw other owners in the 19th and 20th centuries until it became an office building. In the 2010s, the prominent site along a busy thoroughfare was eyed by CVS to redevelop the site with a suburban style store and parking lot. The community rallied with petitions signed by thousands and local groups mobilized to save the building and character of the community. The Sippican Historical Society and Sky Development Ltd. partnered to purchase the building and acquire a deed restriction on the site, preserving it in perpetuity. Today, the Captain Hadley House, as it’s still known locally, continues under new ownership as a small medical office, its Italianate details preserved under the historical society’s watch as one of Marion’s most recognizable surviving nineteenth-century landmarks.

Blankinship House // 1852

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This perfect mid-19th century cottage showcases what makes coastal New England so special. Located on Main Street in the walkable historic center of Marion, Massachusetts, this 1852 home was built by Warren Blankinship (1816-1898), a carpenter, as his own residence. It was built just before his second marriage to Mercy Wing in 1853. A series of tragedies struck Blankinship’s marriages as he outlived three of his four wives. A well-preserved example of a modest Greek Revival home, it is clad in cedar shingles, a hallmark of many coastal homes in New England. White Cedar shingles are so popular historically as the species is such a hard wood that pieces are naturally insect and rot resistant and hold up amazingly well to salt air. Early colonists noted the use of the tree for canoes and other objects by Native people and followed suit, constructing homes from the native tree.

First Universalist Church, Marion – Marion Arts Center // 1833

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I do love a good adaptive reuse story! This historic church building on Main and Pleasant streets in the Wharf Village of Marion, Massachusetts, was constructed in 1833 for the town’s growing and new Universalist congregation. Architect Seth Eaton was hired and furnished plans, likely relying on neighbor, Warren Blankinship, a carpenter and congregant, to construct the building. It blends together the Greek and Gothic Revival styles well, but in a less sophisticated form than some larger churches. By World War II, the church’s membership had dwindled to only a few old Marion families and eventually closed. With the building’s future uncertain, at a time where demolition for surface parking lots was the go-to solution, Marion residents Andrew and Dorothy Patterson, purchased the building and soon after worked with local artists in town to restore the building for use as an art space. The Marion Art Center was founded in 1957, and to this day, serves as a non-profit community cultural organization dedicated to promoting the visual and performing arts.

Dr. Ellis House – Sippican Historical Society // 1834

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This house sits on Main Street in Marion, Massachusetts, and it is an example of a modest mid-19th century Greek Revival style residence seen in the main village here. The house was built in 1834 for Dr. Walton Nye Ellis (1808-1867), who served as physician in Marion. Born in Wareham, Ellis moved to Marion, and married Susan Delano (1809-1840), she passed away in 1840, and not long after her death, Dr. Ellis remarried. In 1855, Dr. Ellis organized a meeting of prosperous Village men, mostly sea captains, with the purpose of planning a library for the town. They pooled resources and funded a library which was located in a large closet on the second floor of his home seen here. The library’s books could be borrowed for a few cents a week. Subsequent funding from Elizabeth Taber helped create the Taber Library just decades later. In the 1960s, the home was gifted to the Sippican Historical Society, who remain in the building to this day.