Greek Revival

Martha’s Vineyard National Bank Building // 1855

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Living on an island in the 19th century wasn’t as easy as you may think. Before this bank building in Edgartown on Martha’s Vineyard was constructed in 1855, all banking was done on the mainland, mostly in New Bedford. As Edgartown thrived as a whaling capital and later as a vacation destination, it was clear that a bank be built on the island for easy depositing and withdrawal of funds for residents. This bank, the first brick building constructed in Edgartown, was built to house the newly formed Martha’s Vineyard National Bank. It’s first president was Dr. Daniel Fisher, who made his money as a merchant and operator of one of the largest whale and sperm oil processing facilities in the country. The bank eventually relocated to Vineyard Haven and the Edgartown National Bank was created to fill the void in town. Amazingly, the building is still to this day occupied by a bank, Rockland Trust, seemingly adding to the continuous occupancy of the building by banking facilities for well over a century. The late iteration of the Greek Revival style is evident here with the heavy lintels over the oversized windows and the dentilled pediment at the facade.

Captain Thomas Milton House // 1840

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Located on the idyllic South Water Street in Edgartown, Martha’s Vineyard, the Capt. Thomas Milton House stands as a fine and well-preserved example of a sea captain’s house built in the Greek Revival style. Captain Thomas Milton (1787-1862) was born in Liverpool, England, and first arrived to the island as a young man aboard a whaling vessel. He served as a Lieutenant and privateer during the War of 1812, when England restricted trade to maritime ports, which severely crippled the Edgartown economy. After the embargo ended, Captain Milton led whaling vessels and trade routes to as far as China. On his last trade excursion to China in 1837, Captain Thomas Milton brought back a sapling of a Pagoda Tree that was planted on the lot of his soon-to-be-built house on Water Street. Construction began on the house in 1840, which is unique for its asymmetrical four-bay facade and low hipped roof. Captain Milton died in 1862 and by the turn of the century, his residence was converted to an inn, which is now a part of the multi-building, Harborside Inn complex. The property has stood here for nearly 200 years joined by the ever-growing Pagoda Tree, which is believed to be the largest of its kind in North America. 

Captain Abraham Osborn House // 1834

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Built in 1834, this early Greek Revival house with Gothic Revival detailing, sits on Edgartown’s South Water Street, a notable street lined by large mansions built for early whaling captains on Martha’s Vineyard. The residence was built for Abraham Osborn (1798-1865), a whaling captain, soon after his marriage to Eliza Norton. Captain Abraham Osborn owned several whaling ships based out of Martha’s Vineyard and New Bedford, and one of these large vessels, the Ocmulgee, came to an untimely end early in the Civil War. When captaining the ship in September 1862, the Ocmulgee was approached by a ship flying British flags. When it got within speaking range, the British flags were replaced by Confederate colors and the rebel captain took over the ship, which contained 250 barrels of whale oil. The Confederates detained the ships officers and Captain Osborn in chains bringing them aboard their ship, the Alabama, which was known for stealthy operations to damage the economy of the Northern states. The rebels torched the Ocmulgee, forcing Captain Osborn and his crew to watch their profits burn up and sink into the ocean. The crew was detained for a few days and ultimately released near the Fayal Islands where they received help. Captain Osborn returned home and would die just three years later. The Osborn house was later inherited by his son, Abraham Jr., a retired sea captain himself, who eventually converted the large family home into a hotel called Ocean View. A famous guest at his hotel was Alexander Graham Bell, who was on island to study the extensive deafness prevalence for those on the Island. The house has since been converted back to a single-family residence and maintains its stunning Greek Revival entry portico and tripartite window in the gable with shuttered lancet openings.

Captain Tristam P. Ripley House // c.1835

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One of the great old captain’s houses in Edgartown, Massachusetts, stands here on South Water Street and is emblematic of the history of the harbor community in the 19th and 20th centuries. The five-bay Greek Revival style mansion was built in about 1835 and was owned later by Tristam Pease Ripley (1821-1881) a wealthy sea captain, originally from New Bedford, who operated whaling ships while out at sea for months or a year at a time. After becoming a Master Mariner on the sea, Captain Ripley settled down back in Edgartown and worked as a coal dealer, likely bringing ships from the mainland to the island carrying coal for sale to keep these grand homes warm during the brutal New England winters. The house was purchased by a local inn during the 20th century and significantly renovated inside and out, and is owned by the Harborside Inn.

Dr. Aretus Rising House // 1854

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Aretus Rising (1800-1884) was born in Suffield, Connecticut, and tended to his father’s farm before graduating from the Berkshire Medical College in Western Massachusetts in 1826. Dr. Aretus Rising operated his medical practice in Suffield in the 1840s and would eventually build this unique home in 1854. Designed in the Greek Revival style with the emergence of the Italianate style, the home features a square form with broad overhanging eaves and a wrap-around porch supported by latticed columns.

Second Baptist Church, Suffield // 1840

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Early Baptists in the area of present-day Suffield, Connecticut, organized in the western part of town, and built a church there in 1769, far from the town center, which began to rapidly develop in the early 19th century. By the turn of the 19th century, residents not wanting to travel all the way to West Suffield to attend services, petitioned to create a Second Baptist Church congregation. By 1840, the members were able to fund this handsome brick edifice, built in the Greek Revival style by architect, Henry A. Sykes, who had trained under Ithiel Town of New Haven, clearly where he mastered church designs by a prominent practitioner of the Greek Revival style in New England. The Second Baptist Church of Suffield features a massive portico on its facade with six fluted, Ionic columns supporting the pediment above. The tower of the church is two stages, one squared and the upper round, with fluted piers and Ionic columns and carved consoles. The tower is capped by a gilded dome with weather vane.

John W. Loomis House // c.1840

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This stunning home sits on Main Street in Suffield, Connecticut, and was apparently built as a center-chimney home in the 18th century. By the 1840s, it was purchased by John Wells Loomis (1805-1879), and altered to fit the then-fashionable Greek Revival style, replacing the center chimney with two smaller chimneys, new pilasters were added to the corners and at the entry. John Loomis was the head of the Loomis family which made a fortune in the tobacco industry in Suffield, rolling and shipping products as far away as California. He operated his cigar business in a large warehouse, now gone, behind the house. Before his death, John Loomis built his son George a house nearby, knowing that his son would carry on the business, which he did until a couple years after his father’s death, until he sold the business and moved to New Haven. The Loomis House is one of the finest examples of a Greek Revival residence in the community.

Dr. Asaph Bissell House // c.1835

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Dr. Asaph Bissell was born into the wealthy Bissell family which started here when John Bissell, the progenitor of the family in America, came from Somerset, England, and landed in Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1628. He became one of the settlers of Windsor, CT. His descendant, Asaph Bissell (1791-1850) became one of Yale’s earliest medical graduates and built this stately Greek Revival style home on Main Street in Suffield, Connecticut, where he practiced medicine. Dr. Bissell often made house calls from his home right on Main Street until his death in 1850, after which, it was inherited by his eldest son, Charles Bissell. The house is Greek Revival in style with its entrance on the side elevation sheltered by a Classical porch, all facing southwards. The street-facing facade is four bays with large corner pilasters, a massive entablature, and pedimented gable-end with fanlight set within it.

Rowe House // 1767

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One of the older homes on Main Street in Suffield, Connecticut, the Moses Rowe House was built in 1767 was later “modernized” to its present appearance. The house was constructed as a two-story Georgian home with minimal detailing, as the family home of Moses Rowe (1733-1799), his wife, and nine children. According to historical maps of the area, the home appears to have been purchased by Horace Sheldon, who in the 1830s, modified the home in the Greek Revival style, increasing the height of the home, adding side porches and the entablature at the roofline.

West Suffield Academy Hall // 1855

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Built in 1855 as the West Suffield Village school, Academy Hall served as one of Suffield’s public school buildings until 1913, when consolidated schools were built in town. Like in many New England communities, the old, wood-frame school building was repurposed, and due to the large agricultural community in Suffield (it was a major grower and exporter of tobacco), the old Academy Hall was occupied by the local Grange club, a social organization that encouraged families to band together to promote the economic and political well-being of the community and agriculture. The handsome structure is owned by the non-profit West Suffield Village Improvement Association, and as of April 2026, the building is leased to the Suffield Historical Society, and is available for events. The structure features a Classical door surround, corner pilasters, entablature, and a large square cupola at the gable roof.

West Suffield Congregational Church // 1839

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Nestled in the heart of West Suffield, Connecticut, the West Suffield Congregational Church remains as a unique example of the typical village church form from the first half of the 19th century. The church was established in 1743, when after decades of having to travel to the center of Suffield to worship, families in the western part of town established the Second Ecclesiastical Society. Within a year, a meeting house in West Suffield was built as a rustic structure. As the congregation thrived, a second meeting house was built in 1775 on the site of the present building, which too was rebuilt, this structure, in 1839 using the earlier foundation. The present church was dedicated in 1840 and it stands as a stunning example of a Greek Revival house of worship, with projecting portico supported by fluted Doric columns, paneled parapet, and multi-stage tower.

Mason-Fitz House // 1829

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One of six attached houses townhouses between 70-75 Beacon Street, this stately granite-faced residence was built concurrently with its neighbors in 1828 on speculation for the Mount Vernon Proprietors, a group of wealthy Boston businessmen who helped develop Beacon Hill into the posh, architecturally significant neighborhood it is today. The Mount Vernon Proprietors knew how important Beacon Street was as the entry into the neighborhood, and thus, hired Boston’s premier architect, Asher Benjamin, to design the row. When completed, all of the houses were identical, but throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, they all deviated from the original design, some gaining additional floors, others adding bay windows, but all together form a cohesive and architecturally significant span of houses. Completed in 1829, the residence at 75 Beacon Street is known as the Mason-Fitz House and was originally owned by Jonathan Mason (1756-1831), a U.S. Congressman and U.S. Senator, and later inherited by his son, William Powell Mason (1791-1867), who engaged in real estate. It was likely William Mason who added the mansard roof in the late 1850s or 1860s, but the main unique detailing of the residence occurred in 1889 when newlyweds, Henrietta G. and Walter Scott Fitz hired the popular architectural firm of Little & Browneto reconfigure the front of the house in the Colonial Revival style. Little & Browne added the rather fanciful, oriel windows on the facade, which include the three, small hipped-roof oriels on the second story and larger projecting oriel on the first floor with fanlight and leaded glass. Cambridge architect, Edward T. P. Graham later purchased the residence and petitioned to convert the single-family house into eight apartments, but was denied, later converting the residence into four units. Today, the Mason-Fitz House is broken up into two larger condominium units. 

Greenough-Dwight House // 1829

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One of six attached houses townhouses between 70-75 Beacon Street, this stately granite-faced residence was built concurrently with its neighbors in 1828 on speculation for the Mount Vernon Proprietors, a group of wealthy Boston businessmen who helped develop Beacon Hill into the posh, architecturally significant neighborhood it is today. The Mount Vernon Proprietors knew how important Beacon Street was as the entry into the neighborhood, and thus, hired Boston’s premier architect, Asher Benjamin, to design the row. When completed, all of the houses were identical, but throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, they all deviated from the original design, some gaining additional floors, others adding bay windows, but all together form a cohesive and architecturally significant span of houses. Completed in 1829, the corner dwelling is known as the Greenough-Dwight House and it retains its original three-story rusticated granite façade with segmental arch openings. The major change to the exterior of the Greenough-Dwight House is the addition of the ornate wood oriel window with iron cresting in 1874, the oriel and facade feature the iconic purple windows, which became a status symbol in the 20th century. The story goes, that between 1818 and 1824, an English company sent shipments of glass that contained too much manganese oxide into Boston Harbor. After being exposed to sunlight for an extended period of time, the manganese oxide in the glass began to turn purple creating the colored panes we love today. Over time, many panes broke or were replaced, creating the checkerboard appearance on so many windows, but many owners in the 20th century had imitation purple glass installed as a marker of wealth and prestige, like in this house and bay, which were built after the period that the glass was brought over from England. My favorite in the row, the Greenough-Dwight House shines with its granite facade and brick end wall, with panes reflecting the sun off her violet glass windowpanes. 

United Church of Christ, Swansea // 1833

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The United Church of Christ in Swansea, Massachusetts, was built in 1833 as the second building for the congregation which was originally organized in 1693. It is believed that this was the first church in New England to admit all Christians to membership regardless of their theological beliefs, as a United or Union church. The congregation’s first meetinghouse was built prior to 1719 and was replaced in 1833 when the current building was completed. The United Church of Christ in Swansea blends Greek and Gothic Revival styles with traditional wood-frame construction and gable roof with multi-stage steeple. The facade is adorned with pilasters and louvered lancet arches, showcasing the builder’s ability to pull from multiple architectural styles for the construction.

First Baptist Church of Swansea // 1848

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The First Baptist Church of Swansea may look like a traditional, Greek Revival style church from the 1840s, a common form and style found in nearly every community in New England, but the church is home to the oldest Baptist congregation in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and is the fourth oldest in the United States! The church (and town’s name) was founded by Reverend John Myles (c. 1621–1683), a Baptist minister who immigrated to present-day Swansea from Swansea in Wales, who was a founder of the earliest recorded Baptist churches in Wales. During the King Philip’s War, Reverend Myles fled from the fighting to Boston and pastored the new First Baptist Church in Boston. The present Greek Revival structure, the fifth of the congregation, was built under the direction of the English-born Reverend J. J. Thatcher, pastor of the church from 1846 to 1854. The vernacular Greek Revival church features a pedimented facade with pilasters dividing the bays, and a square belfry.