Greek Revival

Simonsville Union Meetinghouse // 1848

Buildings of New EnglandLeave a comment

A once excellent example of a Gothicized, vernacular Greek Revival church in Vermont, the former Simonsville Meetinghouse in Andover, Vermont, has since been renovated into a private residence, removing almost all of the original fabric. Long ago in the Simonsville area of Andover, the residents desired to have a meeting house. There was a Baptist church in the village of Peaseville, but not all the Simonsville residents were Baptists, in fact, there were several religious denominations being followed. None of the religious groups had enough followers in Simonsville to be able to afford a minister and a church building, so they got together and combined their efforts and finances to erect a union meetinghouse that they would share. In April of 1847, the Simonsville Union Meetinghouse Society was formed and later that year, construction began, with the building completed in the spring of 1848. By the late 20th century, membership and use of the building dwindled, causing deferred maintenance and threatening the future of the church. The trustees of the church sold the building, and the church has since been renovated for private home. Sadly, the gothic belfry and historic window fenestration were altered in the renovation, but the entry and basic form remain.

Leland Homestead // 1843

Buildings of New EnglandLeave a comment

The small, rural Town of Baltimore, Vermont, was originally a part of Cavendish but due to the geography and a mountain separating the village from the main town, residents here voted in 1793 to set off as its own town. The nomenclature of the town name, Baltimore is not clear, as the city in Maryland was named for George Calvert, first Baron Baltimore, who was granted that colony in 1632, but there is no evident connection between the two communities. The word Baltimore itself is Celtic for “large town”; appropriate for Calvert’s colony, perhaps, but hardly for this Vermont town, which is one of the smallest in the state in terms of population or square miles. The town has always been a community without a distinctive village center and has long been primarily farmland, with properties bounded by stone walls and forests. This stone house on Harris Road in Baltimore was built in 1843 by Joshua Leland and his wife, Betsy Boynton. A history of the town speaks of the house, “It was one of the most attractive houses ever built in Baltimore, a well-built front hall and stairway, four fair-sized pleasant rooms downstairs, three well-arranged chambers and a convenient back stairway, all well-finished”. The home, with its date of construction over the front door, remains one of the most historic and well-preserved buildings in the town of just over 200 residents.

Old St. Stephen’s Church – Barker Playhouse // 1840

Buildings of New England1 Comment

The old St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Providence’s Fox Point neighborhood is an architecturally distinctive Greek Revival style church building located on charming Benefit Street. The church had its beginnings in 1839, when the newly established congregation called on 29-year-old Francis Vinton to serve as their first pastor. The congregation funded this small church which broke ground in 1840, and before it was completed, Rev. Vinton resigned as Rector. The building, built of stone and covered in stucco, once had a spire and belfry above the main entrance. The congregation grew over the next decade and it was soon realized that a larger and more central church should be built for members, many of whom were wealthy residents with mansions surrounding Brown College. In 1860, the parish purchased a lot on George Street, and hired architect, Richard Upjohn to design the new church in the Gothic style. For reasons of location, and possibly social class, twenty-two men and women remained here at the less fashionable church and formed a new parish, the Church of the Saviour. The smaller, mission church with its stucco walls, remained until the property was sold in 1932 to house the Barker Playhouse, reputed to be the oldest continuously operating little theatre in the United States.


Bayard Ewing Building // 1848

Buildings of New EnglandLeave a comment

Located on South Main Street in Providence, this large Greek Revival style commercial building, with its gable pediment facing the street was built in 1848 by the Fall River Ironworks Company.The company was founded in Fall River, Massachusetts (then partly located within Rhode Island) in 1822 to manufacture nails. The company owned and occupied this building from its construction until 1881, when it was occupied by the Rumford Chemical Works, founded by Eben Horsford as a manufacturer of baking powder, with this building serving as its main office. In 1927, the Phillips Lead Company, a plumbing supply house, purchased the property and continued to use it until 1973, when it was acquired via taking as part of an Urban Renewal plan for the area. Luckily, the building was deemed significant, and preserved following its purchase by the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and converted to classroom and studio spaces in 1978 for several of the school’s departments. The restoration and adaptive reuse was overseen by local architect Irving B. Haynes. The building, now known as the Bayard Ewing Building, is one of the earliest such examples of adaptive reuse in Providence and showcases that old buildings can be repurposed for new ideas and uses. 

Faunce Schoolhouse // 1844

Buildings of New England1 Comment

This one-story, well-proportioned schoolhouse is located in the town center of Kingston, Massachusetts. The Faunce Schoolhouse showcases all the hallmarks of the Greek Revival style, including the siting of the building with its narrow end facing the street to showcase the gable roof, corner pilasters, and the entablature completing the gable as a pediment. The school was built in 1844, shortly after the nearby Town House was completed, as a center primary school. Up until the early 1900s, one or two teachers taught first through fourth grades at the two-room school. By 1908, overcrowding at the school led to a town meeting that led to the construction of a new school to provide more space conducive to learning. The Center Primary School remained open, and in 1924, the school was renamed in honor of Walter H. Faunce, a former teacher, superintendent of schools, and town selectman. The building was abandoned as a school in 1926 and stood empty until 1934 when it was sold by the town to the Kingston Grange No. 323 for $400. The Grange occupied the building until 1959 when it sold the building back to the town for $4,000. The building was restored in the 1970s and remains a source of pride for the community to this day offering free meeting and event spaces for local non-profits.


First Parish Church, Kingston // 1851

Buildings of New EnglandLeave a comment

The original Congregational Church of Kingston was part of the established, tax-supported church of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and was built in 1718, after present-day Kingston established itself as Plymouth’s North Parish. The church was replaced in 1798 with a more substantial building with two steeples. In 1833, when the separation of church and state was finalized in the Commonwealth, two new religious societies formed in Kingston and established churches. The 1798 church, which had been built as the only church in town, was now too large for its diminished population and suffering from structural difficulties. In the spring of 1851, the 1798 church was taken down, and the present church, the third on the site, was constructed. The church blends Greek Revival and Italianate styles, both popular for ecclesiastical buildings of its time, and the structure looks much like it did when built 175 years ago. The congregation here is Universal Unitarian.

Holmes-Stetson House // 1841

Buildings of New EnglandLeave a comment

Built the same year as the Old Kingston Town House in Kingston, Massachusetts, this handsome Greek Revival style house sits on the town’s Main Street and has ties to two of the communities oldest and most significant families. The house was constructed in 1841 with matching side porches for Horace Holmes (1809-1855), a merchant and son of Joseph Holmes, a wealthy ship owner and builder. Horace operated a store near his home until his death in 1855. The property was later purchased by Captain Charles Stetson, a master mariner. The couple’s weath soon allowed them to sell this older residence and they built a “modern” Italianate style house at the rear garden (now 20 Green Street) to reside in. After successive ownership, the Greek Revival style house was converted to a store, but has since been reverted back to a residence, retaining much of its original fabric.

Old Kingston Town House // 1841

Buildings of New EnglandLeave a comment

Overlooking the town green in Kingston, Massachusetts, this stately Greek Revival home was once the original town house for the community, containing meeting hall, town offices and even a jail cell! Before we go into that further, it is helpful to learn about history first. Present-day Kingston was within the tribal homeland of the Wampanoag people, who in the decades prior to the arrival of the Mayflower, saw their populations decimated from a rapidly spreading pandemics due to earlier contacts with Europeans. Originally part of Plymouth, Kingston was first settled by Europeans shortly after the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock in 1620. In 1717, residents in the northern part of Plymouth petitioned the General Court to be set off from Plymouth as a separate township or a precinct. They were allowed to become the north precinct of Plymouth on the condition that they maintain a suitable minister. The northern precinct was wealthier and led to present-day Kingston incorporating as its own town in 1726, following a tax dispute. Early town meetings were held in the parish church until the separation of church and state necessitated a new town hall. The town hall here was built in 1841. As the town grew the building was re-oriented southward and enlarged in 1871 from plans by architect Luther Briggs. Further alterations were made to the building in 1935 under the guidance of the architectural firm of J. Williams Beal & Sons. In the early 2000s, space, parking, and accessibility concerns led the Town of Kingston to sell the 1841 Town House, which was purchased by private owners and converted to a residence. Inside, remnants of the old town house include old signs, office doors for city departments, former vaults converted to closets, and even a jail cell in the basement. Talk about a unique adaptive reuse!

Pine Grove Cemetery Mausoleum & Chapel // c.1875 & 1904

Buildings of New EnglandLeave a comment
Mausoleum

The mausoleum and the Jonas A. Stone Memorial Chapel are two historic structures located in the Pine Grove Cemetery of Westborough, Massachusetts. Land here was acquired in 1746 by the Reverend Ebenezer Parkman, and it comprised of a pine lot of sixteen acres on the road to Mendon (now South Street). Nearly 100 years later, in 1844, the lot was deeded to the town as a new cemetery, as the older cemeteries were quickly becoming crowded. It was named Pine Grove after the historic use of the grounds. Due to the rural cemetery movement, which sought to reimagine cemeteries as a beautiful park-like setting, not a simple burial ground, many Westborough families purchased plots here and some even moved their loved ones to the new family plot, in the “new” Pine Grove Cemetery.

Chapel

The Mausoleum was built sometime in the mid-19th century and is a modest, Greek Revival style structure of granite and brick construction. Four Doric columns support the portico and wooden roof which serves as a pediment above. The Jonas A. Stone Memorial Chapel was built in 1904 following a bequest to the town from the will of Jonas Adams Stone (1821-1900), and additional donation by his brother, Nymphas Stone. The Victorian Gothic chapel is built of brick and brownstone with a wooden gable and roof. The structure was damaged during the destructive 1938 New England Hurricane, but restored and is an important local landmark today.

Gilman Morse House // c.1850

Buildings of New EnglandLeave a comment

As the town of Westborough emerged from rural agricultural community to commercial center, connections to Worcester and Boston via rail service opened the town to prosperity. As businessmen accumulated wealth, these merchants built stately homes to showcase their position in the community. Before the Civil War, the Greek Revival style was ever-popular in Westborough, even though the style was already waning in popularity in larger cities. This is the Gilman Morse House, built around 1850 for Mr. Gilman Wood Morse (1810-1899) on East Main Street. Morse was a merchant in town and clearly did well for himself, building this stately house for his family. The residence is Greek Revival in style with its facade bays broken up by pilasters capped with Corinthian capitals adorned by acanthus leaves. The house also features ornate window and door hoods, showcasing the emerging Italianate style influence.