Greek Revival

Bolton Town Hall // 1853

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The Town Hall building in Bolton, Massachusetts, is significant as the hub of the town’s municipal activities for the past century and a half and architecturally as a mid-19th century town hall built in the transitional Greek Revival and Italianate styles. The structure was completed by the town in 1853 as a replacement for the former 1834 wood-frame town hall, which had burned down in 1851. The original wood-frame building was constructed at the time that municipal functions were being moved out of town meetinghouses across Massachusetts following the desire to separate church and government functions. Like many town halls of its era, the larger 1853 building was designed to accommodate multiple aspects of the community’s institutional and public life. The two-story building included a fireproof vault for town records, with town meetings held in the second floor meeting hall, with selectmen meeting in a room on the first floor. A small room was fitted for a library until the early 20th century when the town’s first purpose-built library was constructed farther down Main Street. The fairly unadorned Town Hall was modernized in around 1916 with the addition of the front portico and a rear addition. The Bolton Town Hall remains as a source of pride for the small, yet charming town of just under 6,000 residents.

Thomas Jones House // 1834

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Thomas Jones of Lancaster married Mary Tweed of Lunenburg, Massachusetts, in June 1834 and immediately began building this house on Main Street in Lancaster for his new family. The Greek Revival style house is a refined example of brick with six-over-six sash double-hung windows and a Classical entry portico supported by Doric columns. The house was later owned by Sewell T. Rugg (1821-1892), a blacksmith who had a shop nearby.

Joseph Andrews House // 1831

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This stately temple-front Greek Revival style house in Lancaster, Massachusetts, faces southward and when originally built, had sweeping views of fields and the Nashua River which abuts the property. The residence was built in 1831 for Joseph Andrews (1806-1873), a renowned 19th century artist who engraved portraits and landscapes, and was also an elder in the local Swedenborgian Church when it still met at residences. The Andrews House was likely a wedding gift to his wife, Thomazine Minot of Brookline, when they married. Tragically, Thomazine died just years later in 1834 at the age of 22. Joseph Andrews remarried soon after and would later move to Waltham. The house, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, features a full-length projecting porch with pediment supported by four, two-story fluted Ionic columns and a flush-board facade.

Sherwin-Goldsmith House // 1844

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The Stone Village of Chester, Vermont, is said to be the largest collection of stone buildings in the state. Built around 1844, the Sherwin-Goldsmith House is one of a few dozen “snecked ashlar” buildings in the region, where rubblestone is laid up with mortar using long stones called “snecks” to tie an outer and an inner wall together. The construction method is said to have been brought to the area by masons from Scotland and Ireland which is known there as ‘Celtic Bond’. Oral tradition state that Scottish masons from Canada introduced the technique to local masons while erecting a mill in nearby Cavendish in 1832. Local Chester resident, Dr. Ptolemy Edson became such a fan of the building that in 1834, he had his home, the first stone building in Chester, built in this method. He then would influence the rest of the North Village of Chester, where many of his neighbors, as well as the church and schoolhouse, built their structures in snecked ashlar. The Sherwin House is one of three near-identical houses built around the same time that are colloquially known as the “Three Sisters” because they were built for members of the same family. The Greek Revival form is toned down in this smaller side-hall house, which playfully uses large blocks of schist and mica which read as quoins at the corners. Simeon Sherwin (1813-1874) was a farmer, postmaster, and justice of the peace in Chester. Later owner, Olivia Goldsmith, wrote her bestseller, First Wives Club when she lived here. 

Granville and Aurora Spaulding House // 1838

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The Stone Village of Chester, Vermont, is said to be the largest collection of stone buildings in the state. Built around 1838, Granville and Aurora Spaulding House is one of a few dozen “snecked ashlar” buildings in the region, where rubblestone is laid up with mortar using small long stones called “snecks” to tie an outer and an inner wall together. The construction method is said to have been brought to the area by masons from Scotland and Ireland which is known there as ‘Celtic Bond’. Oral tradition state that Scottish masons from Canada introduced the technique to local masons while erecting a mill in nearby Cavendish in 1832. Local Chester resident, Dr. Ptolemy Edson became such a fan of the building that in 1834, he had his home, the first stone building in Chester, built in this method. He then would influence the rest of the North Village of Chester, where many of his neighbors, as well as the church and schoolhouse, built their structures in snecked ashlar. The Spaulding House is unique in that the main entrance does not face the street, as it fades the south east (side) facade. The couple married in 1839 and moved into this recently completed house to raise their family and work their farm. Like many other early stone houses built nearby in the 1830s, the Spaulding house blends Federal and Greek Revival motifs from the gable end facing the street and eaves returning to serve as a pediment as a nod to the emerging Greek Revival style, while retaining an arched entry off the street which echoes Federal period taste. 

Gideon M. Lee House // c.1836

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The Stone Village of Chester, Vermont, is said to be the largest collection of stone buildings in the state. Built around 1836, the Gideon Lee House is one of a few dozen “snecked ashlar” buildings in the region, where rubblestone is laid up with mortar using small long stones called “snecks” to tie an outer and an inner wall together. The construction method is said to have been brought to the area by masons from Scotland and Ireland which is known there as ‘Celtic Bond’. Oral tradition state that Scottish masons from Canada introduced the technique to local masons while erecting a mill in nearby Cavendish in 1832. Local Chester resident, Dr. Ptolemy Edson became such a fan of the building that in 1834, he had his home, the first stone building in Chester, built in this method. He then would influence the rest of the North Village of Chester, where many of his neighbors, as well as the church and schoolhouse, built their structures in snecked ashlar. The first residence besides Dr. Edson’s home built this way in the village was this home, built nextdoor for Dr. Edson’s friend, Gideon Merrick Lee (1811-1880). Designed in a more vernacular version of the Federal style with emerging Greek Revival side-hall form, the Lee House features a charming entry with sidelights and a blind fan over the door.

Stone Village Unitarian Church // 1845

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The Stone Village of Chester, Vermont, is said to be the largest collection of stone buildings in the state, and is anchored by its largest building, the Unitarian Church. Built in 1845, the Unitarian Universalist Church is one of a few dozen “snecked ashlar” buildings in the region, where rubblestone is laid up with mortar using small long stones called “snecks” to tie an outer and an inner wall together. The construction method is said to have been brought to the area by masons from Scotland and Ireland which is known there as ‘Celtic Bond’. Oral tradition state that Scottish masons from Canada introduced the technique to local masons while erecting a mill in nearby Cavendish in 1832. Local Chester resident, Dr. Ptolemy Edson became such a fan of the building that in 1834, he had his home, the first stone building in Chester, built in this method. Dr. Edson served on the building committee for the new village church, and likely pushed for a cohesive material and construction method for this church and other buildings soon after. The Stone Village Unitarian Church blends Greek Revival and Gothic Revival styles in a more vernacular way, typical in many rural Vermont communities. The building exhibits stained glass windows that were added sometime in the late 19th or early 20th century.

Simonsville Union Meetinghouse // 1848

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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

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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

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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.