Greek revival architecture

New Gloucester Universalist Meeting House // 1839

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Constructed in 1839 by local carpenter/builder Jeremiah Cotton, the Universalist Meeting House of New Gloucester, Maine, is a dignified example of the Greek Revival style in a rural context. The First Universalist Society of Christians in New Gloucester was organized in 1805 with members drawn from nearby communities including those of Gray and Poland. In 1830, the congregation reorganized itself into the First Universalist Society of New Gloucester and Pownal. During its early history services were apparently held at various places in the community for it was not until November of 1838 that a meeting was called “…to take such measures for Building a meeting house as a majority of Subscribers or proprietors may think proper.” After World War I, membership began to decline and from the 1930s until the society’s demise in 1957 services were infrequently held. In 1969 the property was acquired by the New Gloucester Historical Society, who maintained and restored the building. The flushboard siding, fully pedimented gable, pilasters, and symmetrical façade containing two entry doors, all work together to display the Greek Revival style in a high-style example, but in a rural setting. The building appears to be opened periodically by the Historical Society.

Former Boston & Maine Railroad Station // c.1845-1893

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Photo courtesy of City of Boston Archives

The Boston & Maine Railroad opened in 1845, and over the years, became the dominant railroad in northern New England with many of its lines terminating at this station for a half-century until the original Union/North Station was built in 1893 consolidating many of these northbound lines under one roof. The Boston & Maine Station was located in Haymarket Square, southeast of the present North Station and the building was a landmark in the Greek Revival style. The brick building with monumental pilasters and pediment at the facade commanded the heavily trafficked site until it was demolished in 1893 when the lines relocated to the newly built Union Station on Causeway Street. The architect for the station was Richard Bond.

Old Pierce School // 1855

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Located in the heart of Brookline Village, the old Pierce School sits tucked away behind the Brookline Town Hall and other municipal and institutional buildings. The school was built in 1855 at a cost of $15,000 and later expanded in 1904 from plans by Julius Adolphe Schweinfurth, a prominent local architect. Julius had two brothers who also were architects:  A. C. Schweinfurth, who worked out of California and Charles F. Schweinfurth, out of Ohio. The Pierce School was named after Reverend John Pierce, noted pastor of the Walnut Street church during the mid 19th century. He and his wife, Lucy Tappan Pierce, were active leaders in the abolition movement in Brookline. The school was expanded a number of times until the 1970s, when the present Pierce Elementary School was built, in an unsympathetic Modern design that does little to enhance the busy street. As expected, the 1970s school will soon be demolished and replaced by a new, $212 million school. The old Pierce School will be incorporated into the new development.

Harris and Sabin Sayles Mansion // c.1845

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Located in the Dayville section of Killingly, Connecticut, you can find a row of large mansions built for mill owners and managers from the 19th century. This house dates to the 1840s and by the 1860s, was owned by Harris Sayles (1817-1893) and his brother, Sabin L. Sayles (1827-1891) who together, co-owned and operated a large woolen mill in the town (featured previously). It is not clear if the Sayles brothers lived in the home, but they likely rented it to higher-level employees at the mill as they both had other homes in town. The two-and-a-half story mansion is a great example of the Greek Revival style in the town, with the side gable roof extending over the full-height portico with doric columns. The mansion was built across the street from the village church, also in the same style, but that building was demolished by 2011.

Ripton Community House // 1864

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The Ripton Community House stands at the center of the rural village center of Ripton, Vermont, a town in the midst of the Green Mountains. The community house was built in 1864 and is an excellent late-example of the Greek Revival style in this part of the state. The building was constructed on land that was deeded by Sylvester Fisher in 1864 to the local Congregational Society with the proviso that a house of worship costing not less than $2000 must be erected within two years. The church was built and maintained by the Congregational Society until 1920 when it was deeded to the Methodist Episcopal Church to be used for religious, social and educational purposes. This restriction was removed in 1928 and it was deeded to the Ripton Community Club which made renovations and used the facilities for club meetings, social events, community dinners, square dancing and more. The club dissolved in 1964 and the building began to deterioriate for years until the town banded together to protect and applied for grants to restore the building to its former glory, what we can all appreciate today when driving through the quaint town.

Darius Knight House // c.1830

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Another of the stunning early 19th century homes in the charming town of Chaplin, Connecticut is this transitional Federal/Greek Revival home built around 1830. The house appears to have been built for Darius Knight (1792-1882), a Deacon at the nearby Congregational Church. Of an interesting note, the Knight House is located across the street from the E. W. Day House, thus the intersection was colloquially known as the Knight and Day Corner. The house’s gable-end form with gable reading like a pediment supported by corner pilasters are all clearly Greek Revival style, but the fan lights in said gable and as a transom window are holdouts of the tried-and-true Federal style which dominated up until that point. What a great house!

Ivy Glenn Memorial Hall // 1847

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Methodists established a small congregation in Eastford, Connecticut by 1826, and by 1831, a new meeting house was built in the center of the village. The meeting house was used jointly by Methodists and Universalists, each having the right to occupy it half the time. By 1847, Methodists here were able to erect their own church, this building, in the Greek Revival style. Originally, the building had two doors on either side of a center window in the façade. There was a steeple and, rare in those days, a pipe organ in the sanctuary.  In 1916, the church joined with the nearby Congregational church, requiring them to sell the building ten years later. The town of Eastford bought the structure for $200 in 1926 for use as a town hall. In 1934, the Civil Works Administration provided funds to renovate the building with the town library being installed in a portion of the basement along with town offices and a vault. Town meetings were held in the former sanctuary space upstairs. When the space was outgrown for town offices, a new building was constructed elsewhere and this building transitioned to solely library use. The renovation project was paid for by money bequeathed by Wilmer Glenn, a New York stockbroker who spent summers town. He donated funds in memory of his late wife, Ivy.  The present-day name of the building came to be the Ivy Glenn Memorial and the library moved into its new spacious home in 1972.

Castoff-Swinburne House // c.1840

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This stunning house located in Newport, Rhode Island, was constructed in the Greek Revival style circa 1840 for Henry Castoff (1803‐1879). His house was one of several dwellings built in the Greek Revival style at that time in the area surrounding Touro Park. Henry was a merchant who dealt in goods from the Indies. In 1868, Henry sold this house at 115 Pelham Street to Robert P. Berry, a local dentist and inventor. Dr. Berry’s heirs sold the property in 1890 to William J. Swinburne (1822‐1897) a former soldier, coal merchant, and Mayor of Newport (1855‐1856). After Swinburne’s death in 1897, the home passed by will to his daughter Elizabeth, who never married. Elizabeth resided in the house until her death in 1918. Under the terms of her will, the home was deeded to the Newport Civic League, who established the Swinburne School there, a school for women for the study of household arts and domestic sciences. The school opened in the 1920s. The Swinburne School operated until 2002, when it was dissolved by the Newport Civic League. The contents of the building were sold at public auction and the school records were deeded to the Newport Historical Society. The building itself was purchased by a Brian O’Neill, who restored it to a single‐family dwelling.

Littlefield-Van Zandt House // 1836

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In the late 1830s, Captain Augustus Littlefield (1803-1878) purchased a house lot on Pelham Street in Newport, Rhode Island and commissioned housewright John Ladd to design and build his new residence. Littlefield reportedly asked his Ladd to design an “authentic copy of an Italian Villa” he had seen during a trip in southern Italy. The result is a more traditional Greek Revival, temple-front house with a portico supported by four monumental columns with capitals that combine Corinthian and Egyptian lotus motifs. The minimal Italian Villa detail can be seen in the bracketed cornice and in the pediment. Built around 1836, the house remained in Littlefield’s possession until his death in 1878. The property was purchased by Charles C. Van Zandt, attorney and later the 34th Governor of Rhode Island. Gov. Van Zandt died in 1894 and was interred at Island Cemetery in Newport. The Littlefield-Van Zandt House remains a significant early, high-style Greek Revival house in the state and one with a great state of preservation.

Robinson Homestead // c.1835

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Located in the Head of Tide village of Alna Maine, this large Greek Revival was once the home of prolific poet, Edwin Arlington Robinson. The home was built around 1835, likely by Edwin’s grandfather, Edward Robinson. The home was inherited by Edward’s second-born son, Edward Jr. Edward Jr. and his wife, Mary Elizabeth Palmer had two sons before their third pregnancy. Their third child was Edwin, but his parents did not name him until he was six months old, as it was said that they wished for a daughter. On a vacation, other vacationers decided that their six-month-old son should have a name, and selected the name “Edwin” from a hat containing a random set of boy’s names. The man who drew the name was from Arlington, Massachusetts, so “Arlington” was used for his middle name. Edwin described his childhood as “stark and unhappy” and his young adult years were plagued with tragedy with the death of a brother from a drug overdose and with his older brother marrying the woman that he was in love with. He would defy the odds and was accepted to Harvard. He became engaged in writing, specifically poetry, with his early struggles leading many of his poems to have a dark pessimism and his stories to deal with “an American dream gone awry.” He would go on to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry three times in the 1920s. While he would likely not want to ever see this house again, it is significant both architecturally and as the home in his formative years in Alna.

Benjamin Downs House // c.1830

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Located a stone’s throw from the Judson Manville House (last post) another uncommon brick Greek Revival style house in South Britain, Connecticut, this house stands out for its outstanding proportions and well-preserved exterior. This residence was built around 1830 for Benjamin Downs on the site of his family’s old property. The simple lines, portico at the entry supported by Ionic columns, and the window in the gable are all typical of the period.

Mitchell Mansion // 1828

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Built in 1828 and used for years as a “house of public entertainment” for Mitchell Simeon Mitchell, this stunning home in Southbury, Connecticut has historically been known as the Mitchell Mansion. The Mansion House displays sophisticated Greek Revival features, including its temple shape, the restrained Grecian doorway, an inset Ionic-columned portico and a cornice with continuous modillions. The quality of the exterior is matched by its interior detailing, with a semicircular staircase and, at one time, a large ballroom. Records found in the house indicate that one of the carpenters was James English, later to become Governor of Connecticut. During the middle of the 19th century the property was owned by noted New York furniture maker Duncan Phyfe.

United Church of Christ Southbury // 1844

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Originally, the parishioners living in present-day Southbury would travel to Woodbury Center to attend church services. This changed after the Southbury parish was incorporated in 1731, voting to erect a church a year later. Founded in 1732, the Southbury Congregational Church was dwelled in several sites until the third church was built on the present site in 1844. This Greek Revival style church features Doric pilasters and Ionic columns at the recessed portico with a large pediment above with ornate scroll carvings around the clock. The church remains well-preserved and a visual landmark on the Main street.

Reuben Curtiss House // c.1840

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The Reuben Curtiss House is a classic example of a Greek Revival farmhouse from the mid-19th century, located in Southbury, Connecticut. Local history states that a house built here by Israel Curtiss (1716-1795) who farmed the land with his large family. In 1798, Israel’s large estate was distributed among three of his sons, Joseph, Benjamin, and Reuben. This was complicated by the fact that in the same year, both Joseph and Benjamin died, leaving the entire estate to Reuben. From about 1840 and possibly until he sold the property in 1866, Reuben B. Curtiss ran an academy here, known as “Buck Hill Seminary for Boys.” It was a large operation, as suggested by the size of the addition and confirmed by the 1850 federal census. At that time there were 23 students in residence, ranging in age from 8 to 12, along with four adult supervisors. It was likely that the former farmhouse was expanded and the present 1840s Greek Revival block was added which now is the main facade.

Henry Perry House // 1832

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The Henry Perry house was erected in 1832, and is one of the two Greek Revival style structures in Southport which was designed with a five-columned front portico. The other, the Francis D. Perry House, was his brother’s and was built that same year. The house is a temple-front with a fan-light in the pediment and large sidelights and transom at the entry.