Greek Revival

The Greek Revival style was prevalent 1840 to 1880. This style is easily recognizable due to its bold features and prevalence in institutional, civic, and residential architecture and was at times referred to as the “national style.”  These homes have low pitched gable roofs with wide trim bands at the roof and cornice.  The entry door is clearly defined, often covered by a pedimented gable on columns and almost always with a decorative surround.  Decorative pilasters combine with bold, but simple mouldings and six over six pane windows with simple trim.  When the gabled ends are on the side, the front façade is typically symmetrical, often with a colonnaded porch.  When the gabled end faces front (like a Greek temple) a lower side wing was very common throughout New England.  The front facing gable is one of the Greek Revival’s most enduring legacies.  Continued in the Italianate and subsequent styles and rarely seen outside of New England.

In the Christian Hill neighborhood, we find fine examples of the symmetrical side gable format for two of the towns prominent citizens in the Tyler Thayer House at 98-100 Vernon (ca. 1855) and the Lyman Smith House at 15 Vernon (ca. 1851) are symmetrical.  Contemporaneous, we can also find examples of the gable front with side wing in the more modest homes of William Harlow Pond at 49 Maple (ca. 1857), Elbridge Shumway at 54 Maple (ca. 1858) and Augustus Stockbridge at 128 Vernon (ca. 1861).

Links to Christian Hill’s Greek Revival homes:

76 Day Street – The Masonic Temple

15 Vernon Street – The Lyman Smith House

98-100 Vernon Street – The Tyler Thayer House

49 Maple Street – The William Harlow Pond House

54 Maple Street – The Elbridge Shumway House

128 Vernon Street – The Augustus P. Stockbridge House

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