TRADITIONAL STYLES IN HOUSES 71
THE GREEK CONTRIBUTION

Our architecture and that of Europe have been largely developed
from the Classic architecture of Greece. Interpretations by
Italians, English, French, and Spanish modified the forms brought
to us, but the original style was created by the Greeks in a period
of artistic achievement that has never been equaled.

The first half of the nineteenth century witnessed in Europe and
America a return to the source of Classic architecture, which was
known as the Greek Revival. In the United States it was pro-
moted by the architect and statesman Thomas Jefferson.

At first the Greek Revival was confined to public buildings, but
in the eighteen twenties Greek porches and porticos with columns
were added to Georgian houses. Finally entire dwellings were
built in the Greek temple pattern even though this plan was an
inflexible one that could not ordinarily be adapted to comfortable
living. Conforming to temple architecture, these houses were usu-
ally turned so that a gable end of the house became the front
fagade. The gable roof of the house often extended unbroken
over the front porch, where it was supported by two-story columns
made of brick and covered with stucco.

On the exteriors of dwellings Greek cornices were copied faith-
fully and decorative door and window treatments were kept true
to style. Cast ironwork in Greek designs was freely used for
fences and window grilles. On the interiors the mantels, wood-
work, cornices, and plaster rosettes on'the ceiling were Grecian.

Greek Revival houses of different kinds were numerous as far
west as Illinois and south to the Gulf of Mexico. In the deep
South, the large old plantation homes, which were adaptations of
,the Greek Revival style, proved very satisfactory. The enormous
high porches (galleries), central halls, large rooms, high ceilings,
and French windows were conducive to good ventilation and com-
fort in a hot climate. In addition, these magnificent houses, often
entirely surrounded by porches with pillars, were truly expressive
of the scale and luxury of the lives of the wealthy slave-owning
planters* See page 76 for a typical example.

Contemporary use of the Greek Revival style includes interpre-
tations of the Regency houses of England of the same period;
however some of them are quite Modern in character.