To Benjamin Henry Latrobe, an architect who had professional training in both Germany and England where the Revival movement started, goes chief credit for the introduction of the new style in America. His work on the national Capitol is outstanding and to his impulse the national searching for a perfect temple house is largely due. Bit in common with a nation supposedly seeking perfection, the Syracuse expression introduced a great diversity of plans, elevations and scales.
Largely responsible was the lack of professional architects to guide in correct adaptations. Completely typical of the national scene, only three professional architects are known to have worked in Syracuse even as late as 1874. The practice of architecture was the privilege of every gentleman regardless of his capabilities. And thus, the large majority of our structures were left in the hands of "Gentlemen Architects" with their many personal likes and dislikes, their varying habits and means.
The temple form disregards idiosyncrasies and dictates a rectangular plan. Strangely enough, the people early started with the box house, but it was a small box house and wings had to be continually added. Often as not the additions formed an asymmetrical L, a T, or an elongated I. Generally of a single story, the wings are short and sometimes half or fully pedimented (See page 95). The excuse for these wings was probably derived from the elevations of Lefever (See Frontispiece of Lafever's 1895 edition on page 222) who may have been thinking of the Greek colonnades serving as connectors between structures, or of the Propylaea built in 437 B.C. which with its side and rear wings served as a magnificent entrance to the awe inspiring Acropolis at Athens.
This addition of numerous subsidiary wings is one of the outstanding characteristics of the Greek Revival style and is found in every phase as will be noted throughout the many examples that are pictured.
The ideal temple form not only calls for a rectangular plan, but dictates a center entrance as well. This led to the development of the "four-square plan" - a central hall flanked on both sides by parlors, sitting rooms, and other symmetrical formalities. Locally, this plan calling for expensive hall and parlor space achieved little prominence, being utilized solely in the more expansive mansions typified by those of General Elias Leavenworth, Horace White, and Moses Burnet. (See pages 135, 196, and 156)
The general Syracuse scene, with more provincial characteristics, utilized almost to exclusion the off-center doorway leading directly to the front parlor and stairs. To the rear is often another parlor, a dining room and a kitchen, followed by additional rooms in wings that have been added as needed. This latter basic plan remained substantially unchanged throughout the entire period in Syracuse. Although a more direct and suitable answer than the "four-square plan" to the social conditions of Syracusans, the typically Greek Revival off-center plan should by no means be considered particularly useful or well adapted to money-saving. The form persisted not because of convenience, but to conform to the demands of social custom. This is one of the keynotes of the Greek Revival, and is to be anticipated when any revivalism Is finding wide acceptance.
A, fastidious public, satisfied with comparatively static plans, nevertheless demanded exteriors in keeping with constantly growing Greek enthusiasm and elaboration and the continual tendency towards romanticism. There is thus a definite development pattern starting in this vicinity as early as 1825. This transitory tendency becomes obvious as one turns through the examples that follow.
The few early transitional structures now extant show an integration of the Revival with the Adam oval and earlier Federal styles, with the typically Georgian Dilaster strips being extensively used. Perhaps the first definite step of the Greek Revival was to turn the narrow gable end of the house to the street. With pitched rose a necessity for this section, it will be seen that a true pediment followed soon after. This was a new statement in a region which had not witnessed extensive use of the Georgian pediment.
But we must recall that the Greek Revival reaching Syracuse was an already coordinated style several years old and was used locally, from the inception of the Revival spirit, in its basically completed form. Due to conditions we have already observed, this form was undoubtedly not used until 1825. There is no question, however, that its acceptance was immediate, for by 1835 "a building that was not Greek was as hard to find as a skirt that was not short in 1927" ("Domestic Architecture of the American Colonies" by Fiske Kimball). The intervening period of ten years saw the growth of Syracuse from cross-roads to city. It was then but a short distance to the full glory of 1840 Revivalism, along a path that was more a matter of refinement than of evolution with the rugged interpretations of the 'twenties, characterized by use of the simplest Greek forms or mere suggestions of them, by massive Doric columns and aesthetic bungling, giving way solely because of a growing culture which demanded Ionic grace. By 1842 pseudo-Greek perfection and order prevailed.
With the search for perfection, and exactness in copying as the ideal, the use of the orders with free standing portico assumed major importance. In the fifth century B.C., this architectural form was demanded by the Greek's post and lintel style - a style which evolved after centuries of experimentation. Columns were used in such profusion that today the terms Greek and column are almost synonymous. And so in the Greek Revival the most prominent feature naturally became the Greek orders, and as in ancient Greece, these are everywhere apparent. In Syracuse it was the Doric simplicity that found widest usage followed by the more elaborate Ionic. But the sophisticated Corinthian was rarely achieved beyond the simplified form found on the Dey house (See page 207). When we realize that the orders used in Syracuse were the result of grafting, not natural growth, some insight into the true character of the Revival spirit is gained. As with the plans, elevations became as sops to Greek enthusiasm rather than the results of structural necessities.
On the credit side we must consider the imaginative treatment given to the standard Greek column and facade. In the matter of scale, for example, the Revivalists supposedly burdened with Classic Canons, acted with amazing freedom. Vuch of this incongruity may be traced to Asher Benjamin's statement, "Ancients did not scrupulously adhere to any precise proportions"; this from one of his early editions which without question enjoyed wide circulation in this vicinity. An excellent example of contrasting scale is seen in the photograph on page 198, of two outstanding homes which fronted Fayette Park. In the Horace White house at the left are utilized columns of heavy, more correctly ancient proportions as will be found in the few other pretentious homes of Greek ancestry in this vicinity. In the majority of cases however, the column will be found to be somewhat attenuated as those of the Valentina house to the right of the White house. This practice of attenuation as advocated by Benjamin, stressed the Dreference of Roman proportions of from seven to eight and one-half diameters high over the usual five-diameter height of Greek columns.
Columns, although most prominent, are not the sole external evidence of the Revival. The supported members - the entablature and pediment played dominant roles in establishing the temple motif. The three, in conjunction forming a portico, were considered the most important external features, and were therefore greatly desired. So characteristic of the Greek Revival is the free-standing portico with its four, six or eight columns, its entablature and its pediment, that this style has been called on occasion the "Portico Style". The portico is usually arranged prostyle (projecting from the front of the building only). But the final ambition of the designer was the peristyle or colonnade running completely around the building in exact duplication of the Greek temple. Such a magnificent and expensive scheme was rarely achieved even on a national scale and Syracuse should therefore count itself fortunate in having the Jerome L. Briggs house which so closely approached the ideal (See page 90).
We must not assume, on the other hand, that even a simple portico of four columns was always achieved or desired, for columns and extravagant roof projections were as expensive then as now. All was not glory in the Greek Revival. Characteristic of the freedom employed, either through spontaneous design, or compulsory design due to lack of funds, is the temple home of the 1840 common man. This temple has been stripped to its simplest form, that of the cella or inner structure, with no suggestion whatever of a portico or column. The hint of a pediment is achieved by horizontal mouldings projecting partially across the facade. This illusory device with its gratifying price tag was extensively utilized in lower class construction throughout the entire Greek Revival period, being particularly prevalent in Syracuse, a town of the average man. Strangely enough, the Basic box-type structure found approval among the upper classes as well, with the use of an enlarged scale and flattened roof as the sole proof of any class distinction. Some classicists apparently remained rooted in realities.
Unfortunately, these features are not always simultaneous in their appearance, for being selected from a catalogue, they were used interchangeably. Regardless of wavering column, portico, or fallacious pediment fads, however, there is a universal key to the Greek Revival. Directly beneath the horizontal roof mouldings of the example in question is the form of a full Greek entablature, which assures us that the structure is Greek revival for the entablature, secondary in importance only to the column and the complete portico, is found in both large and small examples, early or late, on both public and private buildings. Embracing all phases of the style, this typically Greek detail was carried across the facade, and often completely around the building. Even doorways are gifted with full entablatures. Used in more profusion than the portico, it is without question our best criterion for an acquaintance with the Greek Revival. In spite of Asher Benjamin's plea, "entablatures should never be made plain except as a last resort", the pioneering Syracuse spirit usually left the main entablature unadorned. Occasionally it was punctured by characteristic small window openings into the attic, but Benjenin was referring to the use of a true Doric frieze with its triglyphs and metopes - a sophisticated perfection which did not find wide acceptance in the Syracuse area.
The small utilitarian "stomach windows" which the Neo-Greeks substituted for the Doric frieze were the answer to one of the problems which the fifth century Greeks never encountered, their temple attics needing no ventilation. The new attic windows were widely used, undoubtedly because they gave excuse to the display of intricate cast iron grilles which became a peculiar feature of the Revival and almost an indication of ones affluence (See page 64-1 and 64-2). Typically Greek frets and anthemions, honey-suckle and acanthus designs were not only molded into window grilles, however, but into case iron railings, balustrades, lions, urns and even brass door knobs (See frontispiece). The example below is but one of many such railings that must have stood in Syracuse streets. (Notice that here, despite the Greek motifs employed, there is a complete lack of any Greek feeling. A signature of the later phases is this over-elaboration.) Many were the fortunes founded in cast-iron works.
There are other characteristics of the Greek Revival which were used with more or less frequency. Chief among these are the corner boards, pilasters, and the squared columns which came into extended use as substitutes for fully rounded columns where a carpenter's skill or money was limited. Particularly in later phases of the style, the squared column became all-predominate. With reference to pilasters, Benjamin again asserts himself, "They are not only ornamental to a building, but they also tend to strengthen it greatly; to which we may add that they become an object of economy, as being less expensive than columns." These pilasters, capped with simple mouldings, closely resemble the antae used by the ancients as wall endings and were nationally in use many years prior to any Greek classicism, carrying through from the Georgian to the ugly square posts of the Victorian Gothic.
Windows, doors and chimneys, like the necessity for attic ventilation, presented new problems, and lacking the necessary precedent, builders sensibly left these openings very plain and simple. Window frames became mere copies of ancient door frames and were easily made of three single boards. The sash bar was reduced to its minimum width becoming narrower as the style progressed, its growing delicacy producing rectangular divisions increasingly larger than those of the Georgian period.
The doorways, other than supporting full entablatures, are distinguished by long, low rectangular transoms with thin, vertical sidelights on either side to illuminate the hall. The frames, following ancient design, are sometimes ornamented with rosettes and are distinguished by the typical overhang of the lintel - a feature so common to both exterior and interior doors and windows that it is an easily distinguished characteristic of the Greek Revival (See pages 103, 111-1, and 111-2).
With such features as the pilaster, column and a speeded tempo of life to deal with, builders quite naturally turned to wood, an indigenous material readily lending itself to such a situation. It became almost the universal material, replacing the laborious custom stone cutting of the Greeks. Rather than utilize wood as such, however, our copyists simulated Greek stonework in many clever ways. Other than the corner boards and pilasters made of single boards, we find clapboards laid flush so that the wall presents a smooth surface as like as possible to stone or cement, and entablatures mere planks of lumber. The general use of white paint tended to heighten the resemblance to stone work. Bricks enjoyed some popularity here and were generally painted gray although most extant examples for some unknown reason are now desecrated with yellow. Stone did find use as window cappings with brick construction until discontinued in the 'fifties. Again quoting Benjamin, "A stone cap over a window indicates strength, its object being to support the bricks which rest upon it." An almost purely local development was the use of cobblestone, but it apparently achieved little success even here for only three or four structures are known to have employed this material in construction.
In common with plans of the period, the interiors of the Greek Revival were comparatively static, with similiar details, styles and colors being consistently utilized until the introduction of the Victorian era. With no precedent for Greek Temple interiors, the cold classic guise covering a growing sentimentality nevertheless left a deep, pagan-like impression. In keeping with the formality demanded by the Revival spirit, an effect of stateliness was produced by extremely high ceilings - those in the Leavenworth House being over twelve feet high, bold dignified rooms composed of straight severe lines with heavy details, and by tremendously wide openings between the principal rooms which made for extensive vistas throughout the entire house. The juncture of rooms was marked by free standing Ionic columns or pilasters rather than by any door-punctured walls. All of this was naturally produced at the expense of intimacy. But our sentimentalists, not suffering from claustrophobia as it might seem, wisely provided large disappearing sliding doors or sliding draperies. Thus their drafty stateliness was apportioned in a manner closely approximating our modern use of screens.
The stucco ceilings carried large responsibility for the effectiveness of the Greek Revival interior. In important mansions a plaster medallion or rosette at the center of each ceiling supplied a decorative motif from which hung the chandelier. Complete Greek entablatures in plaster circle the room.
The walls are generally severely plain plastered surfaces with typical Greek motifs - frets, acanthus leaves, urns and swags - being used in imaginative fantasies designed by Benjamin, whose influence was perhaps more incalculable on interiors than exteriors. The door frames, heavily laden with such carvings, are marked by the lintel overhang. In lesser examples will be found square fluted frames with rosettes in the two upper corners. Usage of these two types was about evenly divided in Syracuse.
The furnishings of the period, following the forms and ornaments of architecture as usual, were hybrid new world offerings of Regency, Directoire, Empire and Duncan Phyfe showing decided predilection for the use of highly polished woods such as satinwood and rosewood combined with metallic anthernione and frets, scrolls and swags. Huge French imported mirrors glittered with gilt while heavy damask draperies in restrained colors made for a musty, sunless elegance.
As a whole, Greek Revival interiors no better typified than by those still intact in the great Leavenworth Mansion (See page 148), were luxurious and gay, effective and decidedly agreeable to formal living in the grand manner.
