Once the door was open to the wide-spread copying of Greek forms, the revival spirit could not stop there. In spite of finally reaching an ideal state where designers exactly copied either complete temples or correct portions and details gleaned from Lafever, Benjamin and others and applied them to every kind of American building, there was a constant searching for new modes of expression. With archaeology, recently turned scientific, uncovering the wonders of Egypt and a Napoleanic phase of conquest in the land of the pyramid, the easily impressed popular mind was quick to sense the possibilities of an Egyptian style. So the acanthus began to accede to lotus flowers and bulbous proportions and an Egyptian phase oil the Greek Revival arose. It was only a phase rather than a revival in itself, for purely classic forms could not be dropped overnight and were of necessity incorporated with the new fad. As a matter of course, the entire affair evolved into a fad for "the Egyptian forms, were too foreign to American psychology, demanded too expensive material and decoration, and were too little understood to gain wide adoption" ("Pageant of America" by Hamlin). There was no close mental affinity between the new world Greeks and the almost prehistoric Egyptians.
There were many interesting examples constructed throughout the nation in this period, however, and Syracuse is blessed with an exceptionally fine one whose flavor is obtained more through scale than any Egyptian details (See page 207).
About 1845 a solution for relief from restricted temple dwellings and an answer to the growing romanticism was found in the Octagon house which enjoyed short popularity particularly in the smaller towns. Syracuse is gifted with an example of this phase, too (See page 249). But this structures sole claim to Greek classicism lies in its entablature.
With the unhappy Egyptian phase and short-lived Octagon period came the downfall of the pedimented gable roof. Flat roofs, originally reserved for upper class dwellings, became the completely accepted form and were graced by cupolas formerly used in the eighteenth century. Where a pediment was desired, it became a mere false front as on the Egyptian example mentioned above. This downfall is possibly traceable to improved drainage techniques which made pitched roofs unnecessary.
The fall of the entire Greek Revival period followed soon after. The classicists, turned romanticists, began to place jig-saw brackets under the cornice. One will find frame houses, with good Greek doorways and window casings, mutilated with brackets. Porticos were soon cut to single story porches and their columns became thin square posts with ugly Jim-saw ornamentation. As a final degradation, the pediment was multiplied and reduced to crowning window and door frames.
Thus by 1855 the Syracuse expression, having finally achieved the cultural plane of the eastern centers, extinguished the spark from the mother torch, relegating Lafever's and Benjamin's "Bibles of Classicism" to attic trunks and the Greek Revival to history books. And thus in that year, an artist gazing down from an eastern hillside was presented with the complete panorama of the Greek Revival in Syracuse.
