Greek Revival was an architectural style popular in the United States and Canada from about 1800 to 1860. Marcus Whiffen states that the "first building in the United States to incorporate a Greek order was the

Bank of Pennsylvania The Bank of Pennsylvania was established on July 17, 1780, by Philadelphia merchants to provide funds for the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. Its investors included George Meade & Co., with a £2,000 payment. Within a yea ...

in Philadelphia, designed by

Benjamin Henry Latrobe Benjamin Henry Boneval Latrobe (May 1, 1764 – September 3, 1820) was an Anglo-American neoclassical architect who emigrated to the United States. He was one of the first formally trained, professional architects in the new United States, draw ...

in 1798".Whiffen, Marcus, American Architecture Since 1780: A Guide to the Styles, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 1969 p.38 Talbot Hamlin says that "The period called 'Greek Revival,' extending roughly from 1820 to 1860." The style was employed in ecclesiastical, institutional, and residential buildings. Virtually all the buildings in the style are characterized by the use of columns, usually from the Greek orders, "bilateral symmetry is the rule," the buildings were block (that is, "temple") shaped, with a low pitched or flat roof. Arches were not employed because "the arch had no place in Greek temple architecture." Several factors led to the style's popularity in the United States, two of them wars. The

War of 1812 The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States of America and its indigenous allies against the United Kingdom and its allies in British North America, with limited participation by Spain in Florida. It bega ...

between the United States and Great Britain led the former colonials in America to wish to disassociate themselves from things British, such as the previously popular

Adam style The Adam style (or Adamesque and "Style of the Brothers Adam") is an 18th-century neoclassical style of interior design and architecture, as practised by Scottish architect William Adam and his sons, of whom Robert (1728–1792) and James (173 ...

, while the

Greek War of Independence The Greek War of Independence, also known as the Greek Revolution or the Greek Revolution of 1821, was a successful war of independence by Greek revolutionaries against the Ottoman Empire between 1821 and 1829. The Greeks were later assisted by ...

, begun in 1821, helped make things Greek admired and emulated.Rifkind, Carole, ''A Field Guide to American Architecture,'' Bonanza Books, New York, 1980 p. 39 File:Second Bank of the United States front.jpg,

Second Bank of the United States The Second Bank of the United States was the second federally authorized Hamiltonian national bank in the United States. Located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the bank was chartered from February 1816 to January 1836.. The Bank's formal name, ac ...

, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 1798 Greek Revival architecture in rural Michigan.jpeg, Rural Greek Revival in Michigan, ca. 1850

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Greek Revival architecture in North America Greek Revival architecture Architectural styles Revival architectural styles Neoclassical movements House styles North American architecture