Greek Revival

Architectural style based on 5th-century-BC Greek temples that spread throughout Europe and the U.S. in the early 19th century. The revival was symptomatic of the public's preoccupation with Greek culture at the time. Architects often tacked majestic facades with Grecian columns onto existing buildings; banks and institutions became imitation Doric temples; and homes in the Greek Revival style often had large porticoes made up of heavy pilasters and reinterpreted pediments. The British Museum (1847), utilizing the Greek Ionic order on a massive scale, is the most powerful English example of the style. In the U.S., where the style was adopted on a large scale, many strange distortions found acceptance. See also Neoclassical architecture.

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