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Floor plan for 1850s Temple Style Side Hall Greek Revival
My husband and I are looking at considering the purchase of a 1858 brick Temple Style Greek Revival home, but the floor plan has been modified. The front entry hall has been truncated (to add a bathroom), and ends abruptly ajacent to the stair. The result is dead space, and all circulation is directed through an adjacent door to a former parlor/library. A later kitchen addition at the rear has confused us as to the original floor plan. Can anyone help us understand how the rooms "flowed"? Did the entrance hallway continue to a dining room?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Lair Tienter on -
The kitchen on the back may not have been an add on. Having a wood cook stove it was very common to put the kitchen outside the main house. That way if the stove caught on fire ( very common in those days) the whole house would not be lost. It also aided in keeping the house cooler in the summer months when they were doing a lot of canning of the vetables, etc: Hope that helps you figure things out.
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Permalink Reply by M. O'Neil on
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Of course you are right, as the kitchen is in a wooden addition off the brick central mass. But the original entry hall would have terminated into a room - within the main house. I am not sure of the traffic flow or room arrangement. Were all formal rooms accessed through doorways off that central hall? And was the dining room at the end of the entrance hallway? Or (as there is a chimney in this space) was the kitchen originally in the main house?
Thanks for the thoughtul reply~
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Permalink Reply by Sean Maher on -
Here is a plan of a modest greek revival type house from Hubka's "Big House, Little House, Back House, Barn" book. Sometimes the hall ends in a room, sometimes it ends at the kitchen. It's important to understand that the rooms were built and circulation was designed for specific functions. It isn't easy to get to the kitchen because visiting guests would not have entered those rooms. The hall and parlors were for company, the rest of the house was for private use or the performance of work, like in the kitchen. We use our rooms differently than they did then, and are much less formal about them.
Sean - Attachments:
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greek plan.jpg, 69 KB
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Excellent points, and thanks for the reminder to check Hubka. The floor plan is quite accurate; so, what was that small room for at the terminus of the entry hall? Unfortunately this text does not indicate where the portals are between rooms. My sense is that there was a doorway between the entrance hall and that room (probably with a door, that could close off the room for the very reasons you have mentioned.) And the two parlors were accessed via cased doorframes as well. Despite the historic differences in use, the present awkwardness suggests that the natural flow and circulation pattern have been altered.
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Permalink Reply by Cat on -
We are in a 1848 Greek Revival. Many people see the exterior and think there was an original house and a later addition at the back, but this is not so. The nearly square front part of the house has (on the ground floor) the two front parlors along the east side, and the hall and stairwell along the west. The back part is narrower, and has (on the ground floor) the original dining room and original kitchen.
The hall did go straight back (with doors to the two parlors along its length), from the front door to the dining room. The dining room then had a less grand door to the kitchen.
Our house was divided into two condominiums about 30 years ago, and so our floor plan is also altered. But I have drawings of how it used to look.
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Wow, Cat; best answer yet. I sure appreciate you sharing.
The evolution of the house is similar; in fact, the State Register designation indicates that the wood frame "addition" on the rear may actually precede the construction of the brick main structure. It makes sense, when you figure that things may have gotten better on the farm as time went on, and the family added on in a more elaborate style.
You note that there is a "less grand door". Are the door casings simplified as well?
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Permalink Reply by Cat on
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Yes! Absolutely. The doorways and windows in the two front parlors are capped with triangular pediments. All others in the house have simpler casings -- fluted woodwork on sides and tops, with simple rosettes (more like bullseyes) at the corners.
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Permalink Reply by Cat on
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Oops -- the dining room also has the pediments, as it too was a formal, 'public' room. But it now belongs to the back condo so I tend to forget about it.
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Permalink Reply by jane on -
Did you buy this house?
Cat's description of the layout and doors follows what I would have said.
In my experience the 2 parlors had double doors in the wall between them, often ones that slid into the walls. The back parlor was for family, the front for company, (or sometimes in cities, used as a bedroom.)
I would add that by 1845 almost everyone in Vermont had a cast iron cooking stove. They were made in Troy, NY, and could easily be shipped by rail. Essex Junction was a rail road junction, and not in the boondocks, so it would have had stoves in 1858.
The back wing, as a kitchen, would have simpler moldings, maybe even out-of-date ones. But not of a style 20 years earlier. So you may be able to date the main house and the back wing by the moldings. 1820's moldings would have been late Federal with a pattern that went all the way around the doors and windows. By 1840, I would expect to see corner blocks. If you did buy the house I hope you will post some pictures,
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No; or at least, not yet. Septic issues and an underlying requirement for a new waste/potable water system have made us re-evaluate. I admit I can't get this one out of my head. It is not in Essex Junction (yes, used to have 35 trains per day) but not far from a major rail corridor.
I can mentally see the original floor plan, but for all intents the original arrangement is gone. The two parlors have been combined, the center chimney moved to the rear. I would very much like to see the original room configuration re-established; maybe with glass or pocket doors between parlors?
If we screw up the courage to go ahead, I will be back for advice.
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Permalink Reply by jane on
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here's an architects' suggestion: price a new septic system, a new well. Get a professional knowledgeable about the area to look over the land and give you some 'ball park' figures. If he has done work in the area he will have a better sense of what the issues and expenses would be - ground conditions, acceptable systems, codes, etc. Then subtract that cost from your offer to the owner and explain why.
Of course, I am always hoping people will buy an old house they love - so I am sending along my unsolicited advice.
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Permalink Reply by Naveed on
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Most Greek Revival homes in Adrian are wooden structures constructed without formal plans. Built by a team of laborers under the direction of a “joiner,” the structures were erected around heavy timber frames derived from local groves of trees, trimmed with an adz and cut into large beams and smaller boards at Addison Comstock’s lumber mill, which was built in 1826. Some timbers were recycled from primative log cabins. Because nails were expensive, the beams were held together with mortise-and-tenon joints, a technique that is sometimes referred to as post-and-beam construction.
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