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Southern Style Greek Columns

Quintessential features of the Southern plantation home, columns were a status symbol on the homes of Southern society’s well-to-do. Their wide use— transcending specific house styles—reveals the Southern aristocrat’s love for classical architecture. They started appearing in the vernacular soon after Anglo-Americans moved into the area around the time of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. While they can be found on many styles of houses, they really came into favor when Greek Revival architecture became popular in the 1830s. The Greek Revival style finds its roots in the ancient temples of Greece with their triangular pediments and fluted columns. The style took hold as the United States struggled to severe ties with Great Britain and Europe in the early 1800s. Ancient Greece came to embody the spirit of independence driving the early republic. The style was made popular with the building of Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello home and University of Virginia campus buildings and it soon spread farther south. The classical names for the various types of columns include Doric, Tuscan, Ionic, Corinthian, and Composite. Each style has its roots in ancient Greece or Rome and all five styles can be found among surviving antebellum homes.

Besides serving an aesthetic function, columns also proved their worth in durability and practicality. In many Greek Revival, Georgian, and Classical Revival homes, columns supported the roof over a portico or a porch. These sloping roofs provided areas of continuous shade during the hot and muggy times of year. A decorative strip called a frieze was often located just above the capital, or upper portion of the column. The symbolic colonnade, sometimes found lining the facade, added to the symmetry of the homes, which usually featured evenly spaced windows and a central door.

• Links for Columns and Pillars.
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