Thomas Jefferson was a man of many talents. A statesman, a scholar, an inventor, and an architect. He designed the University of Virginia. Although he never practiced Greek architecture, he was instrumental in introducing the Greek Revival to the United States.
During his presidency, Jefferson appointed Benjamin Henry Latrobe as surveyor of public buildings. Latrobe went on to design many important public structures in DC and Philadelphia, including work on the United States Capitol and the Bank of Pennsylvania.
Latrobe’s Capitol design was an imaginative one, incorporating both American motifs such as corncobs and tobacco leaves with traditional Greek. Although his original plan did not survive, many of his interiors do to this day, including the US Supreme Court interior. Consisting of bold yet simple moldings, symmetrical shapes, pedimented (low-pitched, triangular) gables, heavy pillar cornices, and decorative piasters, the Greek Revival captured the beauty of ancient Greece with the practical styles of the mid 1800’s. While it was not isolated to the United States, Greek Revival building was heavy in buildings, both public and private.
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