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Antebellum Styles (2.1.1.1.3)

Greek Revival (2.1.1.1.3.1)

The commercial success of the Dismal Swamp Canal during the antebellum decades of the 1830s, 1840s, and 1850s provided many Elizabeth City citizens with the financial resources to erect larger, more stylish residences. The Greek Revival style, with its generous scale and austere decoration, proved ideally suitable and it dominated domestic architecture locally throughout the antebellum period. All local examples are rectangular two- or two-and-a-half-story double-pile structures and most have a pair of interior or interior end chimneys. Of the city's twenty Greek Revival style dwellings, ten were built along the side-hall plan, seven have center-hall plans, one displays the hall-and-parlor plan, another (now altered) house probably was hall-and-parlor in plan, and one was built in the transverse-hall plan. All but one of the houses are sheltered beneath broad gable roofs, with several, such as the Hinton-Pailin House (202 West Main Street, ca. 1855), having pedimented gables with sheathed tympanums. The exception is the double-pile center-hall-plan Richardson-Pool-Glover House (301 Culpepper Street, 1850s), which is covered by a truncated hip roof through which rise four chimneys. A distinctive stylistic element found on almost all local Greek Revival style houses is a trabeated entrance surround containing a raised tablet above the transom; this element, adopted from the designs of Asher Benjamin, is best illustrated at the Pool-Lumsden-Peters House (204 South Road Street, 1840).

The decorative focus of Greek Revival houses is the porch, although only eight local examples retain original porches. The Thomas R. Bland House (501 West Main Street, ca. 1853) is the only side-hall plan house that retains its original porch, a small pediment carried by simple Doric columns that shelters just the entrance bay. Four center-hall plan houses retain full-width porticoes supported by monumental columns or pillars, with each house exhibiting a distinct variation: the imposing austerity of the paneled pillars at the Richardson-Pool-Glover House (30l Culpepper Street, 1850s); the compatibility of the Greek Revival with other mid nineteenth century revival styles as shown by the elaborate Italianate spandrels connecting the Doric pillars on the Judge George S. Brooks House (504 South Road Street, ca. 1857); an austere porch later embellished with Victorian millwork as seen on the Overman-Sheep House (401 West Main Street, 1859); and the academic detailing composed of fluted columns and a massive entablature complete with dentils, modillions, triglyphs, and guttae as illustrated by the impressive portico on the Charles-Hussey House (1010 West Colonial Avenue, 1849).

Not all of the city's Greek Revival style dwellings are large or imposing structures. The earliest, and one of the most intact, of several modestly-scaled two-story, side-hall-plan houses is the Seott-Culpepper House (503 North Road Street, ca. 1845). Although the entrance portico is a reconstruction, the austere molded surrounds with cornerblocks and a robustly molded pilaster-and-frieze form mantel indicate stylish sophistication. Other examples include the Simmons-Perkins House (701 Herrington Road, ca. 1849) and the Jennett-Twiddy House (521 White Street, ca. 1860), both erected in the Race Tract area, the city's first residential "subdivision."