Whatever our personal feeling regarding the Greek Revival, we should not let them interfere with our judgement of this typically American adaptation of architectural forms. The attempt cannot be assayed merely from our present functional minded standpoint, for our aesthetic thoughts and the stage of historical development in which we find ourselves, are entirely different from their predecessors of the eighteen-hundreds. To people of the 'forties it was original, not banal to copy the Greeks for the revivalists were pioneers, not strictly copyists. We must therefore recognize that despite their structural idiosyncrasies, they endowed America with its first truly national style and an architectural tradition unsurpassed in dignity and monumental quality.
Typical of the purely objective trend of thought is the summation of the period given in "Newcomb's Outlines", "General characteristics - The style was exotic, heavy, archaeological, pedantic; in a measure adapted to formal public structures, but cold, stiff and unadapted to residential purposes." But the provincial Syracuse product, in common with the nation, had a warmth behind its cold facade. Even though at its height the Revival in Syracuse never attained the slander fineness typical of Southern interpretations, its matter-of-fact quality cannot help but envelope one.
It is to be regretted today that so many of the very finest homes are gone or in various stages of decay, for "in them were built the hopes, aspirations and ambitions of the men who made this Syracuse" ("Old Houses of Syracuse" by Dutcher). The extremely simple and the very late structures are almost innumerable. But it is the more typical colonnade that seems to be missing one hundred years later; not because Syracuse was lacking in columns, as the 1855 engraving on page 5 will refute, but probably due to changed economic conditions producing more expensive help and lessened incomes with higher cost of upkeep. Lacking too, are most early business structures having long since given way to modern progress, and for that reason little mention of them has been made. Suffice it to say that all general characteristics of the Greek Revival style were probably adapted to this type of structure. "Probably" is essential for it is dangerous to base assumptions on but one or two extant examples and three or four others known only through inaccurate drawings. This is perhaps the chief disadvantage of working with tie period at this time. With comparatively so few remnants, it is difficult to detect trends or to say definitely, for example, that the Corinthian style was rarely used in Syracuse.
On the other hand, we should consider ourselves fortunate in having the examples that are now extant. Largely of wood, buildings of the period were not constructed for permanency lasting over a century. But still left today are examples with Adam remnants, the later simple house with side wings, the full flowering of colonnaded facades and pure Greek details; examples of the short-lived Egyptian variety, and of the Octagon house. Syracuse still has its Doric Parthenons and Temples of Paestum, Ionic Erectheums and Temples on the Illieus furnishing the basis for the ingrained love of the simple, refined and chastened in architecture which underlies so much of our creative work today.