History
In 1960, Electra Havemeyer Webb's children erected the Electra Havemeyer Webb Memorial Building in honor of the Museum founder. Completed in 1967, the Memorial Building’s silhouette duplicates that of the 1843 Wilcox-Cutts House in Orwell, Vermont. The Memorial Building represents the architectural idiom known as Greek Revival. It was a style pervasive in the United States, gaining prominence in the second quarter of the 19th century and reaching its peak of popularity by 1850.
Drawing inspiration from Grecian temples, Greek Revival architects adopted the rectangular structure of colonial houses and reoriented it so that the triangular gables would run parallel, rather than perpendicular, to the road. Anchoring the pedimented facade with a heavily columned, often two-storied porch, and sometimes flanking the main gable with mirroring wings, such as in the Memorial Building, architects achieved the proportion and symmetry of the ancient structures that inspired them.
Read more about this topic: Electra Havemeyer Webb Memorial Building
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The history of the genesis or the old mythology repeats itself in the experience of every child. He too is a demon or god thrown into a particular chaos, where he strives ever to lead things from disorder into order.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)
“Yet poetry, though the last and finest result, is a natural fruit. As naturally as the oak bears an acorn, and the vine a gourd, man bears a poem, either spoken or done. It is the chief and most memorable success, for history is but a prose narrative of poetic deeds.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)