Americans interpret the Parthenon : the progression of Greek revival architecture from the East Coast to Oregon, 1800-1860 /

Sutton attempts to "understand cultural history through the built environment" (p. 117). Through the analysis of approximately 40 structures erected in Oregon during the 1850s, the author traces the rise of the Greek Revival style and a pattern of cultural diffusion, the migration of vernacular building types from east of the Mississippi to the West Coast. He argues that most of the owners of Oregon's Greek Revival structures prospered from the California gold rush, either directly as prospectors or from the general prosperity that resulted. With this wealth these pioneers erected houses that, consciously or not, evoked images of the communities, principally in the Midwest,where they had lived, prior to migrating to Oregon. Drawing upon a generation of National Register of Historic Places nominations as well as on 1850 and 1860 census data, Americans Interpret the Parthenon is the first book to analyze in detail the Greek Revival in the American Northwest. As such it supplements two classic works, Talbot F. Hamlin's Greek Revival Architecture in America (1944) and Roger G. Kennedy's Greek Revival America (CH, Mar'90). D. Schuyler; Franklin and Marshall College