THE VICTORIAN ERA

GREEK REVIVAL ARCHITECTURE OF THE WESTERN RESERVE 1800-1860

The Connecticut Western Reserve was opened to settlement following the signing of treaties with the Native Americans in the late 18th century. After the war of 1812 the initial settlers were joined in the wilderness by Revolutionary war veterans and others moving from crowded Connecticut, New England and Upstate New York. By 1820, many of the towns, villages and cities we know today had been founded. At this time, the architecture was still fairly primitive and included predominantly earthen and stone shelters and small log cabins. As farming, hard work and trade increased prosperity, architecture of the Wesetrn Reserve increased in sophistication, evolving from the simpler forms of the Georgian and Federal styles into the Greek Revival and Gothic Revival styles prevalent prior to the mid-19th century and the Civil War Today, the surviving examples of these early buildings of the Western Reserve are scattered on the landscape sited as they were originally along ridges, on hilltops and in the valleys of the area. In cities like Cleveland later development has almost completely erased any sign of the earliest buildings In the countryside often preserved by necessity or neglect, remnants of our early architectural history remain sometimes hidden by overgrown vegetation or layers of aluminum siding. These early houses and other buildings stand as a testament to the early settlers and the wilderness they tamed. Their presence and our reverence for them is a clear expression of our commitment to our architectural heritage and to the history of the Western Reserve.