I have a 160 year old Greek Revival farmhouse. All my (original) roofs are plain, two-leaf ones, without hips or sheds. Perhaps what you have (if it's a shed) is an add on, or a local variant. Around here (northern NY state) hip-roofs would not be typical for a farmhouse. We have not remodeled ours, so it is mostly the original room layout, so I can't offer before or after comparisons.

If your house is original, I'd think long and hard, and then once again, before I'd change it substantially. Interim changes are, of course, another story.

Molly~

Is it really Greek Revival (ca. 1830s-50s), Victorian Classical Revival (ca. 1870s-90s) or Neoclassical (ca. 1890s-1920s)? [Dates can vary by region, and sometimes you end up with Greek Survival.] I've never seen a true Greek Revival house with a shed roof. Hipped roofs are somewhat uncommon, but I can think of a few isolated examples, mainly the "Piano House" plan common in this area (and these can be in a variety of styles, though Greek Revival seems to have been most popular.

I love the Greek Revival, not only for its symbolic iconography, but also because it's the only chance I ever get to use words like "pseudodiptheral," "distyle-in-antis," and "acroteria."

Clearly, I was more obfuscatory than edifying. The shape of the house is gable end roof (there are a couple of pics at the link below and a drawing or two), but the site is awkward (hence the slight possibility that we might move the entire structure to a better place on the lot).

There was (at least to our knowledge, but who knows under the siding) never a porch. We are porch people. We're adding a porch. So we got a drawing of a porch. BUT, the porch has a shed roof. We drove around eastern Ohio last evening and the Greek Revival seems pretty common w/ a ton of variations. The porch I like is hipped, with a little gable over the entrance. Snazzes it up, imo, even if it isn't pure.

GR came late to this corner of the world. Our house is maybe 120 years old. It has some, but not all of the elements. We found cut nails, which our architect-student was surprised to see, but figured it was because country places were (1) poorer to begin w/ and hence re-used and re-used and (2) slower to adopt new ways of doing things.

I THINK it's a GR more than the other two styles, but if anyone can point out otherwise, I'd appreciate it.

BTW, we're going to keep the door on the south face, since it wastes the least amount of space in the interior. Haven't gotten everything scanned yet...

Thanks for commenting.

Here is a link that might be useful: Links to Pics and Plans

The one bad thing about a porch on a Greek Revival house is how dark it can make the rooms.

Our building is a c 1840 Greek Revival (Spewey, I love that term "Greek Survival"!) with a full-width, one story porch across the front -- and south facing -- elevation. This is not a gable-end house, so the porch runs parallel to the roof peak.

Upstairs, in all seasons the south facing rooms are filled with light, but descending the center staircase is like walking down into the basement, especially in the winter. The front rooms on the first floor, despite each having 4 very tall windows, are dark and dreary. Fortunately for us, it is very clear the porch was an addition (at least as early as 1870 from photographs we have). The front door is surrounded by sidelights and transom windows, and the transom window well is above the level of the underside of the porch's ceiling. Obviously somebody wanted the verandah effect more than natural light. We plan on removing the porch and replacing it with a higher-ceilinged shelter-porch that only spans the entrance area. This will allow light into the downstairs front windows, again.

Sitting on that porch has been neat as it looks out over our meadows and marsh, but the over-all cost of having it outweighs the benefit.

However, we plan on taking the pieces of the porch and reinstalling them on the north end of the wing which extends north of the main structure. Light to these room is already blocked by the body of the house, so adding a one story porch will not impinge much more and it will give us that invaluable "sitting on the bench shelling peas" space. The view is not as great as it looks out on the farm building array more than anything. But it will work for us, as we don't use the porch for entertaining.

The one thing I would strongly reccomend you do before you add the porch is make an on site mock-up of the porch roof so you can see how the light will be blocked indoors in both winter and summer. It really does make a huge difference, to not have the direct sunlight, depending on what aspect the porch shelters.

Beyond that, careful copying of a typical style that is common for your area will make the porch seem less a modern add-on. Pay particular attention to the style, width, and visual weight of the supporting posts or pillars, the edge of the roof and the trim pieces. All to often modern porches really look flimsy when you don't match these proportions. It will be more expensive to do so, but make a huge difference in how it looks.

Molly~

It's hard to tell what GR style clues may be hiding under the vinyl or aluminum siding which has wiped out most of the typical trim features. They may still be under there, do you know?

The drawings and the photo of the potential addition don't look particularly GR to me as the details (particularly on the proposed addition photo) are finer in scale and more "fancified" than would be common in a structure the size and history of yours. The proposed changes "read" more Neo-classical Revival to me.

Is the back one-story portion of your house older than the front?

Another thing I would suggest about the proposed two-story addition on the west: I would make the roof line lower to keep it visually subordinate to the main roof, adding dormer windows if necessary.

My concern over a front-spanning south porch is noted above.

Typical period GR gable-ended houses had front doors on one side or the other, not the center. Center-hall GR buildings are not gable-ended; in those the center hall and front door are centered on the long elevation.

Molly~

Housekeeping, thanks for the great input.

To answer your questions, no the one story addition is a crummy little addition to the house that was added in we guess 1950s? It's on a cracking slab w/ no basement.

I agree. I thought the roof line was going to come in a little bit lower. I'm concerned the addition is going to look too massive.

Good comments about the porch. We discussed the idea of a short, sheltered porch and we may still do that. But I do think we'll mock up the porch roof, as light is very important to me and this house does not get a ton of light.

There are some indications that there were bits and pieces of GR style. But really, it was/is a poor area and GR was so common that, unlike NY, there are very few pure styles here. We're going for some pleasing aspect, not pure historical accuracy.

I agree, though, that most modern porches don't look like they'll last through the next summer rainstorm, let alone a harsh winter.

Thanks again for the comments. I'd love to see pics of your house so I can visualize your porch.

DC,

When you do the mock-up make sure the height (from the ground) and the depth are correct, taking into account the depth any frieze on the porch roof. If it were me I'd wait until December to determine this question since that's when the sun is the lowest. Also, from my experience fooling around with this on the computer, you need to take into account at least a good whack of the full extension (side to side) so you make sure the apparent light isn't sneaking in sideways in a way it wouldn't in the finished porch.

My porch is nothing special. It just goes straight across the front, above the tops of first floor windows. It kind of makes a strong horizonatal in the middle of the front elevation that looks out of place. The roof is a "Shed" I guess, though it has a slightly modified hip on the outer edges. It has very strong GR details in the freize under the outer edge of the roof, nice square "columns" (four)with well-detailed molding on the bases and capitals. My only problem is that it blocks the light along the front, and of course, blocks the transom lights above the front door.

It's great for sitting on, though. It makes window washing on the second floor front a snap and is part of our fire excape plan. Mine is about 7 feet deep.

Oh one other thing I thought when I was doing the dishes tonight: instead of having one porch extend across the whole gable end and wrap around (which is what makes it look a little lopsided to me), perhaps you could have one porch on the gable end and another porch along the addition setback. This would scale the porch roof(s) down. Porch arrangements like that on L-shaped farmhouses are very common here. (But the addition L is usually lower-roofed than the main house, as I noted.)

It's very smart to drive around a look (take your camera too) and make a collection of the pictures, It will train your eye to see old details vs new imitations.

Good luck!
Molly~

""" instead of having one porch extend across the whole gable end and wrap around"""

Yes, I've already thought that the wrap-around porch looks out of place. Not to mention more expensive. Plus, that's probably why it's a shed, rather than a hip. So at least we know we're going w/ only a porch on the south end. Good point about the light in from the ends. I'm not sure we'll wait until December, we're anxious to get started and have things relatively lined up.