While exploring Harvard square I came across the Wadsworth House,
which has some uncanny similarities to the temples at Paestum. The Wadsworth
House looks like a typical New England home, but with a mini Greek temple as an
entrance/porch. I found it ironic that in the Greek version the stone was
crafted to mimic the old wood constructed temples, then when it came to New
England we recreated it in its original wood (probably without knowing it). Then
there are the details themselves, which seem to be copied almost exactly. The
shaft, capital, entablature, triglyphs, metope, pediment, and even the guttae
that were used to represent drips of blood was included. Did the designers know or care what they were
copying? Or did they just copy their Greek precedent detail for detail completely
disregarding the symbolism and meaning for purely esthetic reasons?
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