Interesting old photo

1905 House Photo

I was looking through some old photos I had bought at an antique store and came across this one. It is dated 1905, and from the cloths the couple have on that seems about right. What is interesting, from a house color perspective, is the dark columns on the porch. Even though this is gray-scale photo you can clearly see the house gables with a different color than the house body, and what looks to be a different color on the porch parts. Historically the Greeks painted their columns, so they were not the common white we associate with columns today. In fact the idea that columns should be white is probably a misnomer. The white we associate with porch columns comes from our nations “Classical Revival” period in the early 19th century. Those building designers were looking at information from archeological diggings that were taking place in Europe. What scientists found there was clean/ white or natural marble columns, thus the thought they were white originally. Research today disproves that theory. So seeing these dark columns in 1905 reminds me that any historic house can have non-white columns and in part be correct.
Rob Schweitzer – Historic House Colors