Electra Havemeyer Webb Memorial Building

The Electra Havemeyer Webb Memorial Building is an exhibit building located at the Shelburne Museum in Shelburne, in the U.S. state of Vermont. It was built as a memorial to the Museum's founder, Electra Havemeyer Webb, and her husband, James Watson Webb II. It is home to the museum's European Paintings Collection. The collection is shown in six period rooms relocated from Electra and J. Watson Webb's 1930s New York City apartment on 740 Park Avenue.HistoryIn 1960, Electra Havemeyer Webb's children erected the Electra Havemeyer Webb Memorial Building in honor of the Museum founder. Completed in 1967, the Memorial Building’s silhouette duplicates that of the 1843 Wilcox-Cutts House in Orwell, Vermont. The Memorial Building represents the architectural idiom known as Greek Revival. It was a style pervasive in the United States, gaining prominence in the second quarter of the 19th century and reaching its peak of popularity by 1850.Drawing inspiration from Grecian temples, Greek Revival architects adopted the rectangular structure of colonial houses and reoriented it so that the triangular gables would run parallel, rather than perpendicular, to the road. Anchoring the pedimented facade with a heavily columned, often two-storied porch, and sometimes flanking the main gable with mirroring wings, such as in the Memorial Building, architects achieved the proportion and symmetry of the ancient structures that inspired them.