Ladies’ Literary Club
218 N. Washington
1843, Greek Revival

The Ladies' Literary Club was built by Arden Ballard for speculation and first owned by William and Sara Davis.  It changed hands three times before 1851. It typifies the popular Greek Revival Style in its simple rectangular temple form, projected pediment gable and colonnaded porch facing the street, with tall floor—to—ceiling windows on the first floor, and typical clerestory windows on the second, tucked just under the soff it of the porch. The use of square columns, with mouldings applied to suggest fluting, were an economical American adaptation meant to suggest, rather than replicate, a true Greek column with its complex capital and round shaft with entasis and flutes. The scroll saw ornamentation in the pediment was added later, being more common as an embellishment of the style to follow, the Gothic Revival. The building was surveyed in 1936, listed with HABS, and is on the National Register of Historic Places.