Temples

This chapter takes a look at how follies highlight the iconography of the early American republic and sometimes even relate fictional stories, contributing to the mythmaking of the United States. Although overlooked in scholarship to date, these little temples reveal the complexity of classical iconography in the early republic. Temples took their place in the garden alongside a variety of other garden structures in different styles and building types. In addition to their iconographical purposes, temples often functioned as retreats from the world. These garden structures functioned as associationist architecture, raising their importance from architectural follies to sacred meeting spaces of the founding fathers. As the chapter shows, patriotic Americans embedded a great deal of cultural significance into this plaything of a structure.