How did architecture, parks, and cemeteries reflect the larger changes occurring in American society?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Architecture of the time reflected Americans' sense of expanding democracy and belief that individuals could be transformed and uplifted by their surroundings. The Greek Revival was a result of both the contemporary fight for Greek independence and Greece's status as the birthplace of democracy. The Gothic Revival of the 1840s and 1850s reflected the idea that architecture could transform and uplift individuals. Gothic Revival homes drew the eye upward, toward heaven, and echoed the power of nature.

The creation of parks in urban areas, such as New York City's Central Park, reflected American's belief in the power of nature to uplift and inspire the individual. Both parks and rural cemeteries provided space for individuals otherwise confined to factories and squalid living conditions to improve themselves.