Tristyle In Extremis

I was walking down a street on Long Island when I saw an interesting building. The gable roof extended past the front facade, to give the front porch a pediment top. This house is probably no more than 60 or 70 years old, but that kind of temple front was surprisingly popular for houses in the early 1800s. Something about the US following in the footsteps of the Greek democratic cities and the Roman republic…

As you might notice, there’s something a bit odd here. Specifically, the leftmost column is missing.

I have no idea if it’s been like that for decades or it was taken down yesterday for replacement tomorrow. The pediment looks okay with only three supports, presumably because there’s a beam inside the entablature over the columns…or maybe the plank that makes up the entablature is acting as a built-up beam.

Note the vertical cracks in the columns. They’re almost certainly wood stave columns, built like elongated barrels. The cracks are separations between the individual boards that make up the cylinder and not particularly a problem in terms of load as long as the planks are still connected to one another by something other than paint. But the cracks do admit water, and stave columns have a tendency to rot from the inside out. I have no idea if this is why the left column is missing, but it’s a contender.