Architectural style · c. 1835–1880
Gothic Revival
A picturesque, vertical style: steep gables, carved bargeboards along the eaves and windows with pointed arches.
Gothic Revival houses came out of the Romantic movement and were popularized in America by Alexander Jackson Davis and the landscape writer Andrew Jackson Downing, whose books of cottage designs in the 1840s argued for buildings that suited their natural setting. The look depends on steep roofs, a center cross gable, lacy sawn trim (the "gingerbread" bargeboard) and pointed-arch windows.
Board-and-batten siding, with its vertical strips, adds to the upward feeling. In wood the style became Carpenter Gothic, made possible by the scroll saw. Masonry Gothic is more common in churches and colleges than in inns, but a number of country houses and seaside cottages built in the style later became guesthouses.
Where you'll see it: The Hudson Valley and New England especially; country houses and rectories across the Northeast and Midwest.
How to recognize it
- Steep gables, often a central cross gable
- Decorative bargeboards (sawn trim) along the gable edges
- Pointed-arch (lancet) windows, sometimes with tracery
- Board-and-batten siding
- Finials at the gable peaks
- One-storey porches with flattened Tudor arches
