1840-1880: Gothic Revival (Masonry)

Picture Dictionary of House Styles in North America and Beyond: Gothic Revival

Gothic Revival was a Victorian style that borrowed details from Gothic cathedrals and other medieval architecture. Gothic Revival homes in England were most frequently constructed of masonry. In the United States, some large, lavish estates were also made with stone or brick. These homes often resembled medieval churches or castles.

Masonry homes in the Gothic Revival style have many of these features:

• Pointed windows with decorative tracery
• Grouped chimneys
• Pinnacles
• Flat roofs with Battlements, or gable roofs with parapets
• Leaded glass
• Quatrefoil and clover shaped windows
• Oriel windows

The earliest and most famous example of masonry Gothic Revival architecture in the United States is Lyndhurst, an all-marble estate in Tarrytown, New York. The architect, Alexander Jackson Davis, published a book that inspired other Americans to build in the Gothic Revival style.

In the 1870s, a related style, High Victorian Gothic or Neo-Gothic, grew out of the Gothic Revival movement.

Buildings in the High Victorian Gothic style had many of these features:

• Strong vertical lines and a sense of great height
• Heavy, bold details
• Leaves, vines, gargoyles, and other stone carvings
• Multi-colored masonry, often forming patterns or bands
• Slightly pointed Romanesque arches
• Faithful re-creation of medieval styles

Few people could afford to build a masonry home in the Gothic Revival or High Gothic revival style. In the United States, the masonry versions of Gothic Revival and High Gothic Revival architecture were used mainly for churches, public buildings, and grand estates. However, the ready availability of lumber lead to a distinctly American version of the Gothic Revival style, constructed with wood.

To learn about wood-framed Victorian Gothic Revival architecture, see
Victorian Gothic House Styles: (Wood) >>

For more photos of Victorian Gothic Revival architecture, see
Victorian Gothic House Styles: History and Pictures >>