GOTHIC REVIVAL (c.1825-c.1870)
The picturesque and pointed forms of the Gothic Revival style were derived from medieval Gothic architecture. This style was first used in Vermont in the mid 1820s for churches. Architects of the time also felt this naturalistic irregular style was more suitable than the formal Greek Revival style for American country houses. By the late 1840s and 1850s more prosperous Vermont farmers and business people were using the style for their new homes.
c.1865, Starksboro
Early Gothic Revival churches, with large, pointed arch windows, steeple pinnacles and light ornament, have a rather delicate air. Stone churches from the mid 1800s look more medieval with heavy stonework and buttresses.
High style houses are irregular yet balanced in form and shape, and are enriched by ornate details. Bargeboards cut in fanciful geometric or naturalistic shapes trim the steep roofs. Porches are trimmed with lacy cut out brackets. Modest houses are symmetrically built but have steeply pitched roofs, dormers, and porches edged with bargeboard.
Windows may have six panes in each sash or are vertically divided and topped by label lintels. Some are floor length, opening out into the landscape. Paint colors were neutral shades to blend in with nature.
"The English cottage style, or what we have denominated Rural Gothic, contains within itself all the most striking and peculiar elements of the beautiful and picturesque in its exterior, while it admits of the greatest possible variety of accommodation and convenience in internal arrangement."
Andrew Jackson Downing Landscape Gardening and Rural Architecture 1865
"Rather than build more airy and tasteful, but perishable houses, let us imitate the humble English country churches and chapels of the middle age:--snug, low, Gothic structures, with massive walls of rough, unhewn stone, adorned with a few plain windows, and a decent humble tower; and calculated to accommodate the worshippers of twenty generations."
Rev. B. B. Smith, ed. Church Edifices in Episcopal Register (Middlebury, Vt.) March 1827
Vermont Heritage Network
Historic Preservation Program
Wheeler House, University of Vermont
Burlington, VT 05405
(802)656-3180
http://www.uvm.edu/~vhnet
E-mail To: vhnet@zoo.uvm.edu