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Gothic Revival in Buffalo, NY 1830-1860

Table of Contents:

Gothic - Middle Ages
Gothic Revival 1830-1860
Illustrated Definitions

"Gothic" was first used as a term of derision by Renaissance critics who scorned its lack of conformity to the standards of classic Greece and Rome.

The Gothic style was initiated by Suger who, in 1122 was elected abbot of St. Denis monastery, just north of Paris, and within fifteen years was at work rebuilding the old monastery, which had been in use for almost three hundred years. Workers and artists were summoned from many regions. St. Denis was one of the last great monastic churches to be built; and it is known as the cradle of Gothic art.

Gothic architecture was dominant in France and the western half of Europe in the 12th through the middle of the 16th centuries.

Gothic Architecture Defining Features:

A progressive lightening and heightening of structure
Pointed arches
Ribbed vaults
Flying buttresses
Walls reduced to a minimum by spacious arcades, gallery or triforium, and by spacious clerestory stained glass windows

Gothic Revival 1830-1860

Gothic Revival architecture came to America from England about 1830. Its most famous Practitioner, English born Richard Upjohn, a cabinet maker and draftsman, arrived in this country as a young man in 1829. He later designed St. Paul's Cathedral, completed in 1851.

Gothic Revival is an architectural phase of the Romantic Movement, which looked back upon and idealized the past, and emphasized emotions, spontaneity, individuality and freedom. Out of the Movement came such well known works as the knights-and-castles novels of Sir Walter Scotland distinguished medieval poems, such as Coleridge's Christabel,"and Keats's "The Eve of St. Agnes." American counterparts are the stories of Cooper, Poe, and Hawthorne.

The popular Gothic Revival style was used for

Cottages and villas
Country cottages were popularized by the publications of Andrew Jackson Downing and his landscape architect collaborator, Calvert Vaux.
Defining Features:

Steeply pitched gable roofs (see below)

Wall dormers

Polygonal chimney pots

Hood molds over the windows

Gingerbread trim along the eaves and gable edges

Typical colors: stone gray, slate blue , and fawn

Carpenter Gothic

Sometimes, Gothic Revival Cottages are referred to as Carpenter Gothic, named after anonymous carpenter builders.

New steam-powered sawmills provided ample raw materials for vertical board-and-batten siding. Whirring band saws could cut fretwork ornament with previously unheard-of speed and accuracy.

Compared with timber framing, a new system of balloon framing with mill-sawn lumber made possible thinner, lighter walls, and thus more flexibility in design. These houses often ignored the severe, symmetrical massing of classical styles, such as Greek Revival, in favor of off-center forms and complex interior spaces. Inventive and picturesque, Carpenter Gothic led the way to the Stick Style and the full bloom of Victorian houses in the 1880s.

Stone castles

Defining Features:

Large carriage porch (porte cochere) entry

Large pointed windows with tracery and colored glass

Battlements

Commercial buildings
Examples:

Churches.
Some examples:

See photo of a Gothic Revival style clock on display in 2002 at Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society

Illustrated Definitions:

Click on any photo to enlarge
	Bargeboard A board, often ornately carved, attached along the projecting edge of a gable roof. Also called vergeboards. Illustration from the Jewett M. Richmond House
	Battlement A parapet built on top of a wall, with indentations for decoration or defense. Illustration from Central Presbyterian Church
	Bay A compartment that serve as a unit of division in a building. In a Gothic cathedral the transverse arches and adjacent piers of the arcade divide the building into bays, the design of which is an architectural unit repeated in each bay. Illustration from St. Louis RC Church
	Bay window (From Old French: an opening) A large window or series of windows projecting from the outer wall of a building and forming a recess within. Illustration from the Clement Mansion
	Board and batten Siding consisting of wide boards or plywood sheets set vertically with butt joints covered by battens. Batten - See "Board and Batten" A small board or strip of wood used for various building purposes, as to cover joints between boards, supports, shingles, or roofing tiles, or provide a base for lathing. Illustration from Richard Hatch House
	Cell One of the compartments of a groin or rib vault, in the Romanesque period usually of plastered rubble, in the Gothic period of neatly coursed stones. Illustration from St. Ann's RC Church
	Chapel A subordinate or private place of worship or prayer within a larger complex. Illustration from St. Louis RC Church
	Clerestory Also "clearstory." (CLEAR story) The upper part of the nave, transepts, and choir of a church, containing windows. Illustration from St. Louis RC Church
	Column A supporting pillar consisting of a base, a cylindrical shaft, and a capital (the head or crowning feature). Illustration from St. Louis RC Church
	Corbel A decorative formation supporting a projection, such as a cornice. Illustration from Central Presbyterian Church
	Crenelation Having battlements. Illustration from Central Presbyterian Church
	Crocket A decorative hook-like spur of stone carved in various leaf shapes and projecting at regular intervals from the angles of spires, pinnacles, canopies, gables, etc. in Gothic architecture. Illustration from St. Louis RC Church
	Finial A relatively small, usually foliated ornament terminating the peak of a spire or pinnacle. Illustration from St. Louis RC Church
	Flying Buttress Masonry support consisting usually of a pier or buttress standing apart from the main structure and connected to it by an arch. Illustration from St. Paul's Cathedral
	Foil A lobe or leaf-shaped curve formed by the cusping of a circle or an arch. The number of foils involved is indicated by a prefix, e.g. trefoil, quatrefoil, cinquefoil, multifoil. Illustration from Asbury Delaware Church Foliated ornamentation Ornamented with foils or representations of foliage on an archway, window or other opening.
	Gable A triangular wall segment at the end of a double-pitched or gabled roof. Illustration from Michigan Street Baptist Church Gable roofs A pitched roof having a gable at each end.
	Gargoyle A grotesquely carved figure of a human or animal, esp. one with an open mouth that serves as a spout and projects from a gutter to throw rainwater clear of a building. The illustration, from the Bemis-Ransom House, is not a spout.
	Gingerbread Heavily, gaudily, and superfluously ornamented Commonly used in reference to late 19th century Victorian architecture. Illustration from Richard Hatch House
	Gothic arch A pointed arch, especially one having two centers and equal radii. Illustration from St. Louis RC Church
	Groin One of the curved lines or edges along which two intersecting vaults meet. Illustration from St. Ann's RC Church Groin vault A compound vault formed by the perpendicular intersection of two vaults forming groins.
	Hood mold A projecting molding to throw off the rain. On the face of a wall, above an arch, doorway or window. Also called "dripstone." Illustration with label molding from Stephen M. Clement House/Red Cross Building
	Key The keystone at the crown of an arch or at the intersection of two or more vaulting ribs. Illustration from St. Louis RC Church
	Label mold(ing) Square arch hood molding. The bottom horizontal section is referred to as a "label stop." Illustration from Clement Mansion
	Ogee arch (OH jee) A pointed arch, each haunch of which is a double curve with the concave side uppermost. Also known as a Venetian arch. Introduced c. 1300, it was popular throughout the late Middle Ages and in England especially in the early fourteenth century. Now associated with Venetian Gothic style. Illustration from Hotel Touraine
	Oriel window (OR ee il) A bay window on an upper floor. Called an oriel or oriel window. Illustration from Clement Mansion
	Pendant A sculptured ornament suspended from a roof truss, vault, or ceiling. Also called "drop." Illustration from 78 Irving Place.
	Pinnacle A small turret-like termination crowning spires, buttresses, the angles of parapets, etc.; usually of steep pyramidal or conical shape and ornamented, e.g., with crockets. Illustration from St. Louis RC Church
	Pointed arch An arch having a pointed crown, e.g., gothic arch. Illustration from St. Ann's RC Church
	Quatrefoil (CAT ri foil) "four leaf" An ornamental representation of a flower with four petals. Cf., foil, trefoil, multifoil. Illustration from St. Louis RC Church
	Rib Any of several archlike members supporting a vault at the groins, defining its distinct surfaces or dividing these surfaces into panels. Illustration from St. Ann's RC Church Rib(bed) vault A vault supported by or decorated with arched diagonal ribs.
	Spandrel (also spandril) (SPAN dril) The triangular space between the left or right exterior curve of an arch and the rectangular framework surrounding it. Illustration from Hotel Touraine
	Stained glass Glass colored or stained by having pigments baked onto its surface or by having various metallic oxides fused into it while in a molten state. Illustration from St. Ann's RC Church
	Tower Illustration from St. Ann's RC Church
	Tracery The ornamental intersecting work in the upper part of a window, screen, or panel, or used decoratively in blank arches and vaults. Illustration from St. Louis RC Church
	Turret A small tower forming part of a larger structure, frequently beginning some distance from the ground. Illustration from St. Francis RC School
	Vault An arched ceiling or roof of stone or brick, sometimes imitated in wood or plaster. Illustration from St. Ann's RC Church
	Verge board Projecting boards placed against the incline of the gable of a building, hiding the ends of the horizontal roof timbers.; sometimes decorated. Also called "bargeboards." Illustration from Jewett M. Richmond House

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