Mobile, Alabama, Gothic Revival House. Built in 1867-1868 for Robert C. Macy, auctioneer and commission merchant, it was likely adapted from Plate XVI, “A Bracketed Farm-House of Wood,” in Andrew Jackson Downing’s “The Architecture of Country Houses.” First published in 1850, the wildly influential book was in its ninth edition by the time this house was built.
The book contained 34 designs for model homes with elevations, floor plans, and discussion of design, construction, and function. The designs draw from Gothic, French, Italian, and Elizabethan prototypes, reflecting the Romanticism of the period.
Downing’s Gothic Revival cottages were particularly popular. They are often referred to as Carpenter Gothic due to the great creativity shown by carpenters in ornamenting these buildings. This is a fairly restrained example.
Downing’s book is useful for owners of 19th century houses today for his thorough discussion of many aspects of the early Victorian house: aesthetic concerns, adaptation to locality, materials, construction, costs, floor plan, roofing, shingling, painting, chimneys, and fireplaces, interior woodwork, wallpapering, decoration, furnishing, ventilation, sanitation, central heating, and landscaping. It is available in reprint from Dover Publications.
Gothic Revival is among the 25 architectural styles and types described and illustrated in Chapter 2 of “Restoring Your Historic House, The Comprehensive Guide for Homeowners.”
Signed and personalized copies of the award-winning and bestselling 720-page hardcover book are available directly from the author in our online bookshop at YourHistoricHouse.com/shop/.
The classic volume on identifying historic house styles, “A Field Guide to American Houses” by Virginia McAlester, is also available in our shop.
© Scott T. Hanson 2025.
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