In 1747, English author Sir Horace Walpole purchased a cottage in Twickenham on the river Thames. Inspired by medieval churches and cathedrals, Walpole transformed his cottage into the mansion now called Strawberry Hill, the first Gothic Revival building.

Gothic Revival buildings are characterized by:

• Pointed windows with decorative tracery
• Grouped chimneys
• Pinnacles
• Battlements and shaped parapets
• Leaded glass
• Quatrefoil and clover-shaped windows
• Oriel windows
• Asymmetrical floor plan

Most Gothic Revival homes were romantic adaptations of medieval architecture which did not try to replicate authentic Gothic styles.

John Ruskin and others championed authentic recreations of Gothic architecture in a style that became known as High Gothic Revival, High Victorian Gothic, or Neo-Gothic. This monumental style was used for churches and public buildings. Residences continued to be built in the more modest Romantic style. The High Victorian style is rare in California. Grace Cathedral in San Francisco approaches the High Gothic Revival style in ambition and authenticity.

Some characteristics of th High style are:

• Masonry construction
• Patterned brick and multi-colored stone
• Stone carvings of leaves, birds, and gargoyles
• Strong vertical lines and a sense of great height
• Realistic recreation of authentic medieval styles

Gothic Revival in the United States

In 1837, New York architect Alexander Jackson Davis published Rural Residences, Etc. (Consisting of Designs, Original and Selected, for Cottages, Farm-Houses, Villas, and Village Churches: with Brief Explanations, Estimates, and a Specification of Materials, Construction, Etc.). The book was published under the superintendence of several gentlemen, with a view to the improvement of american country architecture.

Davis designed Lyndhurst, an estate in Tarrytown, New York, that became a model for Victorian Gothic architecture in the United States. Early Gothic Revival homes, built of stone and flaunting pinnacles and parapets, were only for the wealthy. Then came bourgeoise Gothic Revival homes built of brick with wooden trim and finally Carpenter Gothic cottages and farmhouses built entirely of wood.

Trickle down architecture.

Carpenter Gothic

Two popular pattern books by landscape architect Andrew Jackson Downing helped spread the Gothic Revival style across the United States. These books were Victorian Cottage Residences (1842) and The Architecture of Country Houses (1850).

Following patterns in these books, carpenters could decorate modest wooden cottages with factory-made trim ordered from catalogs.

Carpenter Gothic houses are characterized by:

• Steeply pitched roof
• Lacy bargeboards
• Windows with pointed arches
• One story porch
• Asymmetrical floor plan
• Steep cross gables
• Bay and oriel windows
• Vertical board and batten trim