The Romanesque Revival architectural style originated in Europe in the early 19th century. Buildings in this style are based on medieval and early Christian Romanesque cathedrals of the eleventh and twelfth centuries.

Romanesque Revival buildings in the United States are simpler than their European counterparts. Common features of the style in the United States include:

• molded semicircular arches for window and door openings
• molded beltcourses that divide the exterior into horizontal bands
• the Lombard band which is a series of miniature arches located below the eaves
• column capitals and compound arches enriched with geometric Medieval or Byzantine-inspired ornament
• gabled roofs flanked by square or polygonal towers of differing heights and capped with pyramidal roofs

For Romanesque Revival churches, the typical plan is basilican, with a long, narrow nave, vestibule, central tower or paired side towers, and self-contained massing. Broad, smooth wall surfaces of monochromatic brick or ashlar masonry laid with thin mortar joints were favored.

New churches, schools, and public buildings were increasingly designed in an imposing variant of the Romanesque Revival style in the nineteenth century in the United States. Diplomats, theologians, educational reformers, clergymen, and rulers supported Romanesque Revival architecture in large part because of the style's many associations with the staunch faith and communal solidarity of the early Christian era.

Richardsonian Romanesque

There were two phases of Romanesque Revival in the United States. Early Romanesque Revival structures of the 1840s-1850s resembled their Gothic predecessors with accurate interpretations of early Mediaeval forms. The best-known example of early Romanesque Revival in the United States is the Smithsonian Institution in Washington built between 1846 and 1855.

A later phase, Richardsonian Romanesque, originated in the 1870s in the work of the Boston-based architect Henry Hobson Richardson who attended Harvard and L'Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. He was inspired by Romanesque architecture in Spain and the south of France and experimented with these and a variety of other sources to create his own unique style typically characterized as massive, weighty buildings clad in polychromed and rough-hewn stone and punctuated by Syrian arches and sculpted Byzantine capitals.

The style was not used in San Francisco until the late 1880s. Although known by local architects, the style was not initially embraced due to its cost and its use of earthquake-prone masonry construction. Most early examples were designed by out-of-state architects, particularly Burnham & Root, who were early adopters of the style in their hometown of Chicago.

Source: Draft of the National Register Nomination Form for Sacred Heart Church.

My Reaction to Richardsonian Romanesque Buildings

I can think of only two architectural styles which I find always and everywhere creepy - institutionsl buildings that suck light and joy from the world: Richardsonian Romanesque and Brutalism.

Consider Briarcliff Asylum, the fictional Richardsonian Romanesque building which is the setting of the television series, American Horror Story: Asylum.

Although Briarcliff is populated by psychopaths and monsters and their victims, much of the unremitting dread emanates from the building itself. In The Hollywood Reporter (12/5/2012), Cathy Whitlock examines the Briarcliff sets created by production designer Mark Worthington:

Briarcliff's gothic gloom emanates in part from Worthington's referencing of 19th century architects Frank Furness and Henry Hobson Richardson. "Victorian eclecticism [pioneered by Furness] is this weird melange of styles that were almost grotesque," says Worthington. "The buildings are built for horror. The proportions aren't quite comfortable and nice, which contributes to getting away from the cliche of just another mental hospital." Richardson's style, dubbed Richardsonian Romanesque and characterized by massive arches and rusticated stone walls, was perfected in his 1869 design for the Buffalo State Asylum for the Insane.