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04 · Classical & Gothic Revivals

Carpenter Gothic

c. 1840–1890

Wooden churches and cottages with board-and-batten walls, steep gables trimmed in sawn bargeboards, and pointed-arch windows.

Look for

Steep gable Pointed arch Carved wood ornament
American Gothic House, Eldon, Iowa: an example of Carpenter Gothic architecture
American Gothic House, Eldon, Iowa. Photo: Original uploader was Jehjoyce at en.wikipedia, Public domain
Grace Episcopal Church (Georgetown, Colorado), Georgetown, Colorado
Grace Episcopal Church (Georgetown, Colorado) Georgetown, Colorado · Hustvedt, CC BY-SA 3.0
Christ Church (Fort Meade, Florida), Fort Meade, Florida
Christ Church (Fort Meade, Florida) Fort Meade, Florida · Indietop20 at English Wikipedia, Public domain
Roseland Cottage, Woodstock, Connecticut
Roseland Cottage Woodstock, Connecticut · Magicpiano, CC BY-SA 3.0
Justin Smith Morrill Homestead, Strafford, Vermont
Justin Smith Morrill Homestead Strafford, Vermont · redjar, CC BY-SA 2.0

what it is

Carpenter Gothic applies Gothic Revival details to wooden buildings put up by house carpenters, mostly small churches and cottages. Typical features are board-and-batten siding (vertical boards with narrow strips, called battens, covering the joints), steep gables edged with bargeboards (decorative boards along the gable edge), pointed-arch windows and round wheel windows. Much of the ornament is jigsawn, meaning cut from boards with steam-powered scroll saws. Houses often have verandas.

The American Gothic House in Eldon, Iowa (1881-1882) has a pointed-arch window in its upper gable. Other examples are Grace Episcopal Church in Georgetown, Colorado (1869-1870), Christ Church in Fort Meade, Florida (1889), and the Justin Smith Morrill Homestead in Strafford, Vermont (1848-1851). Gothic Revival buildings are often stone, with window tracery (stone bars dividing the glass) and carved ornament. Carpenter Gothic copies the pointed arches and steep gables in wood, with trim sawn from boards.

how to spot one

Steep gable The triangular upper part of an end wall, framed by the two slopes of a steep roof. Steep gables are common on Gothic Revival, Tudor Revival and Queen Anne houses. Pointed arch An arch whose two curved sides meet at a point, called the apex. It is the standard arch of Gothic and Gothic Revival buildings and pushes outward less than a round arch. Carved wood ornament Decorative shapes cut into a building's wooden parts, such as brackets (supports under the eaves), porch trim and window screens. It is common on Victorian houses and traditional timber buildings in Asia.

Also look for

Lancet windowRoof finialWraparound porch

history

Wooden Gothic Revival design in the United States took shape between about 1839 and 1852 through the pattern books of Alexander Jackson Davis and Andrew Jackson Downing (1815-1852), including Downing's Cottage Residences (1842). Richard Upjohn (1802-1878) designed the wooden Kingscote in Newport, Rhode Island (1839) and St. Saviour's Episcopal Church in Maspeth, New York (1847), a small wooden parish church. In 1852 he published Upjohn's Rural Architecture, with drawings and specifications for a wooden church that builders used across the country.

The steam-powered scroll saw let carpenters cut elaborate trim from boards, which gave the style its jigsawn detail. Examples were built in Nevada in the 1860s and 1870s and in Colorado, where Grace Episcopal Church in Georgetown dates from 1869-1870. Florida has the largest concentration of Carpenter Gothic churches, built between 1870 and 1900. Local carpenters were still building the style in 1881-1882, when Bussy and Herald built the Eldon, Iowa, house that Grant Wood used as the backdrop for American Gothic (1930).

where to find it

Small churches and cottages across the United States, especially Florida's Episcopal churches and Colorado and Nevada mining towns: Grace Episcopal Church in Georgetown, Colorado, the Morrill Homestead in Strafford, Vermont, and Christ Church in Fort Meade, Florida.

easy to confuse with

Palace of Westminster, an example of Gothic Revival Gothic Revival Medieval drama revived: pointed arches, steep gables, patterned stone window bars, and strong vertical lines. Mark Twain House, an example of Stick Style Stick Style Flat decorative boards laid in grids and diagonals over clapboard walls, with big trussed gables. Wesleyan Grove Cottages, an example of Folk Victorian Folk Victorian Plain folk house shapes dressed up with porch spindles and jigsaw-cut gable trim.