american gothic design

The most important aesthetic and philosophical style was developed in the eighteenth century, yet this style did not reach its apex until the nineteenth. With Christian elements and strong moral the movement appealed to the newly wealthy middle classes. The notable increase in prosperity that accompanied the Industrial Revolution was largely based on the accumulative benefits of inexpensive imports for the colonies. This new found affluence and status for the middle-class, has naturally revealed in the types of homes they lived in and the style in which they decorated and ornamented them. Unsure how to begin this new style of living, they chose architecture and furnishings that had previously been only for the aristocracy and the upper class. The critics of high Victorian style, known as the Aesthetic Movement, objected not only to the style and quality of machine-made furnishings but also to the manner in which they were used in the home. The typical middle-class drawing room was crammed full of furniture, fabrics were used in abundance and every available surface was overflowing with knickknacks. Such displays were a means of showing off their new-found cultural interests, prosperity and status. They were also in accord with the fashionable notion that bareness in a room was in poor taste. Victorian Gothic style was zenithed in the mid-nineteenth century by those who yearned to return to the complexity of the skilled craftsmanship and design that prevailed in the Middle Ages.

Architecture in the Middle Ages in northern Europe was based on arches, such as the gable, buttress, and ribbed vault. These houses had roofs that were high and sloping, which were imperative in wetter climates of the north, and inspired the used of decorative elements such as stonework and brick, oriel and lancet windows, or weathervanes. Colonettes rose to these ceilings and eliminated the used of masonry walls, now leaving enough interior room and wall space for windows. Large windows were made of stained glass, in later years portraying religious figures, and the glow of light was said to symbolize “heavenly spiritual light.” These subjects soon passed as the sixteenth century approached with a more classical form of architecture. This style, full of symmetry, rounded arches, and columns, and lacking culture, branded medieval design “barbaric”. Now collectively called Victorian the architecture was made up of several main styles. These include Italianate, Second Empire, Stick-Eastlake, and Queen Anne.

Facades of Victorian Gothic homes were asymmetrical with steeply pitched roofs.