The Architecture of Country Houses

By Andrew Jackson Downing and A.J. Downing

Book Overview

Throughout the early Victorian period, American domestic architecture was dominated by the ideas and designs of Andrew Jackson Downing (1815?52). Downing, who was America's first important landscape architect, was instrumental in establishing a well-styled, efficient, yet low-priced house that offered many features that previously only mansions could provide. His designs were widely spread both by his books and by periodical republication. Downing's most important work was his Architecture of Country Houses (1850), which passed through nine editions by 1866 and served as the stylebook for tens, perhaps hundreds of thousands of homes throughout the Eastern United States. It contains 34 designs for model homes (country house in this context simply meaning a separate house, as opposed to a town house), with elevations, floor plans, and discussion of design, construction, and function. The English country house of the period is the ground style, upon which other styles are overlaid; designs showing Gothic, French, Italian, and Elizabethan styles allow the user considerable choice. In many ways these designs form one of the first steps toward the modern house, with avowed emphasis on function and convenience, expression of personality, Catholicism of taste, and concord with environment. Decoration, of course, was not frowned upon. Most valuable today is the author's full, thorough discussion of many other aspects of the early Victorian house: aesthetic concerns of architecture, adjustment to locality, materials, construction, costs, floor plan, roofing, shingling, painting, chimneys, and fireplaces, interior woodwork, wallpapering, decoration, furnishing, ventilation, sanitation, central heating, and landscaping. Since most of the houses concerned have been destroyed or altered, and practically no living situations have been preserved, this book is indispensable to everyone interested in early American culture, interior decoration, restoration, or Victorian architecture. It is far and away the richest source for the period.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B00A73AC8U
• ISBN13: 9780486220031
• Release Date: June 1969
• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Length: 592 Pages
• Weight: 1.39 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.4" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

looking for A J Downing

Recently bought an A J Downing house-looking for info. My house, built in 1858, is featured in this book. Loved reading all about it as well as other houses designed by A J Downing.

The Architecture of Country Houses

Great overview. Suggest to anyone wanting to revisit this for designing homes.

To know this book is to know the cottage

This book is by the grandaddy of American cottage-style home designer's: Andrew Jackson Downing (1815-1852). He wanted all of us to enjoy the simple, but rich, life of the cottage. You won't understand the roots of the American cottage unless you know about the life and work of Andrew Downing. As a footnote: He died young trying to save other's aboard Robert Fulton's steamship after a boiler fire. Someone should make a movie about this guy.

More than just Architecture.

I bought the book so that I could understand the roots of our American home styles. Andrew Downing, however wrote much more...He frequently wrote about European culture and the differences in the New World mentality at the time. I have a better feeling now of attitudes of the 1800's.

Original designs of Gothic Revival houses from 1850

This text is a true classic. Orginally published in 1850, it is a reprint of the Gothic Revival pattern book of Andrew Jackson Downing who was the authority and champion of this style. Gothic Revival houses dominated the American countryside from the 1830s to the 1860s, and most of the designs for these houses were based on the patterns found in this book. The interior layouts from this age will most likely not suit the taste of modern day houses -- Gothic houses typically have a stair case just after the front door. Most home builders today like to have a living room or foyer just after the front door to greet guests. But for getting ideas on exterior designs of Gothic Revival houses, this book is the only authority.