A Gothic Revival
Church

Richard Upjohn (1802-1878)
[Unidentified Gothic Revival Church],
interior view
Graphite, ink and watercolor
on paper, ca. 1850s
LC-USZC4-4560

Founder and first president of the American Institute of Architects, Richard Upjohn was a key figure in introducing the Gothic Revival to the United States and in defining the form of American church architecture, including Trinity Church in New York.

The flowering of the Episcopal Church in America in the 1840s and 1850s led to numerous and widespread commissions to Upjohn for church buildings. These churches, and those illustrated in publications like his Rural Architecture (1852), served as patterns for countless buildings throughout the country.