Emlenton
Franklin
Oil City
Tionesta
Titusville
Pleasantville
Meadville
Tidioute
Endeavor
Warren
Sheffield
Bradford
Smethport
Ridgway

Styles

Adam
Greek Revival
Classical Revival
Gothic Revival
Italianate
Second Empire
Stick
Queen Anne
Shingle
Colonial Revival
Neoclassical
Tudor
English Cottage

GOTHIC REVIVAL

 The Gothic Revival began in England in the mid eighteenth century.  It evolved architecturally in England for some fifty years before crossing the Atlantic to America.  In England, the Gothic Revival architecture was a derivative of three distinct building forms found in the English past: the church, the castle and the cottage.  What these three structural types had in common was they definitely were not classical and they were from England’s own unique past.  In America, a few Gothic Revival experiments were attempted as early as 1798.  However, it wasn’t until the 1830's when a significant Gothic Revival presence could be seen in the United States.  Much of this was due to the work of Alexander Jackson Davis.

Davis clearly designed his American Gothic Revival  homes after the very ornate and sophisticated English cottages so popular during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century.  Davis’ best cottages were quite elaborate, expensive and the rival of some of the best English cottages.  Homes like that were not built in the near wilderness of the Northern Pennsylvania Victorian Region.  However, Davis designed more affordable derivatives and representations of these can be found in the Region.
 

	917 Elk Street, Franklin, Pennsylvania

 A merchant, Peter McGough, built the Gothic Revival cottage at 917 Elk Street in Franklin in 1862.  (See Above Photo) This simple cottage consists of two rectangular volumes arranged in a more complex “T”-shaped plan.  The roof ridge lines are equal in height.  Gable ends and a central gable dominate with the wall surfaces passing the eave line unbroken all the way to the peaks.  Decorative vergeboards have been applied along the gable roof edges and shallow Tudor arches highlight the porch entrance.  Four-part quatrefoils have been pierced through the panels above the porch roof.  Note the obviously old foundation and the board and batten vertical siding.