During the nineteenth century, new churches sprang up following settlement and population growth. These included Episcopal congregations, which frequently preferred the Gothic or “pointed” style of which Richard Upjohn was the best-known exponent thanks to his Trinity Church in New York.
Whereas Upjohn’s more substantial buildings in stone were built in larger Northeastern cities, the smaller towns closer to the frontier of settlement used cheaper wood construction in the style known as Carpenter Gothic. While Upjohn began by providing low-cost plans to small parishes directly on request for reduced or no fee, in 1852 he published Upjohn’s Rural Architecture, which inspired countless local architects to use or modify his plans, or make their own in a similar style.
These are only a few samples of the rural churches designed or inspired by Upjohn; no complete inventory exists.
Reference
- Upjohn’s Rural Architecture: Designs, working drawings, and specifications for a wooden church, and other rural structures (Da Capo, 1975 [1852]). Review Landau
New England and Upstate New York
Maryland
North Carolina
ALSO:
Grace Episcopal, Weldon, NC, 1872-89 / wiki / NRHP PDF
Good Shepherd, Raleigh, NC, 1874 / wiki / RHO / NRHP PDF
St. Agnes, Franklin, NC, 1888 / wiki / NCSU / site / NRHP PDF
St. Philip’s, Germantown, NC, 1891-94 / wiki / NRHP PDF
Good Shepherd, Cashiers, NC, 1895 / wiki / NRHP PDF
Trinity, Mount Airy, NC, 1896 / wiki / site / NRHP PDF
Saviour, Jackson, NC, 1896-98 / wiki / NRHP PDF
Grace, Lexington, NC, 1902 / wiki / site / NRHP PDF
Alabama
References
- James Patrick, “Ecclesiological Gothic in the Antebellum South,” Winterthur Portfolio 15:2 (Summer 1980): 117-138 http://www.jstor.org/stable/1180678
The Upper Midwest: Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin
References:
- Richard W.E. Perrin, “Richard Upjohn, Architect: Anglican Chapels in the Wilderness,” Wisconsin Magazine of History 45:1 (Autumn 1961): 40-43 http://www.jstor.org/stable/4633696
- Loren N. Horton, “The Architectural Background of Trinity Episcopal Church,” The Annals of Iowa 43 (1977): 539-548 http://ir.uiowa.edu/annals-of-iowa/vol43/iss7/8
- Joan R. Gundersen, “Rural Gothic: Episcopal Churches on the Minnesota Frontier,” Minnesota History, 50:7 (Fall 1987): 258-268 http://www.jstor.org/stable/20179050
Church Architecture 