Domestic Architecture as an Index to Social History: The Romantic Revival and the Cult of Domesticity in America, 1840-1870

Abstract

History: The Romantic Revival and the Cult of Domesticity in America, 1840-I870 In the middle decades of the nineteenth century, a major change took place in American domestic architecture. Classical revival homes, long associated with the virtuous republicanism of the American Revolution, were replaced by picturesque gothic revival cottages and Italianate villas.' The shift in style from classical to romantic was not fortuitous; it represented the fruits of an intense crusade that, in terms of its social significance, deserves to rank with temperance and abolitionism as a major reform movement of the time.2 Basing their arguments on the new needs created by the changing attitudes toward nature, religion, technology, and the family, the advocates of domestic architectural reform in less than three decades transformed the housing standards of the nation.