Did you know?
Capitol Hill is the unofficial birthplace of Denver's preservation movement. Following the 1970s demolition of the Moffat Mansion (at 8th and Grant) Historic Denver, Inc. was created by concerned citizens in time to save another of our city's precious historic homes, that of the "unsinkable" Margaret Brown.
HIGH VICTORIAN GOTHIC (1856-1893)
High Victorian Gothic architecture was primarily a postbellum phenomenon, popular in the United States ten years after its heyday in England. It is a style based on the writings of John Ruskin, whose book, The Seven Lamps of Architecture, outlined various elements he considered to be essential to good architecture. Beauty was relative to the Victorians; the “lamps” of Truth, Reality, and Character (strength or forcefulness) were the most important attributes to strive for.
One of the most distinguishing features of High Victorian Gothic architecture is the use of polychrome. Ruskin advocated using color in a building, but in keeping with his lamps of reality and truthfulness, the color had to be integral to the building materials themselves. “Constructional coloration” and “permanent polychrome” and terms given to this use of color. Constructional polychrome was just one of the features that distinguished High Victorian Gothic from the Early Gothic Revival that preceded it. Early Gothic Revival relied exclusively on English medieval precedents. High Victorian Gothic included some Continental sources in a freer and more imaginative interpretation of precedent.
The first High Victorian Gothic building in England was All Saints Church (1849) on Margaret Street in London, by William Butterfield. The first High Victorian Gothic building in the United States was the Nott Memorial Library at Union College (1856) in Schenectady, New York, by Frank Potter. The second was Harvard University’s Memorial Hall (1870-1878), by Henry Van Brunt. Examples of true High Victorian gothic architecture in Denver are extremely rare. Kinneavy Terrace (1889) at 27th and Stout Street, by John J. Huddart, have some High Victorian Gothic features, as did the Tabor Grand Opera house (1879-1880), now demolished, possibly designed by Frank Edbrooke.
Defining characteristics:
• Constructional polychrome
• Gothic precedents
• Pointed arches
• Ornamental bricks
• Terra-cotta tiles
• Patterned tile or slate roof
Tabor Grand Opera House
(photo courtesy of
www.coloradohistory.org)
