John C. Lord House

Delaware near Potomac

owner: John C. Lord

years built: C. 1855

demolished: 1894

By the fifties more romantic tendencies had replaced the Greek Revival. The delicate ‘gingerbread’ on the eaves and the roof crest together with the vertical boarding and narrow battens all belong to that curiously indigenous ‘cottage’ style. This was favored by A. J. Dowing and the other authors whose house pattern books were replacing the manuals of the classic orders established by Benjamin and Lafaver. Delicate and fantastic, this ‘carpenter Gothic’ was more charming than the more archaeological medievalism of noted architects like Upjohn.