Victorian Architecture

In the Victorian era (1837-1901) Europe and America became very industrialized. This process made the owners of mills, factories, etc. very rich, while the workers remained rather poor in comparison. The "robber baron" owners felt guilty about their extreme wealth and the extreme poverty of the workers, and felt obligated to give something back. The Victorian era was an idealistic one, and people believed that through education and recreation, the lower classes could be elevated. Thus, in this era, many schools, libraries, museums, and public parks were constructed to this end.

One of the main philanthropists of this era was Pittsburgh's own Andrew Carnegie. Arriving as an impoverished Scottish immigrant, he worked his way up to become a millionaire. Hoping to help his workers and others gain his level of success, Carnegie provided funds for many public buildings, libraries, museums, all around Pittsburgh.

These magnates, and indeed many in the Victorian era, developed a strong sense of nostalgia for a world that was passing into obscurity, replaced by modernity. So, when they built their monuments, they chose the styles of bygone times. Many buildings from this era are built in the styles of Greece and Rome, the Byzantine Empire, the Gothic and Baroque periods. Not the sticklers for historical accuracy that some are today, they placed various styles side-by-side, and sometimes even in the same building. Other times, they made things more a church more Gothic than a Gothic church, more baroque than something from the baroque period, and so on. Often, the outside of a building was one style, but the inside was another.

On both sides of the Atlantic, architects used similar ideas, as I will show with a series of photos from around Britain and Pittsburgh.

Greek and Roman Architecture | Byzantine Architecture | Gothic Architecture