Alexander Jackson Davis (1803 - 1892). Alexander Jackson Davis, or A. J. Davis, was an American architect, known particularly for his association with the Gothic Revival style. Davis was born in New York City and studied at the American Academy of Fine Arts, the New-York Drawing Association, and from the Antique casts of the National Academy of Design. Dropping out of school, he became a respectable lithographer and from 1826 he worked as a draftsman for Josiah R. Brady, a New York architect who was an early exponent of the Gothic revival style: Brady's Gothic 1824 St. Luke's Episcopal Church is the oldest surviving structure in Rochester, New York. Davis made a first independent career as an architectural illustrator in the 1820s, but his friends, especially painter John Trumbull, convinced him to turn his hand to designing buildings. Picturesque siting, massing and contrasts remained essential to his work, even when he was building in a Classical style. In 1826, Davis went to work in the office of Ithiel Town and Martin E. Thompson, the most prestigious architectural firm of the Greek Revival; in the office Davis had access to the best architectural library in the country, in a congenial atmosphere where he gained a thorough grounding. From 1829, in partnership with Town, Davis formed the first recognizably modern architectural office and designed many late Classical buildings, including some of public prominence. In Washington, Davis designed the Executive Department offices and with Robert Mills the first Patent Office building. He also designed the Custom House of New York City. Bridgeport City Hall, constructed in 1853 and 1854, is a later government building Davis designed in the Classical style. A series of consultations over state capitols followed, none apparently built entirely as Davis planned: the Indiana State House, Indianapolis, elicited calls for his advice and designs in building other state capitols in the 1830s: North Carolina's, the Illinois State Capitol, often attributed entirely to the Springfield, Illinois architect John F. Rague, who was at work on the Iowa State Capitol at the same time, and in 1839, the committee responsible for commissioning a design for the Ohio Statehouse asked his advice. The resulting capitol in Columbus, Ohio, often attributed to the Hudson River School painter Thomas Cole consulting with Davis and Ithiel Town, has a stark Greek Doric order colonnade across a recessed entrance, flanked by recessed window bays that continue the rhythm of the central portico, all under a unique drum capped by a low saucer dome. With Town's partner James Dakin, he designed the noble colossal Corinthian order of the Greek Revival Colonnade Row on New York's Lafayette Street, the very first apartments designed for the prosperous American middle class. Two years after its completion, Davis was hired to design the Dutch Reformed Church upriver in Newburgh, inspired by the Temple of Poseidon, both positioned for the viewing of maritime travelers. He continued in partnership with Town until shortly before Town's death in 1844. In 1831, he was elected an associate member of the National Academy. From 1835, Davis began work on his own on Rural Residences, his only publication, the first pattern book for picturesque residences in a domesticated Gothic Revival taste, which could be executed in carpentry, and also containing the first of the Italianate style Tuscan villas, flat-roofed with wide overhanging eaves and picturesque corner towers. Unfortunately the Panic of 1837 cut short his plans for a series of like volumes, but Davis soon formed a partnership with Andrew Jackson Downing, illustrating his widely read books. Additions to Vesper Cliff were built in 1834. The 1840s and 1850s were Davis's two most fruitful decades as a designer of country houses. His villa Lyndhurst at Tarrytown, New York, is his single most famous house. Many of his villas were built in the scenic Hudson River Valley, where his style informed the vernacular Hudson River Bracketed that gave Edith Wharton a title for a novel, but Davis sent plans and specifications to clients as far afield as Indiana. He designed Blandwood, the 1846 home of Governor John Motley Morehead that stands as America's earliest Italianate Tuscan Villa. Innovative interior features, including his designs for mantels and sideboards, were also widely imitated in the trade. Other influential interior details include pocket shutters at windows, bay windows, and mirrored surfaces to reflect natural light. The Greek Revival style William Walsh House was built at Albany, New York, and Gothic Revival style Belmead was built near Powhatan, Virginia, in 1845.