Architecture in the late 19th and early 20th century was dominated by two major influences, the work of Henry H. Richardson and the Beaux-Arts classicism of the Columbian Exposition.

Between 1870 and his death in 1886, Richardson drew from Roman and medieval designs to create a style all his own, sometimes called Richardsonian, characterized by the use of textured stone, massive arches, and often dramatic towers. His churches and public buildings were widely copied, making Richardsonian perhaps the most prominent style for government buildings and churches in the late 19th century.

After Chicago's Columbian Exposition of 1893, however, the classical style soon replaced Richardsonian as most typical in public buildings. The Chicago exposition, like the great expositions of Europe, had been designed in the classical style taught at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where Richardson and many other leading American architects had taken their training. Beaux-Arts classicism emphasized the buildings of ancient Greece and Rome, and was closely associated with the New York firm of McKim, Mead, and White, whose Low Library for Columbia University (1898) derived from the Pantheon in Rome, and whose Pennsylvania Railroad Station (1910) in New York City was partly modeled on the Baths of Caracalla in Rome.

The most dramatic development in architecture, however, was the skyscraper. Until the 1880s, construction techniques limited the height of buildings because the lower walls carried the structure’s full weight. The higher a building, the thicker its lower walls had to be. William LeBaron Jenney usually receives credit for designing the first skyscraper--ten stories high--built in Chicago in 1885. Chicago architects also took the lead in designing even taller buildings. Such ventures were possible through new construction technology, in which a metal frame carried the weight of the walls. Jenney’s first skyscraper used an iron frame, but architects quickly turned instead to the greater strength of steel. Economical and efficient, tall buildings created unique city skylines.

Among the Chicago architects who developed the skyscraper, Louis Sullivan stands out. He recognized the skyscraper as the architectural form of the future and he introduced a new way of thinking about height. In the nine-story Wainwright building (St. Louis, 1890), Sullivan emphasized height, creating what he called a "proud and soaring thing." He also designed an exterior that largely reflected the interior function, thus keeping to his rule that "form follows function." Frank Lloyd Wright, perhaps the greatest American architect of the twentieth century, for whom Sullivan served as a mentor, described the Wainwright building as signifying the birth of "the ‘skyscraper’ as a new thing under the sun."

During the years shortly before World War I, Frank Lloyd Wright, who had worked with Sullivan and considered him the greatest innovator of his day, began to produce works of his own that laid the basis for his later reputation as the most creative American architect of the 20^th century.

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[Parts of this text are adapted from Making America: A History of the United States, by Carol Berkin, Christopher L Miller, Robert W. Cherny, and James L. Gormly, © Houghton Mifflin Company, 1995 and 1999. All other parts © Robert W. Cherny. These pages are intended primarily to provide links to websites that present information on major patterns in cultural expression during the years from the end of the Civil War to the beginning of World War I. Each category begins with a brief and selective overview of developments,  followed by links.