ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Carpenter Gothic

Okay kiddo, so imagine you have a dollhouse. You know how it has a roof, walls, windows, and doors? Well, in real life, people build houses too! And some of them are very old and look very fancy. One kind of fancy house is called Carpenter Gothic.

Carpenter Gothic is a style of architecture that became popular in the United States in the 1800s. It was used to build houses, churches, and other buildings. Carpenter Gothic buildings look very fancy because they have lots of pointy shapes and decorative details, kind of like your dollhouse furniture!

Carpenter Gothic buildings are made out of wood, just like your dollhouse, but the wood is special. It is cut into different shapes, like triangles, circles, and squares, and then put together like a puzzle. Imagine putting together a puzzle with your blocks, but instead of blocks, you have pieces of wood!

These buildings also have big windows with lots of little panes of glass. Some Carpenter Gothic buildings have a special kind of window called a rose window. It looks like a big flower with petals made out of glass.

Carpenter Gothic buildings can be found all over the United States. Some famous examples include the Mark Twain House in Connecticut and the Winchester Mystery House in California. They are really cool to look at because they look like they came out of a fairy tale!