Upjohn, Richard (1802–1878)

US architect, of English origin. His first major building and the one by which he is best remembered was Trinity Church, New York (1839–46), which definitively linked the Protestant Episcopal Church with the Gothic Revival style. Upjohn designed many residences and public buildings promoting medieval and Italianate forms; his primary reputation as a church architect rests on a series of large and small urban and rural churches characterized by their adaptation of the English Gothic style to local materials, his own favourite being Trinity Chapel, New York (1853).

Upjohn was born in Shaftesbury, Dorset, England. He moved to the USA in 1829 and worked with Alexander Parris in Boston (1834–38). His later ecclesiastical architecture incorporated Romanesque and Italianate forms. He published a pattern book, Rural Architecture (1852). Upjohn trained many young architects including Leopold Eidlitz. He was a founder and first president of the American Institute of Architects (1857–76).