A. J. (Alexander Jackson) Davis forms the first recognizably modern architectural office in partnership with Ithiel Town.

Davis had dropped out of school to become a respectable lithographer after studying at the American Academy of Fine Arts, the New-York Drawing Association, and from the Antique casts of the National Academy of Design.

He had made a first independent career as an architectural illustrator in the early 1820s, but his friends, especially the painter John Trumbull, had convinced the young man to turn his hand to designing buildings.

In 1826 he had gone to work as a draftsman for New York architect Josiah R. Brady, an early exponent of the Gothic revival. (Brady's Gothic 1824 St. Luke's Episcopal Church is the oldest surviving structure in Rochester, New York.)

Davis had soon left to work in the most prestigious architectural firm of the Greek Revival, the office of Ithiel Town and Martin E. Thompson; here, Davis had had access to the best architectural library in the country, and had gained a thorough grounding in this congenial atmosphere.