Davis had begun work in 1835 on his own on his only publication, Rural Residences, the first pattern book for picturesque residences in a domesticated Gothic Revival taste, which can be executed in carpentry, and also contained the first of the "Tuscan" villas, flat-roofed with wide overhanging eaves and picturesque corner towers.

Unfortunately, the Panic of 1837 had cut short his plans for a series of like volumes, but Davis had soon formed a partnership with Andrew Jackson Downing, illustrating his widely read books.