The year 1839 in architecture involved some significant architectural events and new buildings.

Events

• May – Cambridge Camden Society is established in England by John Mason Neale, Alexander Hope and Benjamin Webb to promote Gothic architecture;^[1][2] also this year the Oxfordshire Architectural and Historical Society is founded as the Society for Promoting the Study of Gothic Architecture.

Buildings and structures

Buildings completed

• Ponce Cathedral, Puerto Rico
• St Mary's Church, Derby, England (Roman Catholic), designed by Augustus Pugin
• St Francis Xavier Church, Hereford, England (Roman Catholic), designed by Charles Day
• Upper Brook Street Chapel, Manchester, England (Unitarian), designed by Charles Barry
• Halifax County Courthouse (Virginia), designed by Dabney Cosby
• Old Customshouse (Erie, Pennsylvania), designed by William Kelly
• Lyceum (Alexandria, Virginia)
• Åbo Svenska Teater, Åbo (Turku), Finland
• Pulkovo Observatory, Russia
• Söderarm, lighthouse, Sweden
• Nine Elms railway station, London, designed by William Tite
• Avon, Maidenhead and Moulsford Railway Bridges on the Great Western Railway of England, designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel
• Queen's Tower (Sheffield), England, a house designed by Woodhead & Hurst^[3]
• Wrest Park near Silsoe, Bedfordshire, England, a house designed by Thomas de Grey, 2nd Earl de Grey, for himself

Awards

• Grand Prix de Rome, architecture: Hector Lefuel.

Births

• May 17 – Alexander Davidson, Scottish architect active in Australia (died 1908)
• June 13
  • Robert William Edis, English architect and interior decorator (died 1927)
  • Ernest George, English architect and painter (died 1922)
• October 8 – George Gilbert Scott Jr., English architect (died 1897)
• October 29 – Imre Steindl, Hungarian architect (died 1902)
• November 12 – Frank Furness, American architect (died 1912)

Deaths

• January 24 – Michele Cachia, Maltese architect and military engineer (born 1760)
• May 22 – William Atkinson, English Gothic Revival country house architect (born 1774/5)
• August 31 – William Wilkins, English architect, classical scholar and archaeologist (born 1778)^[4]
• November 15 – Giocondo Albertolli, Swiss-born architect, painter and sculptor active in Italy (born 1743)