The year 1861 in architecture involved some significant architectural event and new buildings.

Buildings and structures

Buildings completed

• Arlington Street Church in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, designed by Arthur Gilman.
• St James the Less, Pimlico, London, designed by George Edmund Street.
• All Saints Notting Hill, London, designed by William White in 1852.
• St. Michael's Church, Berlin, designed by August Soller (who is buried here) in 1845 and completed by Richard Lucae (his nephew), Andreas Simons and Martin Gropius.
• Tromsø Cathedral, Norway, designed by Christian Heinrich Grosch.
• Palácio do Grão-Pará, Petrópolis, Brazil, designed by Theodore Marx with de Araújo Porto Alegre.
• Mary Birdsall House in Richmond, Indiana.

Awards

• RIBA Royal Gold Medal – Jean-Baptiste Lesueur.
• Grand Prix de Rome, architecture: Constant Moyaux.

Births

• January 6 – Victor Horta, Belgian architect and designer (died 1947)^[1]
• April 20 – Hermann Muthesius, German architect and writer on architecture (died 1927)
• July 17 – Horace Field, English architect (died 1948)
• September 2 – Arthur Beresford Pite, English architect (died 1934)

Deaths

• May 15 – Benjamin Woodward, Irish architect (born 1816)^[2]
• October 13 – Sir William Cubitt, English civil engineer (born 1785)