The robust but romantic façade of the Arista Hoge House survives as Staunton’s only domestic example of the Richardsonian Romanesque style, a style defined by rough-hewn brownstone ashlar and weighty Romanesque details. Commissioned by local businessman and public servant Arista Hoge in 1891 as a new front for a house built in the Gospel Hill neighborhood ca. 1882 for G. G. Gooch, it is an early work of the firm of Collins and Hackett. The juxtaposition of the two styles illustrates the swing in taste during the 1880s from the delicacy of the Italianate to the solidity of the Romanesque. Formed in 1891, the Collins and Hackett architectural firm lasted only three years, but its partner T. J. Collins on his own embellished Staunton with many of its finest buildings over the next several decades.