diff --git a/lib/sshkit/backends/local.rb b/lib/sshkit/backends/local.rb
index 8108255f..564e1910 100644
--- a/lib/sshkit/backends/local.rb
+++ b/lib/sshkit/backends/local.rb
@@ -13,11 +13,7 @@ def initialize(_ = nil, &block)
       def upload!(local, remote, options = {})
         remote = File.join(pwd_path, remote) unless remote.to_s.start_with?("/") || pwd_path.nil?
         if local.is_a?(String)
-          if options[:recursive]
-            FileUtils.cp_r(local, remote)
-          else
-            FileUtils.cp(local, remote)
-          end
+          options[:recursive] ? FileUtils.cp_r(local, remote) : FileUtils.cp(local, remote)
         else
           File.open(remote, "wb") do |f|
             IO.copy_stream(local, f)
@@ -25,9 +21,11 @@ def upload!(local, remote, options = {})
         end
       end
 
-      def download!(remote, local=nil, _options = {})
+      def download!(remote, local=nil, options = {})
         remote = File.join(pwd_path, remote) unless remote.to_s.start_with?("/") || pwd_path.nil?
-        if local.nil?
+        if options[:recursive] && (local.nil? || local.is_a?(String))
+          FileUtils.cp_r(remote, local || File.basename(remote))
+        elsif local.nil?
           FileUtils.cp(remote, File.basename(remote))
         else
           File.open(remote, "rb") do |f|
diff --git a/test/unit/backends/test_local.rb b/test/unit/backends/test_local.rb
index b1f6ece8..72aa371f 100644
--- a/test/unit/backends/test_local.rb
+++ b/test/unit/backends/test_local.rb
@@ -17,6 +17,31 @@ def test_execute
         assert_equal true, local.execute
         assert_equal true, local.execute('cd && pwd')
       end
+
+      def test_recursive_download
+        Dir.mktmpdir do |dir|
+          source = File.join(dir, 'source')
+          target = File.join(dir, 'target')
+          FileUtils.mkdir_p(source)
+          File.write(File.join(source, 'file'), 'contents')
+
+          local.download!(source, target, recursive: true)
+
+          assert_equal 'contents', File.read(File.join(target, 'file'))
+        end
+      end
+
+      def test_recursive_option_preserves_io_downloads
+        Tempfile.create do |source|
+          source.write('contents')
+          source.flush
+          output = StringIO.new
+
+          local.download!(source.path, output, recursive: true)
+
+          assert_equal 'contents', output.string
+        end
+      end
     end
   end
 end