GUSTAV STICKLEY (1858-1942) so synthesized, romanticized and popularized the Arts &
Crafts style of architecture during the first two decades of the last century
that today the style is known generically as "Craftsman."
However, only a house originating from plans published by
Stickley through his magazine The
Craftsman can be a true Craftsman Home. He published descriptions and drawings of homes in this
magazine beginning in 1901. In the January 1904 issue, he featured the first
official Craftsman Home and announced that henceforth the magazine would
feature at least one house a month, and subscribers could enroll in the "Home Builders Club" and could send away for a set
of plans for one house from the series per year, free of charge.
These Craftsman plans offered the average American family a
house that was a home, based on the bedrock virtues of beauty, simplicity,
utility and organic harmony. Stickley believed that the "nesting
instinct" was "the most deep-seated impulse" of humankind. He
wrote in the magazine: “The word that is best loved in the language of every
nation is home, for when a man's home is born out of his heart and developed
through his labor and perfected through his sense of beauty, it is the very
cornerstone of his life.” He intended in his home designs "to substitute
the luxury of taste for the luxury of costliness; to teach that beauty does not
imply elaboration or ornament; to employ only those forms and materials which
make for simplicity, individuality and dignity of effect." Today we are left with an unexplored legacy.
Stickley's furniture has been researched and the findings presented in many
books and articles, but his architectural contributions have yet to be fully
examined. Perhaps this is because collectors whose passion is furnishings have
yet to try collecting the ultimate Arts & Crafts piece—the piece everything
was designed to fit into—a Craftsman Home.
How do we recognize a Craftsman Home?
Like a piece
of Stickley furniture, a Craftsman Home has refinement of design and quality of
construction and finish.
It is
often site related and placed to advantage using the site.
The house
is built with materials found on the site, and/or natural materials native to
the region.
As with
Stickley's furniture, the house designs rely on exposed structural elements for
decorative details. The variety of natural materials provide textures for light
to play on.
Voids—in
the form of recessed porches and entrance ways—and terraces and pergolas,
create visual interest.
Interiors
emphasize form and function. Space is conservatively and creatively used for
living, with design elements utilizing wood and built-in spaces such as
inglenooks, benches and cabinets.
Light
fixtures and hardware relate as design elements.
This philosophy and these decorative details were expensive to
execute. Consequently, although the homes were idealistically conceived for the
masses, they were built primarily by the middle class. They used Stickley's
Craftsman Home plans, and many modified them to suit their tastes and
requirements. These homes were not “kit” houses like those sold by Sears,
Roebuck and Co. and Aladdin Homes, but were always built by local builders
chosen by the owner, from these plans sent through the mail by Stickley’s firm.
How many of these houses were actually built?
Stickley designed at least 254 homes and published 226
plans. He expended great effort promoting them, publishing a number of
promotional pamphlets and at least two books, Craftsman Homes and More
Craftsman Homes. [These books are available in inexpensive, quality reprints
from Dover Publications.] While some of the house designs were featured in
these promotional books, the only existing source for ALL the plans is Stickley’s
Craftsman Homes, published by Gibbs-Smith and now out of print, but
available used.
We do not know how many were actually built but believe that a
great many were built across the country. We speculate that the educated middle
class built them and that they will be found mostly in areas around cities
where the first suburban expansion took place. In larger cities they will be
found in areas serviced at the turn-of-the century by commuter railroads and
street cars. They will also be found in towns with universities or art
communities.
Who designed them?
We don't yet know for sure who designed the Craftsman houses.
There are many different drawing styles in the magazine’s renderings,
indicating different draftsmen at work. Other than Harvey Ellis no staff
architects are listed on Stickley's payroll records, his furniture designers
and draftsmen are noted as being in the architectural department, and a few
architects appear to have been paid consultants from time-to-time. Of course,
there may have been a number of unlicensed architects among those draftsmen.
We do know from newspaper articles that Charles D. Wilsey was hired in March
1904 to head the new department, but he lasted only a few months. We also know
that Stickley hired George E. Fowler sometime in or before 1914 as an architect
and that when the company went bankrupt he was in charge of the department.
Nevertheless, considering Stickley's intense interest in the
project, it is safe to say that he had major responsibility for the designs.
Before he established his new business he traveled to Europe and
around the U.S., and he surely was aware of the various architectural styles of
Josef Hoffmann, C. F. A. Voysey and M. H. Baillie-Scott, as well as published
Will Bradley interiors and the houses of the Prairie School movement, led by
Frank Lloyd Wright. Also, Stickley appears to have been a "quick
read" and may have learned a great deal from his brief associations with
architects Henry Wilkinson, E. G. W. Dietrich and Harvey Ellis.
The house plans fall into four different periods
David Cathers, in his book, The
Furniture of the Arts and Crafts Movement, divides Stickley's
furniture work into periods. This system can be adapted to fit Stickley's house
designs:
•The
Experimental period is 1900-1903;
•The Detailed
Home period, 1904-1907;
•The Mature
period, 1909-1915;
•The Final
period, 1916.
The Experimental period, 1900-1903
From its beginning The
Craftsman published
house plans. Interior room designs began appearing in 1901, perhaps to display
the furniture in the proper setting. Stickley must have known that it did not
look good in the Victorian interiors of the time. The first house article was
called "The Planning of a Home" and featured a design by architect
Henry Wilhelm Wilkinson.
In the Experimental period The
Craftsman printed
suggestions for architectural details, although not always complete house
plans. The prototypical Craftsman House appeared, a suburban house "by the
United Crafts," in an article by editor Irene Sargent. The design of the
interior resembles the furniture—massive, plain and simple.
In early 1903, several houses designed by architect E. G. W.
Dietrich appeared and the term "Craftsman House" was first used. All
interiors, of course, showed Craftsman furniture. The relationship was being
established: the furniture and the houses go together into a new living
environment. The furniture was only part of a much broader picture—a new life
style.
During 1903, architect/designer/artist Harvey Ellis came to work
for Stickley and this brief relationship (Ellis died in 1904) strongly
influenced Stickley for the rest of his career. Ellis designed a line of
lighter, more art nouveau-looking furniture, and he wrote and drew extensively
in The
Craftsman. A series of very interesting conceptual houses by Ellis
were published during 1903, including a Craftsman Home (a suburban house), an
Adirondack camp, an urban town house and even a summer chapel and a farmhouse.
These designs were unlike anything previously published in The
Craftsman. After Ellis' death the overt influences gradually
disappeared, as Stickley reverted to plainer and more rectilinear designs. But
the use of the curve and other Ellis signatures continued to show up in the
furniture and houses.
The Detailed Home period, 1904-1908
Stickley began to publish his own home
plans and offer them to readers of The
Craftsman. The houses were published at the rate of at least one a
month, although some months featured as many as three houses. In addition to a
sketch of the house, there were extensive details: elevation drawings of front,
sides and rear; floor plans; interior renderings of most of the main rooms and
details of woodwork and wallpaper designs. Even details of color combinations
of wallpaper, paint, rugs and curtains were given. Little was left to one's
imagination, and the articles at times ran ten pages or more. (Stickley sold
all accessories needed through his furniture catalogue and the magazine.)
After 1904, the houses were published for the life of the
magazine, except for two periods: The first break ended the Detailed Home
period and was from June 1907 to mid-1908, when Stickley was involved in
the purchase of Craftsman Farms and the setting up of a home building company called The Craftsman Home Building Co., with offices in New York City.
During that time articles on various cabins for Craftsman Farms appeared, as
well as the Farms' "Log House," which was originally designed as a
"Club House."
The Mature period, 1909-1915
In January 1909, the house designs resumed. These houses were more unified
visually—their style is consistent. Two homes were offered each month and only
an exterior rendering and one other drawing—an interior view or an exterior
detail such as a porch or sleeping porch—as well as floor plans were shown for
each house. The descriptions of the decor and color of these homes was minimal. The interior was often designed around a fireplace inglenook.
Stickley believed that the fireplace could be the center of indoor family
activity—the recreation room of today!
Midway through this time a slug appeared under the drawings
indicating Stickley as the “architect.” But as Stickley's economic decline
began, the articles became shorter and the interior drawings were dropped.
The Final period, 1916
Again, without editorial comment, the houses were dropped in
June 1915, for one year. They resumed in June 1916, one month after editor Mary
Fanton Roberts' article about Stickley's bankruptcy in the magazine and the
introduction of his Chromewald furniture line. This six-month period featured
the last set of Craftsman Homes. In the accompanying article, Stickley said
that he really felt that he had exhausted the subject but that reader demand
was forcing him to renew the project.
By this time Stickley was pretty much out of the picture and
whatever influence he had on these houses was indirect; the Architectural
Department had worked under his supervision and knew how he thought. His
compass mark and name were gone from under the house drawings and, instead,
"There are no 'Craftsman Houses' except those which appear in this
magazine" appeared.
These houses were probably designed by George Fowler, who along
with Roberts and the rest of the staff, founded The
Touchstone, when The
Craftsman finally ceased publication and was absorbed by the Art World magazine in December 1916. The reader
demand must have been high, because The
Touchstone continued
to offer "Touchstone Houses" designed by Fowler. Art World magazine acquired the back file of house plans and offered them to readers for a while, with the
addition of two new houses (Nos. 222 and 223), before reverting to reprinting
the already published plans. —Ray Stubblebine