01. Craft in the letterbox
California, the turn of the 20th century. English Arts and Crafts ideas land in a warm climate. Handcrafted materials. Houses in harmony with nature. All that is missing is a form to pour them into.
The form comes from India. There, in the 19th century, the British build rest houses for travellers: one storey, a veranda all round. They are called dak bungalows. The word follows across the seas.
Pasadena, 1903. The brothers Charles and Henry Greene design their first bungalows. In 1908 their masterpiece is finished: the Gamble House, designed for David and Mary Gamble of the family behind Procter & Gamble. Wood outside and wood inside. The structure and the joints are allowed to show – that is the whole point.
But not everyone can afford the Greene brothers. Enter Gustav Stickley. In 1901 he starts a magazine and names it The Craftsman. In the autumn of 1903 he announces the Home Builders Club. From 1904 subscribers get house plans for free. By 1916 there are more than 222 plans to choose from.
Others follow. House Beautiful, Good Housekeeping and Ladies' Home Journal show off the houses. Then come the pattern books. Then whole houses as kits, delivered by mail order.
The timing is perfect. The middle class is growing. So are the suburbs. A small, affordable house with an open plan fits exactly – often you step straight into the living room. Whole neighbourhoods fill up with bungalows.
Stickley himself does not enjoy it for long. In 1908 he starts buying land in New Jersey, about 650 acres, and builds a log house for his family. He calls the place Craftsman Farms. In 1915 he goes bankrupt. The year after, the magazine publishes its last issue. But the houses remain.
02. How to spot it
- 1.One or one and a half storeys, low and wide
- 2.A low-pitched gabled or hipped roof with wide overhanging eaves
- 3.Exposed rafter tails and braces under the eaves
- 4.A large front porch, often under its own gable
- 5.Heavy square porch columns – often tapered, on piers of stone or brick
- 6.Dormers, multi-pane windows and walls of clapboard, shingle, stone, brick or stucco
03. The giveaway
The porch column. It is too thick for its job – on purpose. Short, square, often narrower at the top, and set on a masonry pier. Then look under the eaves. Do the rafter ends stick out in the open? Then it is Craftsman.
04. Architects and builders
- Charles Sumner Greene
- Henry Mather Greene
- Gustav Stickley
05. Where to see it
- The Gamble House, Pasadena in California1908, Greene & Greene; owned by the city and open to visitors since 1966
- Craftsman Farms, Parsippany in New JerseyGustav Stickley's log house; a National Historic Landmark since 1989
06. Often confused with
Arts and Crafts. Mother and daughter. Arts and Crafts is the British movement. Craftsman is what it becomes in the United States – smaller, cheaper and spread by post.
Ranch. Also low, also from California. But the ranch house comes a generation later and bets on something else: picture windows and sliding glass doors to the garden.
Sources
- Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Pennsylvania Architectural Field Guide: "Bungalow/Craftsman Style 1900–1930"
- The Stickley Museum at Craftsman Farms: "History"
- The Gamble House, Pasadena: "About"