American Craftsman

{{Short description|Architectural style}} {{More citations needed|date=February 2017}} {{Infobox art movement | name = American Craftsman | image = Craftsmanhouse.jpg | alt = | caption = An American Craftsman-style [[bungalow]] in [[San Diego]], typical in older neighborhoods of many [[Western United States|Western]] and [[Upper Midwest]] American cities | yearsactive = 1890s–1930s | country = | influences = [[Arts and Crafts movement]] | influenced = }}

'''American Craftsman''' is an American domestic [[architectural style|architectural]] style, inspired by the [[Arts and Crafts movement]], which included [[interior design]], [[landscape design]], [[applied arts]], and [[decorative arts]], beginning in the last years of the 19th century. Its immediate ancestors in American architecture are the [[Shingle style architecture|Shingle]] style, which began the move away from Victorian ornamentation toward simpler forms, and the [[Prairie style]] of [[Frank Lloyd Wright]].

"Craftsman" was appropriated from furniture-maker [[Gustav Stickley]], whose magazine ''The Craftsman'' was first published in 1901. The architectural style was most widely used in small-to-medium-sized Southern California single-family homes from about 1905, so the smaller-scale Craftsman style became known alternatively as "[[California bungalow]]". The style remained popular into the 1930s and has continued with revival and restoration projects.

== Influences == The American Craftsman style was a 20th century American offshoot of the British [[Arts and Crafts movement]],<ref name=":222">{{Cite book|chapter=Craftsman Movement|chapter-url=https://www.oxfordartonline.com/groveart/view/10.1093/gao/9781884446054.001.0001/oao-9781884446054-e-7002085714|last=Craig|first=Robert|title=Oxford Art Online |date=February 24, 2010|doi=10.1093/gao/9781884446054.article.T2085714 |isbn=978-1-884446-05-4 |access-date=2020-04-12}}</ref> which began as early as the 1860s.<ref name=":03">{{Cite book|chapter=Arts and Crafts Movement|chapter-url=https://www.oxfordartonline.com/groveart/view/10.1093/gao/9781884446054.001.0001/oao-9781884446054-e-7000004452|last=Crawford|first=Alan|title=Oxford Art Online|date=July 28, 2014|doi=10.1093/gao/9781884446054.article.T004452 |isbn=978-1-884446-05-4|access-date=2020-04-12}}</ref>

A successor of other 19th century movements, such as the [[Gothic Revival architecture|Gothic Revival]] and the [[Aestheticism|Aesthetic Movement]],<ref name=":03"/> the British Arts and Crafts movement was a reaction against the deteriorating quality of goods during the [[Industrial Revolution]], and the corresponding devaluation of human labor, over-dependence on machines, and disbanding of the [[Guild|guild system]].<ref>Suga, Yasuko (2004). "Art Education". In Adams, James Eli (ed.) Encyclopedia of the Victorian Era, vol. 1. Danbury, CT: Grolier Academic Reference.</ref> Members of the Arts and Crafts movement also balked at Victorian eclecticism, which cluttered rooms with mismatched, faux-historic goods to convey a sense of worldliness.<ref>Anderson, Anne (2004). "Decorative Arts and Design". In Adams, James Eli (ed.) Encyclopedia of the Victorian Era, vol. 1. Danbury, CT: Grolier Academic Reference.</ref> The movement emphasized handwork over mass production. In some ways, it was just as much of a social movement as it was an aesthetic one, emphasizing the plight of the industrial worker and equating moral rectitude with the ability to create beautiful but simple things. These social currents can especially be seen in the writings of [[John Ruskin]] and [[William Morris]], both highly influential thinkers for the movement.<ref name=":13">Anderson, Anne (2004). "Arts and Crafts Movement". In Adams, James Eli (ed.) Encyclopedia of the Victorian Era, vol. 1. Danbury, CT: Grolier Academic Reference.</ref> In addition, adherents sought to elevate the status of art forms that had previously been seen as a mere trade and not fine art.<ref name=":13"/>

The American movement also reacted against the eclectic [[Victorian architecture|Victorian]] "over-decorated" aesthetic. The arrival of the Arts and Crafts movement in late 19th century America coincided with the decline of the [[Victorian era]]. American Arts and Crafts were largely based on the nature surrounding their location, they have a rustic nature to them due to materials and their design.{{Citation needed|date=December 2024}} While the American Arts and Crafts movement shared many of the same goals as the British movement, such as social reform, a return to traditional simplicity over gaudy historic styles, the use of local natural materials, and the elevation of handicraft, it was also able to innovate: unlike the British movement, which had never been very good at figuring out how to make handcrafted production scalable,<ref name=":13"/> American Arts and Crafts designers were more adept at the business side of design and architecture, and were able to produce wares for a staunchly middle-class market.<ref name=":03"/> [[Gustav Stickley]], in particular, hit a chord in the American populace with his goal of ennobling modest homes for a rapidly expanding American middle class, embodied in the Craftsman [[Bungalow]] style.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Bungalows in the United States|url=https://www.oxfordartonline.com/groveart/view/10.1093/gao/9781884446054.001.0001/oao-9781884446054-e-7002289898|last=Craig|first=Robert M.|date=20 January 2015|website=Grover Art Online|doi=10.1093/gao/9781884446054.article.T2289898|isbn=978-1-884446-05-4|access-date=2020-04-15}}</ref> American Craftsman homes still had an ornamental nature to them, the hand crafted woodwork made a statement on their own.{{Citation needed|date=December 2024}}

In architecture, reacting to both [[Victorian architecture|Victorian architectural]] opulence and increasingly common mass-produced housing, the style incorporated a visibly sturdy structure of clean lines and natural materials. The movement's name American Craftsman came from the popular magazine, ''[[The Craftsman (magazine)|The Craftsman]]'', founded in October 1901 by philosopher, designer, furniture maker, and editor [[Gustav Stickley]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Smith|first=Mary Ann|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xThb843ikNoC&pg=PA33|title=Gustav Stickley, the Craftsman|publisher=Courier Corporation|year=1992|isbn=978-0-4862-7210-8|page=33|chapter=The Beginnings of the Craftsman Empire|via=Google Books}}</ref> The magazine featured original house and furniture designs by [[Harvey Ellis]], the [[Greene and Greene]] company, and others.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Stickley, Gustav(e)|url=https://www.oxfordartonline.com/groveart/view/10.1093/gao/9781884446054.001.0001/oao-9781884446054-e-7000081409.|last=Smith|first=Mary Ann|date=2003|website=Grove Art Online}}</ref> The designs, while influenced by the ideals of the British movement, found inspiration in specifically American antecedents such as [[Shaker furniture]] and the [[Mission Revival Style architecture|Mission Revival Style]], and the [[Anglo-Japanese style]]. Emphasis on the originality of the artist/craftsman led to the later design concepts of the 1930s [[Art Deco]] movement.{{Citation needed|date=May 2020|reason=I've found no evidence of this--where did you find this information?}} The architect and designer Frank Lloyd Wright, himself a member of the Chicago Arts and Crafts Society, was inspired by the style to become an innovator in the [[Prairie School]] of architecture and design,<ref name=":222"/> which shared many common goals with the Arts and Crafts movement.<ref>{{Cite book|chapter=Prairie school|chapter-url=https://www.oxfordartonline.com/groveart/view/10.1093/gao/9781884446054.001.0001/oao-9781884446054-e-7000069238|last=Sprauge|first=Paul|title=Oxford Art Online |date=2003|website=Grove Art Online|doi=10.1093/gao/9781884446054.article.T069238|isbn=978-1-884446-05-4}}</ref>

<gallery widths="200" heights="160"> File:Gamble House.jpg|The [[Gamble House (Pasadena, California)|Gamble House]], an iconic American Arts and Crafts design by [[Greene & Greene]] in [[Pasadena, California]], built between 1908 and 1909 File:Castle in the Clouds.jpg|Facade of the [[Castle in the Clouds]] and lawn overlooking [[Lake Winnipesaukee]] in [[New Hampshire]], built 1913–1914 File:Edward Schulmerich House 2008.JPG|The [[Edward Schulmerich House]] in [[Hillsboro, Oregon]], completed in 1915 File:Abernathy-Shaw House c.1908.jpg|The Abernathy-Shaw House in the [[Silk Stocking District (Talladega)|Silk Stocking District]] of [[Talladega, Alabama]], built in 1908 File:F. E. Cottrell apartment building, exterior views, 2019 - DPLA - 73378317f7f2dc5712dafe1f84da9eb5 (page 3).jpg|F.E. Cottrell Apartment Building in the [[Old West End District (Toledo, Ohio)|Old West End District]] of [[Toledo, Ohio]], built 1914–1915 File:Esplanade Apartments, 3015 North Pennsylvania Street, 1998 (Indianapolis, Ind.) - DPLA - caf31becf41697292ff300c7b666852a.jpg|[[Esplanade Apartments]], 3015 North Pennsylvania Street, 1998 in [[Indianapolis]], Indiana, built in 1912 </gallery>

== The Boston Society of Arts and Crafts == The Arts and Crafts Movement emerged in the United States in [[Boston]] in the 1890s. The area was very receptive to the ideas of the Arts and Crafts movement due to prominent thinkers like the transcendentalist [[Ralph Waldo Emerson]] and Harvard art history professor [[Charles Eliot Norton]], who was a personal friend of British Art and Crafts leader [[William Morris]].<ref>Meister, M. (2014). An intellectual stew: Emerson, Norton, Brandeis. ''Arts and crafts architecture: History and heritage in New England''. {{isbn|9781611686647}}</ref> The movement began with the first American Arts and Crafts Exhibition organized by the printer Henry Lewis Johnson in April 1897 at [[Copley Hall, Boston|Copley Hall]],<ref name="boston2">{{cite book|last=Macomber|first=H. Percy|url=https://archive.org/details/americanartannua13amer|title=American Art Annual|publisher=[[American Federation of Arts]]|year=1916|editor-last=Levy|editor-first=Florence N.|volume=13|page=[https://archive.org/details/americanartannua13amer/page/407 407]|chapter=Arts and Crafts in the United States}}</ref> featuring over 1,000 objects made by designers and craftspeople.

The exhibition's success led to the formation of the Boston Society of Arts and Crafts in June 1897 with [[Charles Eliot Norton]] as president.<ref name=boston>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/americanartannua13amer|chapter=Arts and Crafts in the United States|title=American Art Annual|last=Macomber|first=H. Percy|year=1916|volume=13|page=[https://archive.org/details/americanartannua13amer/page/407 407]|editor-last=Levy|editor-first=Florence N.|publisher=[[American Federation of Arts]]}}</ref> The society aimed to "develop and encourage higher standards in the handicrafts."<ref>Miller, J. (2017). [https://books.google.com/books?id=a4ceDgAAQBAJ&dq=%22develop+and+encourage+higher+standards+in+the+handicrafts%22&pg=PT20 Miller's Arts and Crafts: Living with the Arts and Crafts Style.] London, Octopus Publishing.</ref> The Society focused on the relationship of artists and designers to the world of commerce and high-quality craft.

The Society of Arts and Crafts mandate was soon expanded into a credo that read:

{{blockquote|This Society was incorporated for the purpose of promoting artistic work in all branches of handicraft. It hopes to bring Designers and Workmen into mutually helpful relations, and to encourage workmen to execute designs of their own. It endeavors to stimulate in workmen an appreciation of the dignity and value of good design; to counteract the popular impatience of Law and Form, and the desire for over-ornamentation and specious originality. It will insist upon the necessity of sobriety and restraint, of ordered arrangement, of due regard for the relation between the form of an object and its use, and of harmony and fitness in the decoration put upon it.<ref>{{cite book|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i7rqCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA75|chapter=Handwork and Industrialization|page=75|title=Makers: A History of American Studio Craft|last1=Koplos|first1=Janet|last2=Metcalf|first2=Bruce|year=2010|publisher=University of North Carolina Press|isbn=978-0-8078-3413-8|via=Google Books}}</ref>}}

The society held its first exhibition in 1899 at Copley Hall.<ref name=boston />

==Notable Craftsman designers== [[File:Merrill Hall Asilomar edit1.jpg|thumb|Merrill Hall at the [[Asilomar Conference Grounds]] in [[Pacific Grove, California]], a Julia Morgan design completed in 1928]] In Southern California, the Pasadena-based firm [[Greene and Greene]] was the most renowned practitioner of the original American Craftsman Style. Their projects for [[Ultimate bungalow]]s include the [[Gamble House (Pasadena, California)|Gamble House]] and [[Robert R. Blacker House]] in Pasadena, and the [[Thorsen House]] in Berkeley, California—with numerous others in California. Other examples in the Los Angeles region include the Arts and Crafts [[Lummis House]] by [[Theodore Eisen]] and [[Sumner P. Hunt]], along the [[Arroyo Seco (Los Angeles County)|Arroyo Seco]] in Highland Park, California and the Journey House, located in Pasadena. The Gamble House is considered to be the largest Craftsman style house made.

The [[Tifal brothers]] were also notable southern California American Craftsman architects, having designed more than 350 homes in [[Los Angeles]] and 100 in [[Monrovia]] in the style.<ref>{{Cite web |title=52nd Place Tifal Brothers Tract HPOZ Recommendation Report |url=https://clkrep.lacity.org/onlinedocs/2014/14-1681_MISC_12-4-14.pdf |publisher=[[Government of Los Angeles|City of Los Angeles]]|date=September 11, 2014 |language=en-US}}</ref>

In Northern California, architects renowned for their well-planned and detailed projects in the Craftsman style include [[Bernard Maybeck]], with the [[Swedenborgian Church (San Francisco, California)|Swedenborgian Church]], and [[Julia Morgan]], with the [[Asilomar Conference Grounds]] and [[Mills College]] projects. Many other designers and projects represent the style in the region.

In San Diego, California, the style was also popular. Architect [[David Owen Dryden]] designed and built many Craftsman [[California bungalow]]s in the [[North Park, San Diego, California|North Park district]], now a proposed [[Dryden Historic District (North Park, San Diego, California)|Dryden Historic District]]. The 1905 [[George W. Marston House|Marston House]] of [[George Marston (California politician)|George Marston]] in [[Balboa Park, San Diego, California|Balboa Park]] was designed by local architects [[Irving Gill]] and William Hebbard.

In the early 1900s, developer Herbert J. Hapgood<ref>{{cite news |title=Herbert J. Hapgood |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1929/09/11/95994934.html?pageNumber=21 |access-date=17 August 2024 |work=New York Times |date=September 11, 1929 |page=21}}</ref> built several Craftsman-style homes, many from [[stucco]], that comprise the lakeside borough of [[Mountain Lakes, New Jersey]]. Residents were called "Lakers." The homes followed signature styles, including bungalows and chalets. Hapgood eventually went bankrupt.

In [[Rose Valley, Pennsylvania]], architect [[William Lightfoot Price]] made significant contributions to the Arts & Crafts Movement through his visionary designs and community planning. Inspired by the movement’s ideals of craftsmanship and harmony with nature, Price transformed the former mill town into an artistic enclave, designing homes that blended organic materials, handcrafted details, and a commitment to aesthetic simplicity. His work in Rose Valley, including its thoughtfully designed cottages and communal spaces, embodied the movement’s philosophy of integrating art into everyday life, making it a lasting example of the Arts & Crafts ideal in America.

The [[Castle in the Clouds]], a mountaintop estate built in the [[Ossipee Mountains]] of New Hampshire in 1913–1914 for [[Thomas Gustave Plant]] by architect [[J. Williams Beal]], is an example of the American Craftsman style in New England.<ref>Cahn, Lauren. (March 13, 2019) [https://www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/home-and-garden/the-most-famous-house-in-every-state/ss-BBUI50i#image=29 "The Most Famous House in Every State. Image #29: ''Castle in the Clouds''{{-"}}] [[MSN.com]] website. Retrieved April 29, 2019.</ref>

==Common architectural features== * Low-pitched roof lines, usually a [[gabled roof]], occasionally a [[hip roof]]<ref name=historic>{{cite web |author=Michael J. Emmons Jr. |date=August 2, 2012 |title=Historic Style Spotlight: The Craftsman Bungalow |url=http://www.historichouseblog.com/2012/08/02/historic-style-spotlight-the-craftsman-bungalow/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120808025039/http://www.historichouseblog.com/2012/08/02/historic-style-spotlight-the-craftsman-bungalow/ |archive-date=8 August 2012 |publisher=Historic House Blog |access-date=December 16, 2018}}</ref> * Deeply [[Overhang (architecture)|overhang]]ing [[eaves]]<ref name=historic /> * Exposed rafters or decorative [[bracket (architecture)|brackets]] under eaves * Wide front porch beneath an extension of the main roof or front-facing gable * Tapered, square columns supporting the porch roof * 4-over-1 or 6-over-1 [[Sash window|double-hung windows]] * [[Roof shingle|Shingle roof]]s and siding<ref>{{cite book|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LTBhlKUYjz4C&pg=PA31|chapter=III. The Architecture|page=31|title=Nineteenth-Century Houses in Western New York|last=Conover|first=Jewel Helen|year=1966|publisher=State University of New York Press|isbn=0-87395-017-8}}</ref> * Handcrafted stone or woodwork * Mixed materials throughout structure<ref>[https://www.erehwonretreat.com/ "Erehwon Retreat"] Retrieved 24 September 2020</ref>

==See also== {{Portal|Housing}} * [[American Foursquare]] * [[Bungalow]] * [[California bungalow]] * [[Mar del Plata style]]

== References == {{Reflist}}

== Further reading == * {{cite book|title=The Art That Is Life: The Arts and Crafts Movement in America 1875–1920|last=Kaplan|first=Wendy|edition=1st|year=1987|publisher=Museum of Fine Arts Boston|isbn=978-0-8784-6265-0}} * {{cite book|title=Craftsman Homes: Architecture and Furnishings of the American Arts and Crafts Movement|last=Stickley|first=Gustav|year=1979|publisher=Dover Publications|isbn=978-0-4862-3791-6|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/craftsmanhomesar00gust}}

==External links== {{Commons category}} * [https://www.craftsmanperspective.com Craftsman Perspective]—Site devoted to Arts and Crafts architecture, featuring over 220 house photos, including Craftsman and Mission styles * [http://americanbungalowmagazine.com ''American Bungalow Magazine'']—dedicated to remodeling, restoring, furnishing, and living in different types of Bungalow style homes, including Craftsman. * ''[http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/DLDecArts/DLDecArts-idx?type=browse&scope=DLDECARTS.HOMEDESIGN Craftsman Magazine]''—Every issue of [[Gustav Stickley]]'s magazine digitized on the [[University of Wisconsin–Madison|University of Wisconsin]] Digital Collections website.

[[Category:American Craftsman architecture| ]] [[Category:20th-century architectural styles]] [[Category:American architectural styles]] [[Category:Arts and Crafts architecture in the United States]] [[Category:Arts and Crafts movement]] [[Category:Decorative arts]] [[Category:History of furniture]] [[Category:House styles]]