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 An American Craftsman-stylebungalow inSan Diego, typical in older neighborhoods of manyWestern andUpper Midwest American cities | |
| Years active | 1890s–1930s |
|---|---|
| Influences | Arts and Crafts movement |
American Craftsman is an American domesticarchitectural style, inspired by theArts and Crafts movement, which includedinterior design,landscape design,applied arts, anddecorative arts, beginning in the last years of the 19th century. Its immediate ancestors in American architecture are theShingle style, which began the move away from Victorian ornamentation toward simpler forms, and thePrairie style ofFrank Lloyd Wright.
"Craftsman" was appropriated from furniture-makerGustav Stickley, whose magazineThe 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.
The American Craftsman style was a 20th century American offshoot of the BritishArts and Crafts movement,[1] which began as early as the 1860s.[2]
A successor of other 19th century movements, such as theGothic Revival and theAesthetic Movement,[2] the British Arts and Crafts movement was a reaction against the deteriorating quality of goods during theIndustrial Revolution, and the corresponding devaluation of human labor, over-dependence on machines, and disbanding of theguild system.[3] 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.[4] 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 ofJohn Ruskin andWilliam Morris, both highly influential thinkers for the movement.[5] In addition, adherents sought to elevate the status of art forms that had previously been seen as a mere trade and not fine art.[5]
The American movement also reacted against the eclecticVictorian "over-decorated" aesthetic; however, the arrival of the Arts and Crafts movement in late 19th century America coincided with the decline of theVictorian 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] 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,[5] 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.[2]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 CraftsmanBungalow style.[6] American Craftsman homes still had an ornamental nature to them, the hand crafted woodwork made a statement on their own.[citation needed]
In architecture, reacting to bothVictorian 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, founded in October 1901 by philosopher, designer, furniture maker, and editorGustav Stickley.[7] The magazine featured original house and furniture designs byHarvey Ellis, theGreene and Greene company, and others.[8] The designs, while influenced by the ideals of the British movement, found inspiration in specifically American antecedents such asShaker furniture and theMission Revival Style, and theAnglo-Japanese style. Emphasis on the originality of the artist/craftsman led to the later design concepts of the 1930sArt Deco movement.[citation needed] 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 thePrairie School of architecture and design,[1] which shared many common goals with the Arts and Crafts movement.[9]
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The Arts and Crafts Movement emerged in the United States inBoston in the 1890s. The area was very receptive to the ideas of the Arts and Crafts movement due to prominent thinkers like the transcendentalistRalph Waldo Emerson and Harvard art history professorCharles Eliot Norton, who was a personal friend of British Art and Crafts leaderWilliam Morris.[10] The movement began with the first American Arts and Crafts Exhibition organized by the printer Henry Lewis Johnson in April 1897 atCopley Hall,[11] 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 withCharles Eliot Norton as president.[12] The society aimed to "develop and encourage higher standards in the handicrafts."[13] 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:
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.[14]
The society held its first exhibition in 1899 at Copley Hall.[12]
In Southern California, the Pasadena-based firmGreene and Greene was the most renowned practitioner of the original American Craftsman Style. Their projects forUltimate bungalows include theGamble House andRobert R. Blacker House in Pasadena, and theThorsen House in Berkeley, California—with numerous others in California. Other examples in the Los Angeles region include the Arts and CraftsLummis House byTheodore Eisen andSumner P. Hunt, along theArroyo 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.
TheTifal brothers were also notable southern California American Craftsman architects, having designed more than 350 homes inLos Angeles and 100 inMonrovia in the style.[15]
In Northern California, architects renowned for their well-planned and detailed projects in the Craftsman style includeBernard Maybeck, with theSwedenborgian Church, andJulia Morgan, with theAsilomar Conference Grounds andMills College projects. Many other designers and projects represent the style in the region.
In San Diego, California, the style was also popular. ArchitectDavid Owen Dryden designed and built many CraftsmanCalifornia bungalows in theNorth Park district, now a proposedDryden Historic District. The 1905Marston House ofGeorge Marston inBalboa Park was designed by local architectsIrving Gill and William Hebbard.
In the early 1900s, developer Herbert J. Hapgood[16] built several Craftsman-style homes, many fromstucco, that comprise the lakeside borough ofMountain Lakes, New Jersey. Residents were called "Lakers." The homes followed signature styles, including bungalows and chalets. Hapgood eventually went bankrupt.
InRose Valley, Pennsylvania, architectWilliam 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.
TheCastle in the Clouds, a mountaintop estate built in theOssipee Mountains of New Hampshire in 1913–1914 forThomas Gustave Plant by architectJ. Williams Beal, is an example of the American Craftsman style in New England.[17]
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