The Arts and Crafts style, sometimes called simply Craftsman, currently enjoys tremendous popularity. The style traces its origins to the Aesthetic Movement of the 1870s promoted by the artist Whistler, the writer and lecturer Oscar Wilde, designer William Morris, and architects H.H. Richardson and McKim, Mead and White among many others. The Arts and Crafts movement was more than architecture. It represented a philosophy of living that was, at its core, opposed to the dehumanizing influence of the industrial age on design and decoration of houses and furniture.
In America, the style focuses principally on hand-made craftsmanship, the honest use of materials, design motifs inspired directly by nature, and the use of natural colors and hues. Oak combined with hand-wrought iron hardware was a particularly popular medium for Arts and Crafts designers for its pre-industrial, medieval associations. Designs for building decoration, interior finish and furniture (most notably designed by Gustav Stickley) became a great deal simpler, plainer, and more straightforward. The interior decor of Arts and Crafts buildings focused on the use of stone, hand-hewn timbers, and natural wood finishes. Color use was limited to natural, darker colors such as browns, dull yellows, drab greens, and ochres. A popular and enduring building form adopted by Arts and Crafts designers was the Bungalow. This building form actually originated in the Indian subcontinent and the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia). After finding initial favor in England, it was quickly adopted by Americans. Bungalows are characterized by their small size, economical construction and porches and pergolas under a single, low-pitched gabled roof. The single overriding characteristic of the Bungalow form is its low, horizontal, ground hugging massing. Bungalows are generally story-and-a-half houses but were sometimes adapted for two-story designs. Even in multi-story Bungalows, however, the roof structure always emphasizes close-to-the-ground horizontality.
The Arts and Crafts Bungalow reached its apex just after the turn of the century under the California partnership of architect brothers, Charles and Henry Greene. Greene and Greene's ultimate Arts and Crafts house was created for David Gamble, an heir to the Proctor and Gamble laundry-soap fortune, in Pasadena, CA. This large Bungalow is remarkable for its timberwork, precise joinery and rich, hand-rubbed wood finishes. Its major source of inspiration is certainly the Japanese medieval house, although Greene and Greene also drew from Scandinavian prototypes. The Greene brothers were prolific and influential Bungalow designers and are widely recognized as having created the largest number of masterpieces of the Arts and Crafts style in the United States.
More modest Arts and Crafts Bungalows became immensely popular throughout the entire country during the first two decades of the twentieth century. Their construction spread steadily from the west into the midwest, where entire streetscapes and even communities of matching Bungalows were constructed. They are more rare in the northeast, yet every town in southern New England has a few examples.
Today Arts and Crafts furniture, decorative arts, and architecture are at the forefront of popular revival styles, and Craftsman Bungalows are eagerly sought by homebuyers who appreciate their craftsmanship and livability. A recent American Landmarks sale was the Geffine House, built in 1912. Please call us for information on other Arts and Crafts style houses available in the Greater Boston area at (781) 729-5174.
American Landmarks
One Mount Vernon Street, P.O. Box 1050, Winchester, MA
01890 (781) 729-5174