Gustav Stickley and the American Arts and Crafts Movement
Craftsman Farms
At the turn of the last century a uniquely American tradition of home design and furnishing appeared: clean in line, solid in construction, choice in materials, and given to the aesthetic of a life lived in harmony with nature.The living room at Craftsman Farms nears full restoration to its original appearance. Many of the historic furnishings have been restored to their original locations during the Stickley era.
Gustav Stickley, the premier exponent of the movement in design and decorative arts called Arts and Crafts, built in 1908-1910 what was first to be a school, and later became his home, on a twenty-six acre site in Parsippany, near Morris Plains, in Morris County. Along what is now Route 10 West, the site, known as Craftsman Farms is a National Historical Landmark, and the log house Stickley called home is a center for the study of the American Arts and Crafts movement.
Stickley, having learned furniture making as a teenager, became disillusioned by the poor quality of mass-market furniture available in the late nineteenth century. Traveling in Europe, he was drawn to the products and ideas produced by Arts and Crafts designers internationally, which emphasized the natural beauty and durability of wood. Stickley also recognized that the expanding American middle class represented a reliable market for sturdy furniture and accessories. The eventual product from Stickley's Craftsman Workshops is known today as Mission furniture.
Countless feet have crossed the threshold of the old log house as carpenters, electricians, and plumbers work their magic to return the residence to its 1911-1917 appearance.
Stickley disseminated his products and ideas partly with the aid of his monthly periodical, The Craftsman. The publication contained articles about politics, industry, textiles and the economics of house design and decoration; all designed to promote the notion that Craftsman products, simple and functional, could help ease the lives of their owners.
The main Log House at Craftsman Farms is an example and repository of what Stickley himself called the 'straightforward' style. Influences on this then-revolutionary fashion is apparent in the furnishings and woodworking of Japanese, Shaker, and California Mission crafters. Originally constructed as the central meeting hall for a boy's farm school intended to inculcate the values he felt inherent in the simplicity and solidity of his designs, the interior was modified for use as his family living quarters. Logs used to build the house were cut from trees on the property, transported to the Stickley factory near his original home in Syracuse, New York for staining and finishing, then returned to the site for final construction. In what was an advocacy of family values in his day, Stickley had five fireplaces constructed in the home in the belief that a warm hearth would keep family members close. A hearth at one end of the living room is inscribed "The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne."
Today, Craftsman Farms Foundation shares the Stickley vision by interpreting his house and its restoration to visitors from all over the world. Countless feet have crossed the threshold of the old log house as carpenters, electricians, and plumbers work their magic to return the residence to its 1911-1917 appearance. The changes are dramatic. The dining room and living room walls and chimneys have been stripped of the white paint used in later years to "brighten" the interior. Oxidized portions of the original wall finish remain, bringing the first floor one step closer to its original appearance, tantalizing the viewer to imagine the original sheen of the interior chestnut log walls. Also stripped of their white coating, the chimney stones' raw beauty is revealed, each stone carefully chosen for its hue of color. Each of the house's diamond-paned casement windows was built with its own interior framed screen, which have been replicated as storm windows with ultra violet light protection for the interior. Light glows from these windows. Artisans carefully replicated the first floor's missing interior and exterior hammered copper lanterns which hang again from their rightful places, generating warm lantern light from replica Edison light bulbs.
Many of the historic furnishings have been resoted to their original locations during the Stickley era.
Upstairs, the Stickley daughters' bedroom also approaches it original character, described in 1911 as having "both delicacy and strength... appropriate to the ideal of the modern woman. The color scheme has a certain refinement. The walls are covered with gray Japanese grasscloth, and the hearth is of dull blue Grueby tiles with a brass hood". The walls and furniture of the room are decorated with prints, photographs of friends and family, and a Cornell pennant, probably from a beau. A racquet may have leaned in the corner, casually thrown aside after a tennis match. From this room visitors will gain a better understanding of the property as the Stickley family home.
The Arts and Crafts style that Stickley helped popularize in the United States 100 years ago is currently in a revival. Artisans and manufacturers again craft objects instilled with the principles of simplicity and harmony advocated by Stickley. To thoroughly understand the appeal, a visit to the exhibits and museum shop at Craftsman Farms, serenely posed amidst the relative cacophony of modern New Jersey, is requisite. For those thirsty for more, the annual autumn symposium Living The Arts and Crafts Lifestyle IV is delicious tonic and actualizes the educational complex Stickley intended.
The main house will re-open on April 1 for visitation on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Please call 973-540-1165 for more information on tours and programming.