Stickley's Legacy
The Craftsman style comes home, bound in one book
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 LAWRENCE KREISMAN The Huntoon house, commissioned by Henry Holmes and his wife, Kate, is pictured in about 1914, shortly after it was completed on a ridge overlooking Lake Washington.
LAWRENCE KREISMAN A rendering of plan No. 78, published in the November 1909 issue of The Craftsman, was the basis for the house built for the Huntoon family in Seattle. The long roof line and "picturesque chimney" were selling points.
LAWRENCE KREISMAN Seattle pharmacy owner Henry Holmes and his wife ordered house plan No. 78 as a wedding present to their daughter. The turret of the elder Holmes's Victorian home is behind and to the left of the daughter's house under construction.
LAWRENCE KREISMAN The craftsman style comes home, bound in one book
LAWRENCE KREISMAN A family photograph taken in 1922 shows Ruth Huntoon and her four children (Ruth, Isla, Margaret and David) in the living room. Arts and Crafts furniture and built-in bookcases form the backdrop.
LAWRENCE KREISMAN Gustav Stickley produced a number of publications promoting the Craftsman homes he designed.
LAWRENCE KREISMAN The drawing of the stair hall for House No. 78 notes: "The stairs lead up from the rear of the hall, which is practically a part of the living room. Note the opening with a lattice frame, which makes an attractive setting for a pot of flowers."
LAWRENCE KREISMAN The rendering for Craftsman house No. 50 was published in April 1907. Portland architect Ellis Lawrence modified plan No. 50 for Lewis T. Gilliland in 1910 by changing the roof style from hipped to gable.
LAWRENCE KREISMAN The living room of the Gilliland house has a stone fireplace with curved opening instead of a flat header. A frieze of V-joined boards in The Craftsman plan was replaced with a frieze of tooled leather.
LAWRENCE KREISMAN The cover of Jud Yoho's Craftsman Bungalows 1916 catalog shows that the Seattle businessman ignored his 1913 agreement with Stickley not to use the word "Craftsman" in his materials. (The Book Club of Washington is publishing a facsimile edition of this catalog that will be available at the Bungalow Fair Sept. 29-30). |
While aficionados of the Arts and Crafts movement are certainly familiar with Gustav Stickley's furniture, fewer are aware that Stickley also designed more than 200 homes, many of which were built throughout the United States. In "Stickley's Craftsman Homes" (Gibbs Smith, $75), Ray Stubblebine collects, for the first time, all known house designs featured in Stickley's nationally circulated magazine, The Craftsman, in publication more than 15 years.
Why should Northwesterners care? Because Stickley-designed homes are virtually in our backyards. Stickley had a huge following and a very large subscriber base. Those who couldn't afford the subscription could borrow the monthly magazine from local public libraries.
The ease with which Stickley made plans available to people anywhere in the country is evidenced in a house built on the ridge above Frink Park in Seattle's Leschi neighborhood. The plans for house No. 78, published in the November 1909 issue of the magazine, were ordered by Mrs. Henry E. Holmes and shipped to her from New York on Aug. 28, 1910, purportedly as a wedding gift to her daughter, Ruth, on the occasion of her marriage to attorney Richard Huntoon. Pharmacist Holmes and his wife, Kate, lived in a commodious Victorian residence, and his family of four daughters and a son settled in houses on the property. The Stickley bungalow had a broad, covered porch facing Lake Washington. The completed house was somewhat different from the design, perhaps because Stickley gave them something special or because the builders did.
Find it, hear it at the fair
Ray Stubblebine, who lives in a Stickley-designed house in New Jersey, will lecture on Stickley's Craftsman Homes at Historic Seattle's 10th annual Bungalow Fair 11 a.m. Sept. 30 at Town Hall Seattle, 1119 8th Ave. The author serves on the Board of Trustees of The Craftsman Farms Foundation and is editor of the foundation's newsletter.
Other lectures include: Lawrence Kreisman and Glenn Mason, with the publication debut of "The Arts and Crafts Movement in the Pacific Northwest" on Sept. 27; Judith Tankard on Gardens of the Arts and Crafts Movement on Sept. 29; and Bo Sullivan on Monks, Mosaics & Mission Mishmash on Sept. 30.
The fair features more than 50 exhibitors of antiques and new Arts and Crafts-inspired furniture, decorative arts, fine art and books. Tickets for the fair are $8 to $10; lectures, $8 to $20; www.historicseattle.org or 206-622-6952.
Stickley-designed houses also appeared in Spokane, Portland and Astoria, among other places. For example, in 1910 Lewis and Harriet Gilliland commissioned architect Ellis Lawrence to help them modify a 1907 design from The Craftsman to suit their property in Portland's Irvington neighborhood. The "H" plan home featured an ashlar foundation and trellised entrance court framed by two similar gabled wings. The gable roof design differed from the hipped roof suggested in the original plans.
The interiors closely followed Stickley's suggestions for built-ins, a stone fireplace and fireplaces in two first-floor bedrooms. However, they were more lavishly handled than Stickley might have done, with a Honduran mahogany-paneled living room and dining room and a leather frieze. Advertisements for The Craftsman ran in Northwest periodicals. But people had no need to go to Gustav Stickley for building plans and interior-design ideas. Jud Yoho, an enterprising Seattle businessman, published Bungalow Magazine from 1912 until 1918. During its run, the magazine attracted a nationwide audience of homebuyers, advertised the products of businesses and showed off the newest construction of bungalows in Washington, Oregon and California, as well as in the rest of the country. The monthly supplement included plans for a featured bungalow.
Bungalow Magazine had nearly twice the circulation of The Craftsman, if one believes the 1915 statistics in the Ayer & Sons' American Newspaper Annual and Directory. It reported circulation of 40,000 for Bungalow Magazine and 22,500 for The Craftsman. Yoho's success caught the attention of Stickley, who, in 1913, began proceedings to sue for use of the word "Craftsman" in marketing bungalows. In his book, Stubblebine shares the deposition interviews to provide insight into the two entrepreneurs' fight.
In the end, Yoho acquiesced, agreeing not to use the word again. But that was, in his mind, not a binding agreement. His 1914 Bungalow Magazine continued to use the word "Craftsman" to advertise the plans of his Bungalow Company and his memorable 1916 deluxe catalog sported the word proudly on the cover.
Larry Kreisman is program director of Historic Seattle and author of "Made To Last: Historic Preservation in Seattle and King County."
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