by Bill Coulter
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In the early years of the twentieth century rapid industrialization irrevocably changed American life. During the 1920's the number of Americans living in urban areas surpassed the rural population for the first time. This influx of people into the cities created a great demand for new housing, and housing of a new kind. The new industrial workers could not afford large houses or domestic help to keep them running.

Simultaneously, the fussiness of Victorian decorative arts fell out of fashion and was largely supplanted by the more plain and 'honest' Arts and Crafts style. The most well-known American proponent, furniture maker and magazine publisher Gustav Stickley, took direct inspiration from William Morris and the English Arts and Crafts movement. The English movement arose in the middle of the nineteenth century in response to the mechanization of production and the resulting loss of craftsmanship and artistry. The Arts and Crafts movement ideally sought to re-empower the worker by giving him complete control of the production of an article from beginning to end, rather than parceling out various steps in the process to different workers. It also sought to use honest materials in honest ways.

The meeting of these two trends, increasing urbanization and the American Arts and Crafts movement, produced a new house style, the Craftsman. The name is probably borrowed from Stickley's magazine, "The Craftsman". In its pages he discussed not only furniture and decorative arts, but also house design, going so far as to include floor plans. Despite the use of the term 'Craftsman' to label the style, Stickley is considered to have popularized the style, not originated it.

Craftsman houses are generally small, one-story houses befitting the status of the newly urbanized industrial work force. One-and-a-half story and two-story Craftsman houses were built less frequently. Most are fairly plain, although high style examples can be found, especially in California.

Large, prominent front porches are one of the most consistent characteristics of the Craftsman house. These porches provide a public space for conversing with neighbors and passersby in a way familiar to those who had just left the country.

Rapid social change was reflected in the houses of the era. The standard Victorian ten-foot ceiling was rejected in favor of a 'homier' nine-foot ceiling. Oak replaced walnut as lumber of choice for furniture and interior woodwork on the grounds that it was less formal. Flat woodwork replaced molded woodwork for similar reasons. In many cases these aesthetic ideals were formed to fit new economic realities. Nine-foot ceilings and flat woodwork reduce building costs. Walnut had become scarce by 1900 as most original stands had been timbered.

Where economic reality could not be made to fit the romantic ideal the ideal was quietly discarded. Stickley's workers were not craftsmen building an article from beginning to end. Parts were passed from station to station and processed by many individuals. Stickley has also been found to have a faked a through tenon on his furniture from time to time, and this is not without its counterpart in exterior decoration of houses of the era.

In Photo 1 we see a house that embodies many of the characteristics of the Craftsman style. The wide, unenclosed eaves, low-pitched roof and exposed roof rafters are almost universal in Craftsman style houses. The use of false beams and triangular knee braces under the eaves is another common feature of the style. These beams and knee braces usually serve no structural purpose. They are merely decorative. This particular house is a front-gabled bungalow with the porch and house under a continuous roof. The house is sided with clapboards, which is the most common siding for Craftsman style houses. Another typical feature is the square, tapered columns extending to ground level without a break at the level of the porch floor. The use of stucco in the gable-end and the Oriental-style flared gables are less common features.

Photo 2 shows another front-gabled bungalow, but this one has a double-gabled front façade. The porch is under its own roof which is centered. The heavy piers topped with battered (sloped) columns supporting the porch are another typical variation as are the elaborated rafter tails. The stick work in the porch gable is not uncommon in Craftsman style houses.

A much plainer and more typical front-gabled bungalow is shown in Photo 3. This illustrates a double-gabled front façade with the porch off center. Here square columns support the porch.

The cross-gabled house in Photo 4 carries the Oriental motif seen in Photo 1 a little further with the addition of Japanese inspired eave brackets in the porch gable. The windows are composed of a multi-pane sash over a single-pane lower sash, a common Craftsman window style.

One-and-a-half story side-gabled bungalows are illustrated in Photos 5 and 6. Both houses have full width front porches under the main roof, gabled dormers, exposed rafter tails, false beams and triangular knee braces. Photo 5 shows continuous, square, sloped masonry columns supporting the roof over the porch and a brick and stone chimney. Although difficult to see, the house in Photo 6 is sided entirely with shingles.

Photo 7 shows a one-and-a half story cross-gabled bungalow. The siding here is clapboard on the first floor with shingles in the gable ends, a common combination in houses of the era. This example has the usual wide eaves, false beams under the eaves, triangular knee braces and exposed rafter tails.

Two story Craftsman houses are pictured in Photos 8 and 9. Brick is not commonly used in Craftsman style houses, except for chimneys and porches. Yet in Photo 8 we see a porch treatment and wide eaves typical of the the style. Also, beneath the center windows on the second story there are two protruding stones for supporting a window box, another Craftsman hallmark. Photo 9 illustrates a Swiss chalet form, including very wide eaves, triangular knee braces and battered columns on piers to support the front porch.