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Craftsman
c.1915-1930
According to Rachel Carley in The Visual Dictionary of American
Domestic Architecture (1994), the Craftsman style represented an
independent western movement in American architecture. Its guiding force was
the English Arts and Crafts movement, which rejected the mass reproduction
and mediocre design associated with the Industrial Revolution in favor of
the beauty and "honesty" of traditional handcraftsmanship and natural
materials.
In America, these ideas were widely disseminated in the pages of The
Craftsman magazine, published from 1901 to 1916 by the furniture maker
and designer Gustav Stickely (1848-1942).
The style was adapted for countless small houses and
bungalows but
found its most sophisticated expression in the landmark works of California
architects Charles Sumner Greene and Henry Mather Greene.
Craftsman style houses were popular throughout the country between about
1905 and 1930. The first representatives of the style, which spread quickly
through publicity in pattern books and popular magazines like Good
Housekeeping, and Ladies' Home Journal, appeared in Martinsville
about 1915. Smaller, one and one-and-one-half story examples are popularly
known as bungalows.
The Craftsman style has several distinct characteristics. Look for:
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low-pitched gable roof
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wide, open eaves
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exposed rafter tails, frequently cut into decorative shapes
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decorative brackets and braces under gables
·
front and/or side dormers
·
porches supported by square, or tapered square, columns
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wall cladding is typically wood, wood shingles, stucco and/or
brick
Craftsman: David Cohn House (c.1920), 119 West Morgan
Street
Craftsman:
Vandalia Depot (1911), 210 North Marion Street
Craftsman: Citizens Bank (c.1920), East Morgan
Street, Martinsville
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Martinsville's
Role in the Arts and Crafts Movement Americans have long had a close affinity
with nature, and it grew stronger with the official closing of the frontier
in the 1890s. The impact of the Industrial Revolution led philosophers and
practitioners like Andrew Jackson Downing, an American landscape architect,
and the English designer William Morris, to champion not only nature and
natural materials, but also the purity and honesty of handcraftsmanship.
Such sentiment inspired furniture makers like Gustav Stickley and Charles
Limbert to create a new "Mission" style of American furniture based on
simplicity and utility of design.
Both designers were fans of the rustic hickory pole furniture
manufactured in Martinsville by the Old Hickory Furniture Company. The son
of a furniture dealer, Limbert, in fact, started out as a salesman for Old
Hickory and is recognized for popularizing its unique chairs and other
pieces. He started his own furniture company in Michigan in 1894 but
continued to act as sales agent for other manufacturers. Click
here
to read more about the Old Hickory Furniture Company.
Old Hickory Furniture was just one manifestation of the rustic aesthetic
inspired by the arts and crafts movement. Another was the popularity of
tombstones carved to resemble tree stumps, of which there are several
examples found in Martinsville. These tree-stump monuments were made by
skilled carvers in Indiana's limestone belt centered in Lawrence and Monroe
Counties. Click
here to go to the essay on cemeteries to learn more
and see photographs.
Another manifestation of the Arts and Crafts movement was an increased
focus on nature as a balm for the industrial age. For example, cemeteries
became regarded not so much as burial grounds but as public parks. And
personal yards were sculpted into miniature nature reserves with carefully
selected plantings, manicured gardens, pergolas and outdoor furniture from
the Old Hickory company, and fish ponds filled with colorful coy and water
lilies from
Grassyfork Fisheries
of Martinsville.
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