Arts & Crafts Expressions
A Note from the Editor: Part of the appeal of the Arts & Crafts movement is its diversity, and that’s certainly what sustains our interest. (The revival of Arts &…
A Note from the Editor:
Part of the appeal of the Arts & Crafts movement is its diversity, and that’s certainly what sustains our interest. (The revival of Arts & Crafts architecture and furnishings is entering its fifth decade.)
It’s much more than “a style,” as it encompasses expressions as different as those of C.F.A. Voysey, Gustav Stickley, Greene & Greene, and Frank Lloyd Wright. Wherever you live, Arts & Crafts is there to speak to you.
I live in New England, where bungalows didn’t grow by the acre, but rather popped up as “artistic” houses among Cape Cods and suburban Victorians. Still, the Arts & Crafts of William Morris is in evidence, and the English movement asserted itself here at the same time as the popularity of the Shingle Style, in the work of such architects as H.H. Richardson, William Ralph Emerson, and John Calvin Stevens.
Most Americans think of Stickley as the father of Arts & Crafts, and as a Jersey girl (born and bred) I wouldn’t argue. Will we ever get tired of those neat and simple houses that fit so well in suburban neighborhoods from New York to Illinois? Or the substantial oak furniture that makes a quiet backdrop in rooms filled with burnished copper and green vases?
Subscribe to Arts & Crafts Homes, or pick up an issue at your favorite bookstore or newsstand. Order back issues through the Old-House Bookstore or call (800) 850-7279.
On to the Prairie School, the Midwest expression of Arts & Crafts principles. Many of us have made the pilgrimage to Oak Park and can see how those iconic houses informed domestic building in Wisconsin, in Kansas City, in Foursquares around the country. And consider the houses designed by Chicago-area architect Howard Van Doren Shaw, some of which echo those of Voysey in England. A hundred years ago and today, of course, the West Coast has been rich in Arts & Crafts expression, from the artistry of Greene & Greene in Southern California to Washington’s idyllic bungalow neighborhoods.
All the different flavors are evident even in one issue of this magazine. Look for a book about Voysey...Douglas fir in a California kitchen...the Prairie style in Minneapolis...a new bungalow in the vernacular...and 48 contemporary furniture-makers with their own interpretations.
Patricia Poore,Editor
ppoore@homebuyerpubs.com
10 Harbor Rd., Gloucester, MA 01930
Patricia Poore is Editor-in-chief of Old House Journal and Arts & Crafts Homes, as well as editorial director at Active Interest Media’s Home Group, overseeing New Old House, Traditional Building, and special-interest publications.
Poore joined Old House Journal when it was a Brooklyn-brownstoner newsletter in the late 1970s. She became owner and publisher and, except for the years 2002–2013, has been its editor. Poore founded the magazines Old-House Interiors (1995–2013) and Early Homes (2004–2017); their content is now available online and folded into Old-House Journal’s wider coverage. Poore also created GARBAGE magazine (1989–1994), the first unaffiliated environmental consumer magazine.
Poore has participated, hands-on, in several restorations, including her own homes: a 1911 brownstone in Park Slope, Brooklyn, and a 1904 Tudor–Shingle Style house in Gloucester, Massachusetts, where she brought up her boys and their wonderful dogs.
