Gustav Stickley,
Excerpt from Craftsman Homes:
Architecture and Furnishings of the American Arts
and Crafts Movement (1909)
That the influence of the home is of
the first importance in the shaping of
character is a fact too well understood and too generally admitted to
be
offered here as a new idea. One need only turn to the pages of
history to find abundant proof of the unerring action of Nature's law, for
without exception the people whose lives are lived simply and wholesomely, in
the open, and who have in a high degree the sense of the sacredness of the
home, are the people who have made the greatest strides in the development of
the race. When luxury enters in and a thousand artificial requirements come to
be regarded as real needs, the nation is on the brink of degeneration. ...Even
in the rush and hurry of life in our busy cities we remember well the quality
given to the growing nation by such men and women a generation or two ago and,
in spite of the chaotic conditions brought about by our passion for
money-getting, extravagance and show, we have still reason to believe that the
dominant characteristics of the pioneer yet shape what are the salient
qualities in American life.
To
preserve these characteristics and to bring back to individual life and
work the vigorous constructive spirit which during the last half-century has
spent its activities in commercial and industrial expansion, is, in a
nut-shell,
the Craftsman idea. We need to straighten out our standards and to get rid
of a lot of rubbish that we have accumulated along with our wealth and
commercial supremacy. It is not that we are too energetic, but that in many
ways we have wasted and misused our energy precisely as we have wasted and
misused so many of our wonderful natural resources. All we really need is a
change in our point of view toward life and a keener perception regarding the
things that count and the things which merely burden us. This being the case,
it would seem obvious that the place to begin a readjustment is in the home,
for it is only natural that the relief from friction which would follow the
ordering of our lives along more simple and reasonable lines would not only
assure greater comfort, and therefore greater efficiency, to the workers of the
nation, but would give the children a chance to grow up under conditions which
would be conducive to a higher degree of mental, moral and physical efficiency.
Therefore we regard it as at least a
step in the direction of bringing about
better conditions when we try to plan and
build houses which will simplify
the work of home life and add to its
wholesome joy and comfort. We have
already made it plain to our readers that
we do not believe in large houses
with many rooms elaborately decorated
and furnished, for the reason that
these seem so essentially an outcome of the artificial conditions that lay
such harassing burdens upon modem life and form such a serious menace to our
ethical standards. Breeding as it does the spirit of extravagance and of
discontent which in the end destroys all the sweetness of home life, the desire
for luxury and show not only burdens beyond his strength the man who is
ambitious to provide for his wife and children surroundings which are as good
as the best, but taxes to the utmost the woman who is trying to keep up the
appearances which she believes should belong to her station in life. Worst of
all, it starts the children with standards which, in nine cases out of ten,
utterly preclude the possibility of their beginning life on their own account
in a simple and sensible way. Boys who are brought up in such homes are taught,
by the silent influence of their early surroundings, to take it for granted
that they must not marry until they are able to keep up an establishment of
equal pretensions, and girls also take it as a matter of course that marriage
must mean something quite as luxurious as the home of their childhood or it is
not a paying investment for their youth and beauty. Everyone who thinks at all
deplores the kind of life that marks a man's face with the haggard lines of
anxiety and makes him sharp and often unscrupulous in business, with no
ambition beyond large profits and a rapid rise in the business world. Also we
all realize regretfully the extravagance and uselessness of many of our women
and admit that one of the gravest evils of our times is the light touch-and-go
attitude toward marriage, which breaks up so many homes and takes the divorce
courts in
That is
why we have from the first planned houses that are based on the big fundamental
principles of honesty, simplicity and usefulness,--the kind of houses that
children will rejoice all their lives to remember as "home," and that
give a sense of peace and comfort to the tired men who go back to them when the
day's work is done. Because we believe that the healthiest and happiest life is
that which maintains the closest relationship with out-of-doors, we have
planned our houses with outdoor living rooms, dining rooms and sleeping rooms,
and many windows to let in plenty of air and sunlight.