As historian and preservationist Robert Winter, author of \u201cCraftsman Style,\u201d likes to say, the Craftsman Revival has lasted longer than the original Craftsman movement.<\/p>\n
The first Craftsman bungalows began appearing in San Diego around 1905. By the time the United States entered World War I, in 1917, the heyday of the Craftsman was over.<\/p>\n When production started up again after the war, a new style of house emerged, the historic revival \u2014 Spanish Revival, Tudor Revival, Colonial Revival. The nation\u2019s mood had changed. The Craftsman house was modest. It was quiet and compact, thoughtfully designed and executed. But the nation was in a boisterous and extravagant mood. The playful, make-believe nature of the revival houses more closely fit the Roaring \u201920s. Flappers didn\u2019t do stenciling.<\/p>\n Not that the Craftsman style completely disappeared. Builders continued to build them. And many of the Mission and Spanish Revival houses were Craftsman inside and Craftsman in layout. And Prairie \u2014 Craftsman\u2019s close cousin \u2014 remained popular until the Great Depression put a stop to most residential building in the early 1930s.<\/p>\n As for the Revival, it began in the early 1960s, with publication of Clay Lancaster\u2019s \u201cThe Bungalow,\u201d a book that said it was OK for architectural historians to take the Craftsman bungalow seriously. Robert Winter and David Gebhard\u2019s \u201cA Guide to Architecture in Los Angeles & Southern California\u201d (1965) furthered the cause. This was a time when bungalow neighborhoods everywhere were being bulldozed to make room for freeways and apartments. Winter, a professor at Occidental College who had discovered the Craftsman style through a visit to Greene and Greene\u2019s Gamble House, continued to write and lecture on the subject, galvanizing homeowners in Pasadena who wanted to preserve the Arroyo Seco, where Greene and Greene and other Arts and Crafts designers first established the style.<\/p>\n In the 1980s the American public \u2014 rather than just a few thousand homeowners \u2014 discovered Craftsman. Winter published \u201cThe California Bungalow\u201d at the start of that decade, issuing in the era of coffee table Craftsman picture books. Stickley, the company that had publicized (and perhaps named) the style in its magazine, The Craftsman, began manufacturing its Mission line of furniture again. The revival was furthered by American Bungalow magazine, community groups and neighborhood associations, and a willingness by adventurous middle-class people to move back to the bungalow neighborhoods that in the \u201980s and \u201990s were associated with crime and urban blight.<\/p>\n In San Diego, Save Our Heritage Organisation (SOHO) \u2014 which had originally been formed in 1968 to save some Victorians in the path of a freeway \u2014 turned its attention to Craftsman bungalows as well.<\/p>\n Pasadena Heritage, an advocacy and preservation group formed in 1977, expanded its influence beyond Southern California in 1991 with its Craftsman Weekend, a bungalow lollapalooza featuring house tours, bus tours, walking tours, antique and contemporary furniture exhibitors, an auction, workshops and presentations.<\/p>\n Even tract homebuilders got on board. Entire neighborhoods of Craftsman-inspired houses sprung up. In Bend, Oregon, where 100 years ago five saw mills churned out windows for Craftsman houses, virtually all homes built in the late 1990s and early 2000s were in the Craftsman or Prairie styles. Today, on the booming west side of town, even the strip malls are Craftsman.<\/p>\n Last summer I was showing a friend the Arroyo Seco neighborhood of Pasadena, where the Greene brothers launched their version of the Craftsman house at the turn of the 20th century. We were standing in front of the former home of Ernest Batchelder, the famous tile maker.<\/p>\n I had just finished explaining that the house now belonged to Robert Winter, when a little sedan pulled to the curb, the passenger door swung open, and out came an elderly gentleman with a cane. As he straightened himself up, I realized this was Robert Winter. Bungalow Bob, as he was affectionately called, is the man who virtually singlehandedly resurrected the Craftsman bungalow. (A claim I\u2019m sure he\u2019d deny.)<\/p>\n It was an odd moment. I\u2019d met Winter years ago, on a tour of his house. And I\u2019d spoken to him a few times thereafter. I reintroduced myself, and my friend, and told him I was pleased to see him doing so well.<\/p>\n \u201cIt happens to be my birthday,\u201d he said. \u201cMy 92nd birthday. We just went to lunch.\u201d Then we talked about his house, and the neighborhood, and what he was up to. \u201cA film crew was just here the other day,\u201d he explained. \u201cThey\u2019re making a virtual tour of the house.\u201d<\/p>\n Bungalow Bob probably won\u2019t be hosting many more house tours, holding forth in the living room with its floor-to-ceiling tile fireplace, telling stories about Ernest Batchelder, John Lloyd Wright and all the historical figures \u2014 and characters \u2014 he\u2019s known over the years. Unfortunately, they haven\u2019t yet come up with a Virtual Bob. But to keep the Craftsman Revival going, we could use one.<\/p>\n Loving the Craftsman<\/strong><\/p>\n Mission Hills Heritage, a homeowner group that has fought mightily to prevent the destruction of that neighborhood overlooking Presidio Park, is combining its annual walking tour with its annual lecture series on May 6. This year\u2019s theme is \u201cCraftsman, Then & Now: an Immersion Experience.\u201d<\/p>\n Kiley Wallace will talk about the history of the Craftsman movement and how to identify a Craftsman house. Lewis Barber will talk about how to make a modern Craftsman, and how to make your Craftsman modern. I\u2019ll be moderating a panel discussion for homeowners who want to keep their Craftsman looking young, or at least younger than me. I\u2019ll be joined on the panel by John Eisenhart, an historic architect and SOHO board member, who you\u2019ve read about in this column; and Marc Tarasuck, an historic architect who\u2019s undertaken many restoration projects including Heritage Park, where SOHO and the city moved those Victorians from the path of Interstate 5 back in the 1960s.<\/p>\n Homeowners will be invited to take part in the discussion, whether they have a very specific question about how to go about restoring something, or a colorful story about how they discovered it\u2019s not a good idea to work with steel wool around an electrical outlet. There also will be a number of tradespeople on hand \u2014 in booths set up outside the auditorium of Francis Parker School. Most important, there will be cookies, and they will be handcrafted, as the situation merits. The only thing that will be missing is Virtual Bob. Maybe next year.<\/p>\n Para obtener m\u00e1s informaci\u00f3n, vaya a missionhillsheritage.org<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n![\"Springtime](\"https:\/\/sduptownnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/house-old.jpg\")
while the front porch concrete was still wet from having just been poured.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n![\"Springtime](\"https:\/\/sduptownnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/4225arden.jpg.jpg\")
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