Recent Articles From The Craftsman Bungalow
One of the fathers of the Arts & Crafts Movement in America, Elbert Hubbard, was once quoted as saying, “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” For Jacquie Walton of JW Art Pottery in Portland, Oregon, her lemon was an untimely job layoff that provided an opportunity for her to make lemonade using a skill...
In the Spring 2017 Issue #94 of American Bungalow magazine, I contributed an article about a Greene & Greene home that was designed in 1906, but for reasons still not known today, was ultimately never built by the Greenes. Almost 100 years later, an ambitious builder, fueled by his love for authentic craftsman architecture, acquired...
I’m very excited that an article I wrote for American Bungalow magazine made the cover of the Winter 2013 Issue #80! The article is about an amazing home on the Oregon Coast that sits on a secluded cove with panoramic views of the Pacific Ocean, the rugged Oregon coastline and a 1920s-era bridge that was...
The Architectural Heritage Center’s Portland Kitchen Revival Tour is one of my favorite days of the year, and 16th annual edition was again full of beautiful homes, whose kitchen – and in most cases much more – have been impeccably restored to reflect the home’s original period design. This is my third year covering the...
With its rich history and sunny Mediterranean climate, Santa Barbara has been an immensely popular destination since being settled by Spanish Missionaries in the late 1700’s. Following its annexation by the United States in 1846 after the Mexican-American War, Santa Barbara quickly expanded. Through the mid and late 1800’s, the city was home to countless...
I just got the latest issue of American Bungalow this week. Each issue this year includes an 8×10 full-color lithograph art print of the four seasons called “The Wisdom of the Trees” by Yoshiko Yamamoto. In 2010, American Bungalow featured four beautiful prints by Roycroft Renaissance artisan, Laura Wilder. Here’s what I did with those...
Some time ago, we took a trip down the California Coast during which we explored some of the countless arts & crafts cottages in and around the oceanside artist community of Carmel. The highlight of our time there was getting to take a tour of Tor House – the handcrafted stone cottage of poet Robinson...
In July 1906, Charles and Henry Greene presented their original design to Frank W. Hawks for a home that he had commissioned the brothers to design for his property on Arroyo Terrace, a quiet and artistic enclave in Pasadena, California. While visionary in its scope, and for reasons still not entirely known today, Hawks chose not...
The Craftsman Spotlight is an ongoing series where artists, businesses, and craftspeople are featured. We’re thrilled to spotlight American Bungalow, in this first installment of the series! If you’re reading this article right now – and are a fan of bungalows – there’s a pretty good chance that you’re familiar with American Bungalow magazine. Founded by...
San Francisco is well known for its abundance of elegant Victorian architecture, but tucked away among the tens of thousands of Victorians, there exists a small enclave full of hundreds of charming bungalows. Westwood Park, located just south of Mount Davidson, was originally a grove of tall eucalyptus trees – part of an old Mexican...
In my previous post, I gave you a tour of the exterior of the Greene & Greene’s Duncan-Irwin House in Pasadena. Now we go through the doors below for a personal tour of the amazing interior of this quintessential Greene & Greene home… From the inside (below), the wisteria vine motif shines through the door’s...
Known as “San Diego’s First Citizen,” George W. Marston (1850-1946) was a successful self-made businessman, civic leader and philanthropist, who, among other things, played a pivotal role in the early development of the city’s wildly popular park system and public library, often spending considerable amounts of his own personal wealth to do so. In 1904,...
A couple months ago, I traveled to Western New York and spent a couple nights at the beautiful Roycroft Inn in East Aurora, NY. In the hotel lobby, they were selling chocolate bars made locally and packaged with labels that had a time-honored Elbert Hubbard quote on it. Here’s a picture of the actual label:...
The Mission Hills neighborhood of San Diego, California has long been a bastion of early 20th century homes, with nearly all of era’s requisite architectural styles well-represented. From compact single-story bungalows to expansive Spanish haciendas – and everything in between – Mission Hills exhibits the same architectural prowess today as it did when it was...
As far back as he can remember, Brett Johnson owner of Craftsmen Studio has always been a do-it-yourself kind of person. Growing up in rural Missouri, he got his start helping family members with building and remodeling projects, and eventually went out on his own – doing everything from carpentry to masonry. At the age...
Everyone remembers the heart-wrenching and tragic photos of Hurricane Katrina’s cataclysmic effect on New Orleans in 2005. In the eight years since that calamitous storm, you may have moved on with your life and forgotten just how devastating the damage was, but the people of New Orleans, and especially those who live in the 9th...
This is a great article by Patricia Poore that defines the traditional hallmarks and characteristics of craftsman bungalow homes. It goes into specifics about interior and exterior design influences and the materials and construction details that distinguish the bungalow aesthetic from other architectural styles. I have re-posted the opening of the article – to read...
Situated on its own island on the shores of pristine Lake George in the Adirondack Mountains of Eastern New York, The Sagamore Hotel has been welcoming guests from near and far for over 130 years. But what many of those guests may not know, is that the luxurious historic hotel that sits on the property...
Whenever I’m out-and-about and see a sign saying there’s an estate sale going on nearby, I almost always do a drive-by to check out the house and take a peek inside. A few weeks ago, that same scenario played out, and when I pulled up to the house where the sale was (below), my jaw...
Those of you who are fans of J.R.R. Tolkein and his work may recognize some of the images below from the Lord of the Rings films and most recently, The Hobbit. Tolkien grew up in rural Western England around the turn of the last century, and his writings were heavily influenced by the romantic prose...
From the late 1800’s until the mid-1940’s, Pabst Brewery in Milwaukee, Wisconsin was the largest brewer in America, and at times, the world. Originally established in 1844 as the Best Brewery – named after its founder, Jacob Best – the name changed to Pabst in 1889 when Best’s son-in-law, Frederick Pabst, became majority stockholder in...
When photographer Jett Loe came to Los Angeles in 2012 in search of a home for he and his wife, he was amazed at what he found – hiding in plain sight. Almost by accident, Loe stumbled upon West Adams, a once forgotten central Los Angeles enclave located halfway between Downtown LA and Santa Monica,...
As you may recall, on a recent business trip to Hawaii I stayed at a lovely family-run bed & breakfast rather than one of the impersonal mega hotels in Waikiki. While staying there, I got into a routine of taking a walk around the neighborhood every day and was blown away by the concentration of...
I just wanted to take a moment to reflect on the year and wish all of you Happy Holidays and a very Merry Christmas! The Craftsman Bungalow was launched back in 2011, and hopefully all of you have been enjoying reading it as much as I’ve enjoyed writing it. Every new year promises to be...
Diana Gillispie’s eye for design and acute attention to detail has made her a fixture in the Asheville, North Carolina art scene for more than three decades. Having first moved to the area in 1978, she became one of the pioneering artists of Asheville’s River District when she started a small pottery studio with a...
Filmmaker Joaquin Montalvan always knew he wanted to live in a bungalow – even before he knew what a bungalow was. Growing up, he had lived in a Spanish Mission style home with a welcoming front porch, hardwood floors and a fireplace that his family frequently used. Those three features were ingrained in his mind...
Frank Lloyd Wright designed well over 1,000 homes and buildings throughout his illustrious career, but only one of those structures was built in the State of Oregon: The Gordon House. Commissioned by Conrad and Evelyn Gordon, the 88-year-old Wright designed the home in his Usonian style in 1957 for the couple’s sprawling farmland acreage that...
A couple of years ago, I heard about a home tour on the western slopes of Oregon’s Mount Hood that celebrated the work of a family of craftsmen who single-handedly built as many as 100 of the Pacific Northwest’s finest examples of authentic log cabins. Naturally, my interest was piqued, and since the weekend of...
When Phillip Myer of Ragsdale Home Furnishings built his first table lamp way back in junior high school, he never imagined that one day, he’d be doing it for a living. But in 1999, more than 25 years after building that first fateful lamp, Phil quit his job in the high-tech electronics industry and embarked...
This past week we traveled cross-country to spend Thanksgiving with family, friends and neighbors in the rural New Jersey town I grew up in. One of the many highlights of the week (in addition to celebrating my parents’ birthdays and their anniversary) was to spend some quality time with Carol Wilbur who lives in the...
From Our Bungalow To Yours: Wishing You Happy Holidays From The Craftsman Bungalow!
Dec 10, 2020
Peek Inside: A Grand 1910 Bay Area Residence, Once Home to CA Supreme Court Justice
Jul 27, 2020
Peek Inside: An Unbuilt 1906 Greene & Greene Designed Home Listed For Sale
Apr 30, 2020
The Craftsman Spotlight: Arts & Crafts Lighting And Furnishings By Brett Johnson From Craftsmen Studio
Oct 18, 2019
Serendipity In A University Town: American Bungalow Issue 96 Article
Jul 20, 2018