Today the Stickley Museum at Craftsman Farms is a National Historic Landmark and a Save America’s Treasures Site, open from April 1 to November 15. Thirty miles west of Manhattan in the township of Parsippany-Troy Hills, Stickley’s former home—which was converted into a museum when the property was threatened with development in 1989—draws nearly 20,000 visitors a year. The site is owned by the township, which leases the property to the Craftsman Farms Foundation. The foundation gives tours, organizes special events and operates a museum shop in the home’s former kitchen, selling books, tiles, pottery and myriad objects associated with the Arts and Crafts movement. For $99.99, you can buy a CD containing all 183 issues of The Craftsman—some 25,000 pages in all, including architectural designs for 200 Craftsman homes.

Over time, much of the Craftsman Farms property has been sold, leaving just 26 acres. Yet all of

Log house at Craftsman Farms, c. 1913.

the original buildings remain, including Stickley’s log house, which is furnished with many of the original pieces that he designed for the house. Among the furnishings, none is more impressive than the massive dining room sideboard, built around 1910. More than 10 feet wide, nearly 6 feet high, and 2 1/2 feet deep, it is constructed of quarter-sawn oak and chestnut, and its door and drawer handles and horizontal strap hinges are made of copper (a departure from earlier sideboards of similar design, whose hardware was made of hand-wrought iron). Although Stickley used machinery to make his chairs, desks and tables, he did so sparingly, preferring to manufacture by hand whenever possible. At Craftsman Farms, design features such as exposed beams and mortise-and-tenon joinery underscore Stickley’s belief in the transparency of construction. “The furniture,” Klaric says, “conveys an identity of someone very honest, very straightforward.”

The building recently benefited from a $750,000 restoration, part of more than $1 million in improvement projects overseen by the Craftsman Farms Foundation. This year the foundation plans to create a master site restoration plan and begin restoring other buildings on the property. And though much of the land that surrounds Craftsman Farms has succumbed to suburban sprawl—the house itself is just a short walk from busy, six-lane Route 10—Klaric says it’s not uncommon to sight deer, turkey and foxes on the grounds. Nearly a century removed from its construction, the home’s sylvan surroundings somehow remain endowed with the same bucolic spirit that so appealed to its original owner.

Stickley’s wide influence at the height of his popularity made his fall from grace even more dramatic. In March 1915, less than four years after moving his family into the log house at Craftsman Farms, Stickley filed for bankruptcy. He discontinued publication of The Craftsman the following year, and in 1917 he sold his home and surrounding acreage. He returned to Syracuse, New York, where he had begun his furniture-making business around the turn of the century. No longer active in the movement he helped define, Stickley remained in Syracuse until his death in 1942 at the age of 84. His decline brings to mind another fireplace engraving at Craftsman Farms: “The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne.”

---

Christopher Hann is a freelance writer specializing in the visual arts and culture. His work has appeared in The New York Times, Executive Traveler and New Jersey Monthly.