The Arts and Crafts Movement and Prairie House Architecture--A Uniquely American Design

ARTS AND CRAFTS

The later half of the 1800s saw the emergence of a new aesthetic movement that spread around the globe. Conventional styles of home building and decorating that had become characterized by the Industrial Revolution lost favor for it's very blandness. Now the public's taste harkened back to standards of design that emphasized natural beauty and personalized, handcrafted workmanship. 

The individualized style which followed and came to be known as the Arts and Crafts movement, was chiefly inspired by William Morris, an English reformer, poet, and designer. In 1861 he founded a firm of interior decorators and manufacturers dedicated to recapturing the spirit and quality of medieval craftsmanship. Eventually, decorating ideas of the Arts and Crafts movement broadened and became infused with ideas that spread to other countries and became identified with the growing international interest in design, specifically with Art Nouveau.

In 1887, the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society was formed in London to promote the exhibition of decorative arts alongside fine arts. Along with hosting annual exhibitions at the New Gallery, it also published Arts and Crafts Essays written by the society's members, including Mr. Morris, who unfortunately passed away on the opening day of its 5th exhibition year.

The Arts and Crafts movement grew at odds with the argument that such designs were practical in the modern world. But as more people flocked to the movement, practicality combined with beauty and inspiration, and demand for more aestetic styles grew.

Once the movement reached American shores and came to rest in Chicago, a new type of architect and architecture rose to meet the Arts and Crafts philosophy.

PRAIRIE SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE

If you've noticed or lived in a home built in a way that emphasizes clean horizontal lines and flat or hipped roofs with broad, overhanging eaves; and one that incorporates natural materials such as brick, wood, and stone, then you've likely discovered a model of a Prairie School home. The Prairie School style was the first architectural style to be considered uniquely American. It's name was derived by historians and critics who noted that the design seemed influenced by the landscape (wide, flat prairies) and plant life (natural wood and stone) of the Midwestern prairie.

The most credited architect for developing the Prairie School style was Frank Lloyd Wright, though many others followed. Wright designed not only the house, but also the interior lighting, windows, rugs, furniture, and textiles, tying the entire piece into an artform. One of his designs which is now a National Historic Landmark is the Frederick C. Robie House on the campus of the University of Chicago. Built in 1910, it is considered by many to be the quintessential example of a Prairie School home.

Frederick C. Robie House - Photo Wikipedia Commons

The Prairie School style spread extensively beyond the building of homes. Today you can see it in a plethora of buildings from banks to churches. But still the most famous and creative use was in homes. Frank Lloyd Wright's masterpiece "Fallingwater", a house built over a waterfall in rural Pennsylvania, has been voted "The Best All-Time Work of American Architecture".

Fallingwater - Image by lachrimae72 from Pixabay

The Arts and Crafts movement also influenced other another style of home-building across America with the rise of the popular Craftsman House, a bungalow home that is an offshoot of the Prairie Style home. You can read about them in Denise Weimer's 2019 HHH series here:  

Craftsman Home Exteriors

Craftsman Home Interiors

Craftsman Home Decorating

Arts and Crafts has enjoyed a resurgence in recent decades. While design styles continually change, we all seem to have within us a desire to create beauty around us in some form or another, whether though furnishings, art, clothing, jewelry, or gardens and landscapes. We are all creatives, made in the image of our Great Creator. The broadness of what that means never ceases to amaze me!

Creating with you,

Naomi

https://naomimusch.com/

Art Nouveau influences Polly's style in Book One of the Apron Strings series when she turns her grandfather's Victorian house into a fashionable ladies tea room, combining many elements of beauty. But will the meddlesome tavern owner down the street ruin the respectability of her business, or is there more to him than meets the eye?

Polly, Apron Strings, Book One

Get it here.

The Gift That Keeps On Giving

During the last couple of years, I’ve been featuring stories of the fancy estates and their owners that have populated the lakeshore of Geneva Lake in southern Wisconsin. I still have a few more estates to highlight, but this month I want to focus on one of the first structures to sit close to the shoreline in the town of Lake Geneva. It wasn’t fancy or large and, in appearance looked more like a farm house than a mansion.

The Sturges cottage that became a library.

The home was built around 1859 by Asa Farr, a lawyer who a few years earlier had moved to what was then called Geneva, Wisconsin. The Farr’s lived in the house for a number of years, and by 1871 the family of George Sturges, a wealthy Chicago banker, were spending their summers in the humble home they called "the cottage." When the Great Chicago Fire erupted in October 1871, the Sturges lost their home in the

flames and  they immediately arranged to return to the Farr cottage, which George purchased. They stayed there until George built them a new home on the lakeshore some years later. You can read more about Snug Harbor and the beautiful home George built by going to my post on this blog.

George passed away in 1890, and in 1894, Mary offered to the city of Lake Geneva, as a gift, her cottage and the lots directly to the house's west with the stipulation that the house would be used for a public library and the rest of the property be turned into a park. This involved closing a public street that ran east and west behind her house along the lakeshore. Several collections belonging to public reading rooms in town were combined, and the new Lake Geneva Public Library opened in August 1896.

The small home was Lake Geneva's one and only public library until the mid-1950s when, because of the building's aging structure and the growing size of the library's collection, discussions began about replacing the library building with a new larger one that looked like most every other library. At a later date those plans were scrapped and after soliciting for a new design, the library board chose a design that was submitted by James Dressler, a student of Frank Lloyd Wright. The new building's design was very much in keeping with the prairie style associated with the famous architect. 

In 1953, the collections were packed up; some books vital to students in their studies, as well as novels and nonfiction books, were made available at a community building. The rest were stored at various places round town--some in a church, others at the grade school, and the rest in the basement of a drug store.

On December 12, 1954, the beautiful new library building, fully stocked with its former collection along with new inventory held an open house. People were amazed at the design,

View from the library's window wall.
(personal collection of author)

a stark contrast to that of most libraries at that time. Since then, an addition was made at the west end of the building, so seamless that you wouldn’t realize it wasn’t part of the original building. Also added at the same time, was a bump-out of a window wall that allows people to relax and read or just look at the ever-changing view of the lake. I often spend time there doing research for my historical Lake Geneva novels and usually become so captivated by the view I forget I’m there to work.

Library Park in Spring
(personal collection of author)

You can learn more about this beautiful and unique library by going to their website. There you can click on the link to the picture gallery that contains many photos of the interior and exterior along with some of Library Park. Mary's intent for the park was to give those not able to afford lakeshore property a way to enjoy the lake's beauty. Those of us who are aware of this special gift are very grateful to her. No matter the season, there is always a wonderful view, begging you to find a park bench and rest a spell and maybe read a good book you just found at the library. All thanks to Mary D. Sturges. I like to think if she could came back to see for herself the library and the beautiful park she envisioned for that property she would be very pleased. I know I am. 

Resources: 

Photos: 

Photo of original library: Discover Lake Geneva, Published by Gage Marine, 2003

Photo of interior of original library: History of the Lake Geneva Library, Ginny Hall, 1999, p. 11.
Photo of Mary Sturges: Lake Geneva Newport of the West, Betsy Gage & Ann Wolfmeyer; 1976; Lake Geneva Historical Society, Inc.

Exterior of new library: Website of the Lake Geneva Public Library (see link above)

Historical information: 

History of the Lake Geneva Library, Ginny Hall, 1999

Lake Geneva Newport of the West, Betsy Gage & Ann Wolfmeyer; 1976; Lake Geneva Historical Society, Inc.

At the Lake Magazine; Remember the Ladies by Lisa M. Schmelz

Pam has written most of her life, beginning with her first diary at age eight.  Her newest release, Safe Refuge, is the first of three novels in her Newport of the West series. She resides in northern Illinois with her two rescue cats and is only an hour or so away from her home town of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin where she can often be found researching and nosing for new story ideas.

Take a Break at The Geneva--One of Lake Geneva Wisconsin's Early Hotels

By Pamela S. Meyers

In our tour of the Lake Geneva, Wisconsin mansions that have populated the lakeshore since the late 1800s, this month we’re going to make a stop in the town of Lake Geneva and spend a day at the Hotel Geneva.

Vintage postcard depicting front view of the hotel

Taken in 1967, the hotel's exterior hadn't changed much since 1911

The hotel was designed in 1911 by Frank Lloyd Wright. This wonderful example of Wright’s design style met its fate with the wrecking ball back in the 1970s, so we’ll have to resort to time travel and journey back to the 1950s to enjoy this once-popular hotel.

As we walk down Broad Street, toward the lake, off to the left we spot our destination. The hotel is situated across the street from the Riviera Building that anchors the excursion boat dock and public beach. The Hotel Geneva's advertising promises to offer beautiful views of the lake and close proximity to restaurants and shops.

The hotel opened in 1911 under the name, The Geneva Inn, only to have its name changed two years later to the The Geneva, and that’s the moniker that has stuck until now, some 40 years later. I hear that the locals call it “The Geneva Hotel” although it has never officially been called by that name.

An hotel brochure from the 1950s

The facility offers 70 rooms, each with a bath, dancing and a restaurant that has featured fish and chicken dinners. It is very popular with the Chicago crowd that come on the train on Friday nights and return on Sunday. But since we’re here on a Thursday, and only staying one night, we’re blessed with a room that looks out toward the lake and the Riviera that was built about 20 years ago.

We need to see if any entertainment is scheduled for tonight in the Riviera ballroom. Well-known dance bands have played there, and if we're in luck we can catch one this evening.

Things do get a bit busy in the hotel bar on weekends, but nothing like back in the 20s when it’s said that tunnels from various stores nearby led into the hotel basement to facilitate liquor deliveries. The tunnels also offered ways of escape for the clientele whenever the place was raided. These reports have never been substantiated, but during that period Chicago gangsters such as Al Capone, Bugsy Malone, and others, were said to be in residence at various locations near Lake Geneva, lending plausibility to the stories.

The basement level bar is accessible from the street and does a fair business with the locals during the week. Same for the hotel restaurant, which serves food with an Asian flair. A nice change from the fried chicken and fish they used to serve.

After dinner we'll sit out on the patio that faces the inlet where people dock their pleasure boats and watch the goings on.

Before long we turn in and, since check out is 11:00 am, we’re soon be on our way to another interesting mansion on the lakeshore to be featured next month.

And here we are back in 2016. The ensuing years weren’t kind to the aging hotel and after a fire in 1970, the building met its fate. Thankfully, many artifacts that were retrieved from the building before it was torn down are still around and some have appeared on eBay, while others can be seen at the Geneva Lake Museum and the Lake Geneva Public library. Unique in their art deco design, many have made their way into private collections.

The art deco features included this stylized tulip that appeared in many places in the building.

A multi-story condo building now stands on the property. A webcam sits atop the building, offering a wonderful view of the Riviera and the lake. A view none of the Geneva Hotel guests ever enjoyed since the building was only 2 stories high.

Geneva Towers - What Stands on the property today

Today, many fans of Frank Lloyd-Wright mourn the loss of the building and the many treasures that got away. I have vague memories of it, but what child is interested in the history of a building or the significance of it's designer? 

Resources: Pictures of the 1967 view, 1950s brochure, Lake Geneva Tulip Blurb are all from the Wright Studies at Steinerag.com where you can find links to sites on Frank Lloyd Wright and his connection to Lake Geneva.

Picture of Geneva Towers: First Weber Realtors

A native of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, author Pamela S. Meyers lives in suburban Chicago with her two rescue cats. Her novels include Thyme for Love, which has recently been rereleased on Amazon and her 1933 historical romance, Love Finds You in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. Love is All We Need (the sequel to Thyme for Love) will release in 2016, and Second Chance Love from Bling!, an imprint of Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas, will release in January 2017. When she isn’t at her laptop writing her latest novel, she can often be found nosing around Wisconsin and other Midwestern spots for new story ideas