Heart of Oak

The Stickley Museum in Parsippany preserves the ‘honest’ and ‘sturdy’ furniture of the original master Craftsman.

By: Susan Van Dongen

With its gabled roof, dormers and diamond-paned casement windows, the Stickley house resembles a Bavarian hunting lodge or summer retreat. Photo by Bryan Grigsby

   Master furniture maker Gustav Stickley would no doubt be saddened to see suburban sprawl encroaching on his beloved Craftsman Farms in Morris County. He despised the Victorian era’s materialistic culture as much as its overly ornate aesthetic and came to Parsippany to create the property that he called his "Garden of Eden."
   When he began construction of the country estate in 1909 — the only buildings he designed and built for his own use — the area was indeed a rural haven, with 650 acres of apple and pear orchards, vineyards and trails. Now trucks grunt by on busy Route 10, but the homestead itself is buffered by lush greenery. Walk in and around this National Historic Site and you can feel the weight of the present day lighten a little.
   From April through November, the Stickley Museum at Craftsman Farms sponsors guided tours to enrich visitors’ understanding of Mr. Stickley’s philosophy and craft. The site also offers a children’s camp, lectures, craft workshops, book signings and other cultural events. The grounds are open year-round.

The structure is made of large chestnut logs — once native to the Northeast — consistent with Gustav Stickley’s belief in using only indigenous materials. Photo by Bryan Grigsby

   Born in Wisconsin in 1858, Gustav Stickley was the oldest son of German immigrant parents and learned stone masonry from his father. As a young teen, "Gus" came to learn woodworking by necessity after the elder Stickley died. His mother moved the family to northeastern Pennsylvania, where an uncle had a successful chair factory. All four Stickley brothers went into the business, but Gus was the one who really took to the craft.
   His skills and business acumen grew until he had his own furniture manufacturing company in upstate New York. He rode the wave of the "Arts and Crafts" movement, which emerged in Europe and the United States as a popular reaction against Victoriana. A true visionary, Mr. Stickley promoted an all-encompassing philosophy that went with his furniture, espousing his ideas in his publication The Craftsman.
   One of his main tenets was to design, construct and select the site of a home compatible with its surrounding environment. This is immediately apparent when you visit Craftsman Farms.

"Stickley felt the log house was very uniquely American," says Tracey Sayles, museum education assistant. Photo by Bryan Grigsby

   With its gabled roof, dormers and diamond-paned casement windows, the house resembles a Bavarian hunting lodge or summer retreat. Historians say the design was intended to pay homage to his German ancestry. The structure is made of large chestnut logs — once native to the Northeast — consistent with his belief in using only indigenous materials for construction.
   "Stickley felt the log house was very uniquely American," says Tracey Sayles, museum education assistant.
   Mr. Stickley had planned to establish a cooperative community, including a vocational school for young men. Finances didn’t permit him to go ahead with the idea and he decided to make the main building into a private home instead. In 1911, Mr. Stickley, his wife and six children moved in.
   Off the porch, at 50-by-25 feet, the main room would have worked well as a recreation room for school boys. Mr. Stickley broke it into three smaller rooms, each designated by furniture and function.
   The living room was designed to be the most comfortable. Four square oak chairs are gathered around one of the home’s five fireplaces, all with copper hoods and special inscriptions. A line from Geoffrey Chaucer graces the living room fireplace: "The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne," a sentiment that would have appealed to Mr. Stickley.
   Ms. Sayles says Mr. Stickley used two words when talking about his construction: "honest" and "sturdy." The word "honest" applies if you look at the actual working joints, pins and knobs that hold the furniture together. Or, studying an oak library table, you see how brass tacks are not just decorative — they actually hold the leather table top on.

The dining room boasts chestnut glass-front cabinets, custom designed to fit in the corners without wasting any space. Photo by Bryan Grigsby

   As for "sturdy," Ms. Sayles explains that, "Mr. Stickley used only quarter-sawn, thick white oak. The tree trunk would be sawn down the length and then into quarters. You’d get these wedge-shaped pieces and saw your boards from that, so you’re cutting with the natural systems of the tree. It makes the piece of wood stronger and also makes it easier to work with.
   "With the quarter-sawn technique, you also get the striping from the natural growth deposits, which makes the wood famous and prized. It gives the wood such a beautiful, natural finish, which again (goes against) the Victorian ideal of man-made decoration. Mr. Stickley wanted to spotlight the wood’s own ornamentation.

"Color was very important, and it’s often said that walking into the Stickley house was like walking into a forest," Ms. Sayles says. Photo by Bryan Grigsby

   "Color was very important, and it’s often said that walking into the Stickley house was like walking into a forest," Ms. Sayles says. "The log walls were dyed a warm red-brown, the ceiling boards were olive green, the floor boards were chocolate brown and all of the accent wood was dyed a leaf green. The amber glass lanterns give the (effect) of broken sunlight coming through the trees."
   Over the years, the dyes on the log walls have faded to a dull brown, and the non-profit Craftsman Farms Foundation is working carefully to locate paints and dyes to match the original colors. Painstaking work is also being done to install a modern heating, ventilation and air-conditioning system. The house had previously been heated only by the fireplaces.
   Downstairs, glass-front Stickley bookcases hold numerous books and copies of The Craftsman. The red, blue and green binding and the gilded titles of the books add to the color scheme.
   The dining room boasts chestnut glass-front cabinets, custom designed to fit in the corners without wasting any space.
   "Everything was designed to be functional, not frivolous," Ms. Sayles says.
   A magnificent original Stickley sideboard stands off the dining room, one of his favorite pieces. The ringed drawer handles and hammered copper and steel hardware give the large piece a medieval quality.

   Unfortunately, Mr. Stickley tried to expand his empire too far and at a bad time, during World War I. In 1917, he went bankrupt and sold the farm to a wealthy local family. In 1989, the property was about to be sold to a real estate developer, but a host of concerned local citizens, antique collectors and furniture enthusiasts rallied to save it. Local and state government purchased the house and some of the surrounding grounds that are now run by the non-profit foundation.

Downstairs, glass-front Stickley bookcases hold numerous books and copies of The Craftsman. Photo by Bryan Grigsby

   Most of the members and employees of the Craftsman Farms foundation seem to be students of the Arts and Crafts movement, as well as Stickley furniture collectors. The foundation hopes to eventually restore the property to its original appearance, as well as retrieve or replace interior accouterments.
   "There wasn’t enough money to purchase the property and all the pieces," Ms. Sayles says. "Much of the furniture was auctioned at the time. Little by little, though, things are coming back to the house."
   The Stickley Museum at Craftsman Farms, Route 10 West
and Manor Lane, three miles west of I-287, Parsippany, offers tours April 1
through Nov. 15, Wed.-Fri. noon-3 p.m., Sat.-Sun. 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Admission
costs $6 for adults, $5 for students and seniors, free for children under 12.
Craftsman Farms will host a national Craft Fair Sept. 22-23. Tickets cost $10
and $3 for children 6-12. For information, call (973) 540-1165. On the Web:
www.stickleymuseum.org