“An illustrated monthly magazine in the interest of better art, better work and a better more reasonable way of living.”
~The Craftsman the magazine of the Arts & Crafts movement, edited by Gustav Stickley, was published from October 1910- December 1916 & was taken over by Art World in 1917.
Stuckley’s interest in furniture began as a carpenter, but inspired by the Arts & Crafts Movement of the late 1800’s in England, he created a whole design movement giving identity & voice to the Movement in America. Through his ideology of simplicity, craftsmanship & wholesome living, he built a home decorating empire including a large store, modeled on today’s department store, featuring his furniture & metalwork. In the store was a beautiful restaurant where they served fresh food that was grown on his farm.
Stickley promoted his goods & his ideals through The Craftsman magazine which featured articles about architecture, interior design & about living well. A vehicle to educate the public on the Arts & Crafts Movement, the first two issues were devoted to William Morris & John Ruskin. Articles on Morris include praise for Morris as a poet, a storyteller, an artist & a handicraftsman, as well as “an unprejudiced man of wealth, culture & position” & “versatile genius.” Stickley laments Morris’ recent passing calling him – “a lost leader, friend & brother.” I consider myself a Morris groupie, but I do not feel that I ever knew him before I read Stickley’s words.
With that, let’s pause to consider the fact that in the first eight volumes of The Craftsman, from October 1901 to September 1905, Irene Sargent, an American art historian, made eighty-four contributions, & nearly all of its first three issues were written primarily by her. An academic, her aesthetic is succinctly expressed by a quote she published of Thomas Carlyle: “ornament is the first spiritual need of barbarous man.” This book, a chronology of Sargents’ life, by Cleota Reed, was hand-printed by Andre Chavez of The Clinker Press.
It is my feeling that though it is likely that the Morris tributes above flowed from her pen, Stickley truly loved & understood the European Art & Crafts Movement & was profoundly influenced by it, considering it his mission to bring it to America. Being the editor & publisher, you can be assured The Craftsman was Stickley’s voice, as often expressed by Sargent.
However, as much as Stickley admired Morris, rather than being another child of the medieval period on which the European Movement was modeled, Stickley’s uniquely American, colonial-inspired, cultural aesthetic was clear from the magazine’s inception & grew ever bolder with each issue.
What I consider to be the most valuable aspect of the American Arts & Crafts Movement was its focus on simplicity, honesty, & cooperation as the ingredients of living well. He was a proponent of building in harmony with the environment by using natural materials & was also an early supporter of conservation. You can see an example of the The Craftsman magazine’s beautiful & eloquent content here.
He encouraged his readers to become proficient in manual tasks like carpentry even publishing plans of how to build his furniture designs at home. His articles provided guidance on doing handcrafted work such as embroidery & there was much written on gardening. Stickley was the major tastemaker of his age & in my humble opinion, taught folks to live fulfilling lives centered on creativity, self-sufficiency, health & family.
An example of articles contained in the magazine can be viewed here, a charming article about Christmas & another informative one about lighting, a very new technology when it was written.
And, please take a look at these videos about him, his life & work. I have included a trailer of the documentary film, Gustav Stickley: American Craftsman, available on Prime Video. It contains much of what you need to know about the Movement in this country. What I have written here is so abbreviated that I am feeling a bit disrespectful, but if it encourages you learn more about this brilliant & heartful man, then my little article has done its job.
STAY IN THE BUNGALOW KNOW!!!
Sign up for our newsletter & receive our FREE E-book, 7 VITAL Things to Do Before You Hire a Contractor.
CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS FROM WINTER’S GARDEN
December, 1911
In tracing the custom of decorating the church and home with green boughs, vines and flowers on Christmas day—a custom dear to many people in many lands—we wander through both Christian and pagan eras. The records disclose curious, interesting and beautiful facts and fancies of historical and poetical importance. Some writers see in this custom a yearly commemoration of Christ’s entry into Jerusalem when the people waved pine branches as token of their rejoicing.
In Isaiah we read, “The glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee, the fir-tree, the pine-tree and the box together to beautify the place of my sanctuary.” Nehemiah commanded the people, on some occasion of rejoicing, to “go forth unto the mount and fetch olive branches and myrtle branches and palm branches and branches of thick trees.”
It seems strange that in spite of these authoritative quotations and incidents, the early Christians forbade the use of flowers and branches in their church, no matter what the occasion. The Puritans also denounced the use of flowers or greens as “vain abominations” for the same reason—namely, that the custom was said to be of pagan origin. “Trymming of the temples with hangynges, flowers, boughs and garlondes was taken from the heathen people, whiche decked their idols and houses with suche array,” wrote Polydore Vergil.
The reason among the Druids for bringing in bits of evergreen from the woods and adorning the house is a most charming and lovable one—”The houses were decked with evergreens in December that the sylvan spirits might repair to them and remain unnipped with frost and cold winds until a milder season had renewed the foliage of their darling abodes.” How gracious a way of luring the shy, sweet wild-woods spirits into the homes of men!
The Druids with ceremonies of great solemnity used to collect mistletoe “against the festival of winter solstice.” Only the oaks bearing mistletoe were sacred to this ancient order of men, and they made solemn processions to such oaks, a prince of the order cutting the mistletoe with a golden sickle. It is recorded that the people’s reverence for the priests proceeded in great measure from the cures which the priests effected by means of this curious green plant of the pearl-like berries. It was collected thus ceremoniously by the Druids because it was supposed to drive away evil spirits.
Sir John Colbatch boldly said that “it must have been designed by the Almighty for further and more noble purpose than barely to feed thrushes or to be hung up surreptitiously to drive away evil spirits.”
But whatever the origin of decking our homes with holly, mistletoe or with branches of any green plant hardy enough to carry with it a hint of immortality by remaining fresh and green throughout the apparent death of the world during the winter—the custom is now well established, and who would willingly let it slip into oblivion! It would seem strange indeed not to welcome this child’s festival,—the holiest festival of the year’s calendar,—with fragrant boughs from the forest set at our doorways and windows and on our altars. It is a fitting and beautiful way to symbolize our love and worship of the One who made immortality credible.
Nature has set many a lovely plant in her winter garden of rich perpetual green, giving some of them an added charm of scarlet berry, or berry of blue or white or purple. Some have hardy, glossy leaves of wonderful shapeliness, some of them have fragrant needles, some exhale rare aromatic incense, some even put forth hardy flowers of glowing crimson or purest white.
Of those bearing bright berries that we can gather from the woods or fields to adorn our homes at this Christmas season, perhaps the general favorite in the East is the holly—in the West it is the toyon. These two glossy leaved bushes of the scarlet berries are too well known to need words in their favor. The mistletoe of the South and of the West should be mentioned in the same breath with these favorites, for they are closely associated in our minds. The “Lord of Misrule” and the “Abbot of Unreason” [both terms apply to a peasant or low level church official appointed to be in charge of Christmas revelries, which often included drunkenness and wild partying] have claimed these white Christmas berries from the time of their first hilarious coronation day when fate was precipitated with surety upon the head of the maiden of their merry courts who was caught under the fruiting branch of their wand—the mistletoe bough!
The snowberry that holds large waxy berries through most of the winter is well known in both the East and the West and lightens dark corners of rooms in most decorative way, looking like miniature snowballs—that do not fade away at the approach of fire. Barberries have won a well-deserved popularity as Christmas decorations, so also has the winterberry or black alder with its red fruit. Several of our thorn bushes show bright berries in the whiter. The viburnums with black berries, the wild currant with small but pretty red fruit, the spindle tree with pink berries and the orange and red bittersweet can be obtained with a little search of open groves and sheltered pastures.
Among the evergreens whose beautiful leaves are polished to glossiest perfection by Jack Frost, are the magnolias, rhododendrons, mountain laurel, bay laurel, madrone. The pepper tree of the Southwest drips with red berries as well as sparkles with shining leaves. The checkerberry also combines red berries and polished leaves, though it is a tiny humble little plant compared to the showy pepper tree. Galax leaves are coming into favor, and deservedly so, for they are of the richest, glossiest dark green and bronze, and their heart-shaped surfaces are beautifully veined, a fine example of natural engraving.
As to vines with which to drape mantel, table and picture, the wild smilax of the South and the ground pine of the North cannot be surpassed, for they are charmingly graceful, retain their fresh color for a long time and have decorative qualities wherever placed. The Christmas fern which grows quite universally throughout the country is another graceful plant that lends itself graciously to decorations of every nature. The winter garden shoves nothing lovelier than the shapely green fronds of this fern, and it retains its rich green whether covered with snow or taken into the warm atmosphere of the home.
Besides all these green things that are to be had as reward of a walk in field or forest, are the evergreen trees of all kinds, the firs, spruces, arborvitaes, pines, hemlocks, whose balsamic fragrance add so much to Christmas cheer. The Christmas rose should be better known—should be made to bloom in our gardens as well as in Nature’s garden.
Delicate mosses, lichens and little rock ferns can often be found on the sheltered side of rocks, that are as green as when summer holds sway over our land.
With such an array of green growing things to choose from, things full of sentiment, of dear associations, of rare beauty, why not give ourselves the joy of a search for them through winter fields and woods ? Would not such a search be just about the best part of the season’s merry making. ”Would we not be entering more into the spirit of Christmas by going out to meet it, as it were, by searching for these aromatic symbols of immortality and bringing them into our homes, rather than by unromantically ordering wreaths, vines and branches from the florist’s.”
The Craftsman Magazine was the premier publication of the American Arts & Crafts Movement. Each article promotes a natural, simple lifestyle in beautifully expressive prose. Read my article on how I created my Craftsman Magazine Christmas here.
STAY IN THE BUNGALOW KNOW!!!
Sign up for our newsletter & receive our FREE E-book, 7 VITAL Things to Do Before You Hire a Contractor.
Life changes can interrupt the most heart-felt, best laid plans. A marriage, a divorce, a new baby, a job transfer, a lay-off, a family member in need of care, any one of these things can profoundly affect your circumstances.
So, after much soul-searching & considering options, it’s time to be selling your historic house, the one that was going to be your forever home. You want to ensure that it doesn’t end up in the hands of a flipper, (with my pardon to those who maintain & preserve historic features. You know that you are rare!) or the victim of someone who thinks that the plot of land on which your precious bungalow sits would be a prime spot for a marble clad McMansion.
So, how do you attract the right buyer when selling your historic house?
THE IDEAL HISTORIC HOUSE BUYER
Let’s pause to consider what your ideal buyer might look like.
1. They love all aspects of old houses.
2. They love old neighborhoods.
3. They understand that old neighborhoods have the potential to transition.
4. They are financially qualified to be able to easily get a mortgage.
5. Your home’s location is convenient for them.
6. Your home’s size & layout will suit their needs.
7. They have sufficient resources to deal with the issues that can be found in an old house.
So, how do you attract this buyer?
Another numbered list:
Lo-o-o-ong before you make this decision-
1. Research the history of your house & neighborhood. Dig deep. In our disconnected world, people are searching for connections. You want to make the builders & former owners of your home real & lovable. Read my article on researching your home’s history. It should provide you with the information you need to flesh out the cast of characters & bring them to life.
When the time comes, you will have an abundance of material to display in a beautifully arranged notebook with your other marketing materials. You might want to frame any images you find in period frames & hang them in a group. They’re your house’s family!
2. Collect a library of information on homes of your period. Study these materials while you live there. Display them with your other sales materials. You might want to include them as a gift to the new homeowners.
3. Learn basic principles of historic preservation so that you make the right choices. The general public is becoming more & more aware of preservation. They may not share your love of purple, but the right buyer will understand why you didn’t open up the kitchen.
4. Create an organized list of your service providers with all pertinent facts- contact info, pricing, skills, caveats.
5. Create a dedicated file for all repairs & improvements as you go along. I keep a “House Box” with all my receipts, service contracts, etc. Also keep a warrantee/instructions file for all appliances & systems in the box.
These will be included in your sales display.
6. Here’s a biggy. Most municipalities have historically designated houses. With all the research that you have done, you probably have sufficient information to apply for & be granted such a designation, at the local, state or even national level. This designation can go far in protecting your house, at least its exterior. There is nothing cannot be challenged in a court of law, but generally this designation will chase people away who want to seriously maul your house.
When I sold the Hare House, I made much of the fact that it was designated, in all its marketing. Most of the potential buyers who came to view it were very eager to own an important house, but I can remember showing it to a woman one day who slid in expressing her enthusiasm that it was on 1 1/2 lots. I don’t know what architectural mayhem she was envisioning but I happily pointed out its historic status. When she asked what that meant I cheerfully said, “The City of Los Angeles regulates all construction & maintenance. They fully control everything, but you pay for it.”
She didn’t make it past the entryway.
7. Connect with your neighborhood group. Older neighborhoods tend to have strong neighborhood associations. You will make good friends & learn much about the history of your area.
My participation in my neighborhood association allowed me to produce a historic documentary film about its origins. Its premier to a sell-out crowd at Tampa Theatre, one of America’s most elaborate movie palaces was the outstanding achievement of my preservation life.
In these groups, you will connect with local Realtors. If & when the time comes to put your house on the market, you want to know these folks well. I had a bit of a prickly personal relationship with the Realtor who sold the Hare House but I knew that she was the most knowledgeable, competent & connected & I didn’t think twice about hiring her. I was dazzled by her every move. Thanks to her large mailing list, the open house was flooded with old house loving people. Thanks to her connections, by the time of the open we already had offers. She had a great relationship with the agent of the buyer I liked the best & the whole transaction was astonishingly smooth.
I also recommend taking an active role in one of these groups. You can leave your neighborhood better than you found it.
7. Support local businesses. They are part of your community. Many of them are your neighbors. When the time comes, contact them about your house sale. They may have customers who like your area & would love to live there. Several in my neighborhood allowed me to display my sales fliers on their counters.
OH, DEAR!
Yes, this is a really long article. I have spent a week writing & re-writing it to make it concise but selling your historic house to the right buyer takes some planning & some work. Stick with me.
BEFORE YOU PUT YOUR OLD HOUSE ON THE MARKET
IF YOU HAVE NO $$$$ (Hey, it’s happened to all of us.)
1. De-clutter. Yard sale or donate anything that you do not need. Just get rid of it! This includes furniture.
2. Put away everything that’s left that you do not need to function daily. If you have a place to stash extraneous furniture items, stash them.
3. Leave out only the decorative items that truly enhance/complement the house. I have old family photos that I framed in period frames. These stayed & got many positive comments.
4. Free up storage as much as possible. If you look like you’re overflowing, it will read as being not enough storage for their stuff. This includes attic, basement, garage, kitchen- any place anything can be stashed. I know this conflicts with item 2. I have no solution to this, but better stashed in storage than in the house.
5. Clean the house from top to bottom. Use natural, unscented products. I clean everything in my house with white vinegar, full-strength in the bathroom & mixed with water elsewhere. (Make sure that you have good ventilation. It’s pretty acidic.)
Hit the walls where there are smudges, doors & door frames, & get behind any furniture that you can. And, yes, wash the dang windows!
Wash or shake out curtains & draperies. Vacuum the blinds.
Clean the kitchen so that anyone would feel comfortable eating off of any surface. Ditto the bathroom.
6. Rent a carpet shampooer & clean those carpets. Use unscented products.
7. Wash your sheets & mattress covers & your pillows if they are washable. Again, skip the scented products. I wash with baking soda, letting stinkier loads soak. I do not use fabric softener. It is made with cheap, petroleum-based ingredients & fragrance & is very unhealthful. Now’s maybe a good time to ditch it forever.
You want your house to look & smell fresh, fresh, fresh. Many people have (or wish to avoid) chemical sensitivities so skip the air fresheners. You don’t want to trigger an asthma attack in a prospective buyer!
It’s a spring cleaning on steroids!
8. Open your windows & turn on fans as much as you can. We’re going for fresh. (Remember?)
9. Clean litter boxes & keep them clean.
10. Tidy your lawn & gardens. This includes vehicles, yard equipment. Now’s a good time to sell or donate any that you do not use.
IF YOU HAVE $$$ TO SPEND
All of the above, plus,
1. Paint your interior, especially the kitchen & the bathrooms. Use lighter tone, period appropriate colors. None of the people who bought my houses repainted.
4. Install seasonal flowers in bloom. I stayed up until 2 AM sticking fall flowers along my sidewalk the night before Jane & Linda came to photo my house for BUNGALOW: THE ULTIMATE ARTS & CRAFTS HOME, 2 days before my open. Yes, I was fried!
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW BEFORE SELLING YOUR HISTORIC HOUSE
1. Understand the market for your price point in your area. Right now, inventory is very low so although interest rates are high, the shortage of houses is acute, raising the value of those available.
2. Do your own comp’s.
A. Look at properties near you online. See what is selling & what has recently sold. This will help you have realistic expectations.
B. If you can hit some open houses, or visit some houses for sale in your area, so much the better.
3. Understand your listing contract. It is a legal, binding contract with your Realtor. She may be the sister of your beloved dog groomer but it is not a casual relationship. Work everything out before you sign & definitely before you’re in negotiations with a buyer.
My Realtor understood that I was not going to choose the highest offer, I was going to choose the best steward. This agreement was in the listing contract because it could dip into her commission.
4. Get a home inspection if you can afford it so that you will have no surprises.
DISCLOSE EVERYTHING! Nothing will dampen the enthusiasm of even the most ardent buyer than feeling like they are being lied to. My inspection from when I purchased the house was there on the table with my current inspection. I disclosed that my inspector was my cousin & the buyer’s Realtor was fine with it. Cuz had such a great reputation that there was nobody else to refer!
MARKETING YOUR HISTORIC HOUSE
1. 11” X 17” paper costs about a nickel a sheet. Doing a 4 page flier in a foldover instead of the standard 2 back & front, sets you apart from the crowd & allows you to really tell your bungalow’s story. Here are some things you could include:
A photo & a description of the features of the interior & exterior.
Information about the style of the house.
A concise history of the house.
A list of updates such as plumbing, electrical, HVAC, new paint, landscaping.
A diagram of the layout.
Information about the neighborhood, its history, amenities & character.
2. There are several sites online that promote old houses for sale. If your Realtor will cover the cost, that’s wonderful but even if she doesn’t, I think it’s worth the expenditure to this targeted market.
IT’S ON THE MARKET
NO $$$
1. Keep vases full of fresh cut flowers & or greens. I would skip the artificial ones. If you don’t have anything growing in your yard, ask your neighbors. It’s in their best interest for your house to sell at high value. Keep the water & foliage fresh every day.
2. Keep the entire property spotless. Repeat the BEFORE steps as needed.
3. Keep it fresh. Forget the liver, Brussel sprouts & fish. Unless you live on cinnamon toast & chocolate chip cookies, get even the more mild food smells out fast.
4. Keep kitty’s box clean.
5. Do not use air fresheners. They are just as toxic as fabric softener.
6. Make all the beds every day.
7. Make sure that your towels are fresh every day.
$$$
1. Keep cleaning & refreshing.
2. Fill the house full of cut flowers. If they can come from your garden, so much the better. I make large arrangements that are half bought flowers & half greens from the garden. Change the water often & keep the flowers fresh, replacing as needed.
Fresh. Yep, I said it 25 times & I’ll say it again. FRESH!!!!!!!!!
OPEN HOUSE
1. Ensure your Realtor is going to promote your bungalow on every line that she has. My open was so full of people that we could hardly make it out the door. People were taking turns to see our beautiful bathroom. It was a total party! And it generated 5 offers.
2. Create your display table with the brochures, the history notebook, the home inspection, the reference books tided in a big red bow, (It’s a gift!) any materials about the neighborhood. Maybe tuck your house box under the table for easy access. My Tampa house had been featured in American Bungalow magazine & I purchased a book stand & propped a copy of the mag open to its full page spread.
3. Request that your Realtor place signs up on every major street & if you’re a long way from busier streets, she needs additional signs that guide people to your house.
4. Contact all your friends & invite them to come.
5. This is the day to have new, fresh flowers out.
6. If it’s a hot day, provide tiny, chilled bottles of water for all visitors.
7. Have soft music playing. I prefer classical.
8. Have as many windows open as you can, depending on the weather.
9. Turn on all the lights.
10. Follow your Realtors guidance.
SELL YOUR HISTORIC HOUSE TO THE BEST STEWARD
I am hoping that if you take these steps, you will attract such a flow of qualified buyers that you will be able to take your pick. The woman I chose for the Hare House called me for advice before making any changes & she even flew Jane Powell down from Oakland to consult on the kitchen restoration.
I wish you the best. I also request that you send me any tips that I may have omitted.
STAY IN THE BUNGALOW KNOW!!!
Sign up for our newsletter & receive our FREE E-book, 7 VITAL Things to Do Before You Hire a Contractor.
Wondering how to decorate your bungalow for the holidays? Let this quote by William Morris, the father of the Arts & Crafts Movement be thy guide.
I grew up with a mother dedicated to creating magical moments for her family, & zhuzhing up the place for the holidays every year was high on the list. (Though her credo was,”Less is more,” I’m not going to swear that she was true to it.) In consequence, as the days at the Hare House, my 1910 Craftsman began getting shorter, & the weather started cooling, I was prompted to consider the holiday decorations that the Reverend & Grace Hare might have chosen back in 1910. Though childless, they had family nearby & were of sufficient standing in the community that it would have been expected that they would entertain. The Hares were reasonably affluent, with refined tastes, but they were not lavish spenders. The lot they chose was not on the prestigious Eagle Rock street of Hill Drive. The house had only two bedrooms & a single bath. In the bathroom they chose to use scored plaster instead of tile. The fireplace sported a modest hearth, covered in smooth tile rather than the more ornate Batchelder that was often seen in our neighborhood. I could not imagine that the Hares would change their habits for the holidays. My thought was to follow Morris’ inspiration & choose the simplicity of natural materials from Grace’s garden decorate my bungalow.
PLANNING MY HOLIDAY GARDEN
“The houses were decked with evergreens in December
that the sylvan spirits might repair to them and remain unnipped
with frost & cold winds until a milder season had renewed the
foliage of their darling abodes.”
~Quoting the Druids in CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS FROM WINTER’S GARDEN, The Craftsman Magazine, 1911.
My first bungalow holiday in The Hare House, was a year in the making. I moved in in December of 1998 & started thinking about the next Christmas. I had been living in a terrific Mid-Century hillside house in Pasadena. Because the Hare House was built before electricity came to that part of what would be Los Angeles, I didn’t feel like I would do the same celebration with the 50’s colored lights & Blow Mold Santas.
As I planted my garden beds at the Hare House, I thought of Stickley, & wanting to remain “unipped” in the cold winds of Los Angeles, I considered what might be good choices for Christmas foliage for my darling abode. Asparagus ferns are a total takeover nightmare, but I decided to plant a couple to use on the deep mantel & above the built-ins in the dining room. They bounce back even after the closest haircut & provide a nice fluffy element. I am in love with ferns, so I planted a few different types, again thinking of bedecking the halls.
CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS FROM WINTER’S GARDEN also suggested, “Of those bearing bright berries that we can gather from the woods or fields to adorn our homes at this Christmas season, perhaps the general favorite in the East is the holly—in the West it is the toyon. These two glossy leaved bushes of the scarlet berries are too well known to need words in their favor.”
I was lucky enough to have toyons on my property, perennial California native shrubs that had been trimmed into trees. Also known as Christmas berry, I knew that they would provide me with all the red berries that I would need. Fortunately, the tree in back produced a sufficient quantity that I could leave all the lovely, red berries on the tree to decorate my front yard.
When I left L.A. for Florida, I requested that my sister-in-law in California gather toyon berries & bring them to me in her suitcase. I adorned the mantel & sideboard of my 1925 bungalow with the little red berries from California, adding large, shiny magnolia, the tree of the South, leaves to the mix.
I crafted a fluffy wreath out of pine cuttings, added pinecones & a bow & hung it on my door to greet my guests as they entered, after walking up the poinsettia lined steps.
LET THERE BE LIGHT
Though Edison offered strings of decorative electric lights as far back as 1890, power would not come to Eagle Rock until 1914 so I used candles to re-create the simple, but festive holiday home of these people for whom I held such affinity & admiration.
I clipped branches of our huge, old pine which I augmented with branches of other conifers & fluffed up with the ferns I had planted the year before. These I piled the on mantel & the top of my sideboard, & strew across my dining table, then tucked in candleholders of various sizes. I added pinecones & the prickly little pods I’d gathered from the neighborhood. The pods I had sprayed gold & I handled them with care because they were full of nasty little stickers. For color I used batches of toyon berries & pomegranates from my local Trader Joe’s. I had considered apples, but discarded the idea in favor of the richer color of the exotic pomegranate.
My tree was fir. Since childhood my mother had taught me about Christmas trees adorned by candles. Because they came into common use in 1917, & the town where she lived had been electrified in 1911, I’m thinking that she, born in 1919, never got to have the experience of candles balanced on the ends of branches. My mother’s tales of these candles included stories of horrible fires so I didn’t go that route, instead opting for strings of white electric lights which seemed like a good (but sorry) compromise, though quite likely the Hare’s used candles on their tree. I had some of my mother’s childhood glass & celluloid ornaments which I embellished with the ones that I had gifted her over the years.
My mother loved tinsel & insisted that each piece be carefully draped a single piece at a time, over individual branches. Tinsel originated in Germany as strands of thin, beaten silver to reflect the light from the candles. Being affordable to only the wealthy, the next generation of tinsel was made of an alloy of tin & lead. I’m thinking that due to the avarice of the lead industry, which was allowed to continue for decades, both our families suffered the misfortune of handling this material.
The gift wrapping at the time was very simple, usually red or green or white tissue paper, or even plain brown paper. Modern gift wrap was invented by the Hall brothers, of Hallmark fame, in 1917 & it seemed a bit out of place in our simple holiday. I did use cellophane tape though, which was not invented until 1930. String & sealing wax were used prior & I’m an admitted Luddite but with the craziness of the holidays, I didn’t feel like sitting around manipulating hot wax around the noses of overly curious kitties.
”Would we not be entering more into the spirit of Christmas by going out to meet it, as it were, by searching for these aromatic symbols of immortality & bringing them into our homes, rather than by unromantically ordering wreaths, vines & branches from the florist’s.”
My decor was very simple but elegantly brought the aromatic, natural world indoors & clearly conveyed the spirit of the holiday. As I picked up my shears & my grandmother’s woven basket, & headed out to the garden with my pussy-cat, I thought of Grace Hare & my grandmother preparing for their holidays & felt the peace of the season.
ENJOY THE HOLIDAYS AT STICKLEY’S CRAFTSMAN FARMS
The Stickley Museum at Craftsman Farms is a National Historic Landmark & historic house museum, located on the campus of Craftsman Farms in Parsippany, New Jersey. It was built by Gustav Stickley between 1908 & 1917 as the most complete expression of his “Craftsman” style & provides an unmatched opportunity to experience Stickley’s ideas about the impact of architecture, design, & landscape on a meaningful life. The Log House, which was the Stickley family home, will be decorated in period holiday décor & will be open for holiday tours. Their Crafts-Mas Open Houses are: Saturday, Dec 2nd Saturday, Dec 9th Saturday, Dec 16th Their holiday tours of the log house are: Dec 3rd: Tours at 12pm and 3pm Dec 10th: Tours at 12pm and 3pm Dec 17th: Tours at 12pm and 3pm
See you there!
STAY IN THE BUNGALOW KNOW!!!
Sign up for our newsletter & receive our FREE E-book, 7 VITAL Things to Do Before You Hire a Contractor.
I love watching old Christmas movies to celebrate the day. They somehow minimize the disappointment of opening all my gifts & discovering once more that there is no time machine under the tree. These old films are the most efficient way I know of taking a trip back to yesteryear.
Here’s why I love them-
The evolution of cinema both mirrors & is influenced by the three factors that compel me to write this blog:
1. Old films demonstrate the development of all the technology that is related to & utilized in the medium;
2. They submerge me in the affairs of the day & offer piercing & entertaining social commentary;
3. They delight me with their wondrous display of the prevailing popular aesthetic.
The Industrial Revolution of the 1800’s was the great mover of all these factors. The invention of the steam engine, powering locomotives & ships shrank the barrier of distance, creating a smaller more accessible world. Steam also powered machines in factories, profoundly changing the cultures of Europe & the U.S. from agrarian to those of manufacturing.
Electricity lengthened the day & powered machines that reduced the amount of time required to do work & produce goods. The telegraph, the telephone the printing press & the emerging medium of the cinema, facilitated communication allowing viewpoints to be shared rapidly across the globe.
One of the main issues addressed at this time in both fact & fiction was social class, the differences between the poor & the rich, the urban & the rural dweller. Scrooge was a character who clearly defined this divide & Christmas provided a good opportunity to show how this affected families.
High mortality rates created a culture focused on death. During the reign of Queen Victoria, black or dark mourning dress would often be worn for much of people’s lives. Symbols of death were popular in all forms of art. Each of these films has a darkness that is quite in contrast to later films. Think Home Alone!
The first films made & those since actually, were a product of these 3 factors- technology, world affairs & culture. They are very different from the holiday films made today which suits me just fine. (Though I do love Home Alone.) I plan to watch them all on Christmas day & I invite you to join me!
SO LET’S WATCH SOME OLD CHRISTMAS MOVIES!
1935
Scrooge (1:17:35)
ARF
Beautifully filmed & superbly acted by Seymour Hicks, an accomplished actor since the age of 6, Scrooge is the first sound version of the Charles Dickens classic A Christmas Carol.
1913
OLD SCROOGE (AKA: SCROOGE, A CHRISTMAS CAROL) (39:59)
The Vault
An old Christmas movie that is mute, with intertitles, Old Scrooge was released in America in 1926.
1912
A Christmas Accident (14:47)
Retro Video Vault
A charming story of a miser who is redeemed by Santa.
1910
A Christmas Carol (13:00)
Throwback
An Edison silent film, one of the earliest cinematic adaptations of the classic Charles Dickens Christmas story.
1910
Making Christmas Crackers (6:19)
BFI National Archive
This amusing film takes us from a factory, to a family, to Santa.
1910
A Trap for Santa Claus (15:41)
Cult Cinema Classics
A rather complex story with a tragic beginning & a joyous ending.
1907
A Little Girl Who Did Not Believe in Santa Claus (14:09)
During the period of early cinema, Edison & other companies created short Christmas movies. This one begins with what seems a classic holiday movie premise—but delivers a lovely, unconventional twist.
1905
The Night Before Christmas (8:43)
Another Edison film, it was the first cinematic production of the 1823 poem.
1900
The Christmas Dream (4:08)
CBGP Originals
I am a big fan of Georges Méliès, one of the most brilliant & astonishing artists in the history of humankind, so I am going to encourage you to visit Wikipedia to read more about his life & work, & the film.
1898
Santa Claus (1:16)
BFI National Archive
The first known Christmas movie, & the first-ever on-screen appearance of Kris Kringle demonstrates state of the art technology for the time.
I hope you have enjoyed your feast of old Christmas movies. I wish that you could all be here with me, sipping ginger tea & eating pumpkin hummus. Please let me know if you love them as I do. And if you have any suggestions to add for next year, I’m just a click away!!!!!
More in the New Year so make sure that you-
STAY IN THE BUNGALOW KNOW!!!
Sign up for our newsletter & receive our FREE E-book, 7 VITAL Things to Do Before You Hire a Contractor.
I learned about the culture of the early 20th Century at my mother’s knee (& other low places. Her favorite joke.) . The stories she told me about my grandmother, born in 1888, growing up on the farm, & the fascinating tales of her own life & times, combined beautifully with my own old-timey nature & held me securely me in those periods as others are anchored to the generation of their birth.
Not surprisingly, I have always lived in an old house & I always felt a special kinship with it, but it wasn’t until I owned my first home that I learned the concept of stewardship & became curious about- no, actually compelled to start researching the history of my bungalow & discovering its secrets.
A building is a composite of the culture & technology of its day. A custom-built home tosses in the tastes & lifestyle of the homeowners. Who were they? What inspired them? How did the house serve their needs? So, let’s make those walls talk!
BE PREPARED!
My suggestion for keeping the maze of information easy to follow is to start by creating a system in which to keep your research orderly because you could end up with many pages of documents, both hard & digital. Set up a dedicated hard file & a digital one in your computer in which to stash your finds.
You might also want to create a spreadsheet to make a map of your data so you know where you’ve been. In this you would have such columns such as the document name, its date, publisher, your source & a space for notes & most importantly, where can it be found in your hard or digital files. Each piece or group of information can lead to the next so you want to keep your clues untangled!
GETTING STARTED RESEARCHING THE HISTORY OF YOUR BUNGALOW
Are you in a historic district, or has your house been designated as a historic structure? (This information should have been disclosed to you when you purchased your house because these designations often come with restrictions, but, sometimes there are surprises!) If so, the designating planning body should have information about it. Even if you are not, your house could have been part of a historic survey at one time so check with your city & state preservation offices.
OLD HOUSE GROUPS
Your local historic society can often provide a great deal of information from their archives. Also, see if there’s a preservation advocacy group near you & enlist their aid. Even if they don’t have information about your specific house, they will be able to provide you with a great deal of information on your city, maybe even on their website! I recommend being connected with & supporting these groups. If you are an old house lover, they’re your peeps!
”For over 20 years Arcadia Publishing has reconnected people to their community, their neighbors, and their past by offering a curbside view of hometown history.
Composed in a unique pictorial format with over two hundred vintage images and accompanying captions, Arcadia books animate the cherished memories, people, places, and events that define a community.”
The next place to start is your own observations. Does the layout make sense? Are there indications of add-ons? This can confuse records because sometimes a build date can be listed as the date a later addition was permitted. I’ve seen houses that were clearly built close to the turn of the last century with recorded build dates that were post WW II.
In researching the history of your bungalow, look around your neighborhood. Are their houses that look similar? Talk to your neighbors & ask what research that they have done. They may have made discoveries that would enrich with what you are seeking.
One interesting factor is to notice how your house & the surrounding houses, orient to one another. In my neighborhood, you can clearly see what was the original farmhouse. Much older than the other houses, it faces what is now a big city street, with its back door facing the rest of the neighborhood. Most neighborhoods began as farming communities & in researching the history of your bungalow, you’ll find that the story of your local neighborhood forms a large chapter in the history of your own house.
THE BUNGALOW HISTORY RESEARCH PAPER TRAIL
Know this- the older your house is, the more changes could have occurred with regard to its location- street numbers, street names, even town & city names & borders. And, the house itself could have been moved maybe just blocks or even many miles! So pay attention to any oddball changes you might see as you are doing your research- those facts that don’t line up. For example, an odd build date can reflect a house move. You don’t want to be researching the history of the house that was demolished to make room for your house! I’m sure the lives of its inhabitants are worth knowing about, but it’s not what you’re after! This Folk Victorian that I restored (You can see the sad tale here.) had been moved from another neighborhood to make room for a highway project. It was weird to do research for a different address but at least I knew that it had come from another location & I had the correct original address for it.
Additionally, public records can be incomplete or inaccurate due to human error, floods & fires destroying decades of information & illegible from age or just terrible hand-writing. Your search is not likely going to be linear, but more cobbled together like a puzzle, as you search for like pieces from different sources that form bits of the whole picture, some contradicting other materials & some validating it. This is why you want to keep those records in good order when researching the history of your bungalow!
HOME OWNERSHIP RECORDS
Visit your local county’s Tax Assessor’s office which will provide ownership records & descriptive information. You may have to go to a separate location to view archived records, or perhaps they will be helpful to find them for you & bring them to the office.
Next, head to the county courthouse to search for deeds & follow ownership backward. Take notice of how the property may have changed hands- liens, judgements, inheritance, etc. & you may need to check other records such as civil courts or wills to get more of the story.
The building department may have records of permits. Sadly, they do not generally go back very far, but sometimes you can be surprised. You may be told that the records you seek are not digitized but are archived. Very pleasantly request access to these records. You may need to be persistent in doing this!
Then, with all your information, head for your local public library. I can almost guarantee that you will find at least one librarian there who is a local history expert & she will happily point you in the right direction to flesh out your data. Local colleges & universities can also provide a wonderful amount of material as well as friendly & enthusiastic librarians who hold much data in their heads.
CITY DIRECTORIES
The Library of Congress’s collection of telephone/city directories represents the following states and localities: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Iowa, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and the city of Chicago. Most local libraries will have these directories to many local ones, covering most of the 20th Century also.
Many of these directories are arranged geographically, in other words, by street name, so you can look for your address in any particular year’s edition & see if was included. This is often very helpful in discovering the year your house was built. In one volume you’ll see it. Checking earlier, you won’t!
THE SANBORN MAPS
These maps were created to allow fire insurance companies to assess their total liability in urbanized areas of the United States. Founded in 1866, the company made maps of churches, schools, commercial, industrial & residential properties. These maps are helpful for determining build dates & also footprints of houses, including outbuildings. They also show the locations of windows & doors, building use (sometimes even particular room uses) as well as the composition of building materials including the framing, flooring, & roofing materials.
These maps can be accessed via the Library of Congress & through many local libraries. They are very beautiful. so, old house nerd that I am, I have saved some of the most lovely ones for you here on Pinterest.
There are also general maps that can be accessed from Old Maps Online. A fun feature of this site is that you see the evolution of a place by overlaying old maps on top of modern ones to compare historical maps to current data. This provides a visual clue to the development of areas over time.
CENSUS RECORDS
Another great tool is census records which paint a detailed picture of each person living in the house. For example, the 1910 (my favorite year) census records the following information for each person:
• name
• relationship to head of household
• sex
• color or race
• age at last birthday
• marital status
• length of present marriage
• if a mother, number of children & number of living children
• place of birth
• place of birth of parents
• if foreign born, year of immigration and citizenship status
• language spoken
• occupation
• type of industry employed in
• if employer, employee, or self-employed
• if unemployed
• number of weeks unemployed in 1909
• ability to read & write
• if attended daytime school since September 1, 1909
• if home is rented or owned
• if home is owned, free, or mortgaged
• if home is a house or a farm
• if a survivor of Union or Confederate Army or Navy
• if blind in both eyes
• if deaf & dumb
This data can be accessed through the National Archives, but your local library can probably help you with it too.
NEWSPAPERS
NewspaperArchive provides links to millions of pages from 12,111 publications in 2,671 papers all over the U.S., starting way back in 1736.
They gather information from libraries, historical societies, & newspaper publishers, amassing content that will help you find the stories that will further your research on your bungalow.
The search can be arduous, but poking around on the site I discovered that Reverend Alfred Hare, the builder of the Hare house, played the guitar & was very active in the social life of my town, Eagle Rock, as well as participating in community betterment activities. I also found the obituary of his wife’s father. In general, I was able to get a good idea of the lives & characters of the Hare’s & gain a greater understanding of the some of the puzzling features of the house. And fell more in love with them.
I also got an idea of how life had been in my town around 1910. The funny thing is, it hadn’t changed all that much! It was still centered around our cultural center, which had been a Carnegie Library, & the 20th Century Women’s Club, to which I belonged in the 21st Century.
PLAN BOOKS
A large number of bungalows were built from plan books, many of which can be accessed here. Instead of drafting whole new blueprints, builders would adapt these plans to the lot & to clients’ needs. Many people believe that they have kits houses because they see so many houses that are similar, but what they actually have is a home built from a plan. There was even a self-proclaimed “Bungalow Man,” Los Angeles architect Henry L. Wilson, who published catalogues of bungalow designs, complete with plans & specs for $10.00. Many of them are unique to the California landscape, providing a broad broad view of bungalow designs of the region, expressing what Wilson termed “artistic beauty & cozy convenience.”
This book was reprinted by Dover, is available on Amazon & other book outlets & especially should you live in California, I recommend it highly.
GENEALOGY & OTHER WEBSITES
You will find many names as you are looking through the above sources. (Luckily, you have jotted them in your well-organized, copious notes.) You can plug these names into these sites to find out more & can even help you locate living relatives. Some of these folks will be happy to speak with you & might even have old images.
Ancestry, an American genealogy company has an enormous database. To access their information from home, you have to pay fees, but, most libraries allow you to access all their data for free from the library’s computers. The advantage to doing from the library is that you have the reference librarians nearby who love helping people find the answers to all their questions.
Find a Grave is another site that offers a huge amount of information, including names of relatives relatives & often brief bios.
Please let me know about any other great resources you might discover. I’m very eager to know what your walls tell you!
TIP: I put together a collection of very informative videos to further orient you to the research process. You can watch them here.
STAY IN THE BUNGALOW KNOW!!!
Sign up for our newsletter & receive our FREE E-book, 7 VITAL Things to Do Before You Hire a Contractor.
“An illustrated monthly magazine in the interest of better art, better work and a better more reasonable way of living.”
With that, let’s pause to consider the fact that in the first eight volumes of The Craftsman, from October 1901 to September 1905, Irene Sargent, an American art historian, made eighty-four contributions, & nearly all of its first three issues were written primarily by her. An academic, her aesthetic is succinctly expressed by a quote she published of Thomas Carlyle: “ornament is the first spiritual need of barbarous man.” This book, a chronology of Sargents’ life, by Cleota Reed, was hand-printed by Andre Chavez of The Clinker Press.
CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS FROM WINTER’S GARDEN
The reason among the Druids for bringing in bits of evergreen from the woods and adorning the house is a most charming and lovable one—”The houses were decked with evergreens in December that the sylvan spirits might repair to them and remain unnipped with frost and cold winds until a milder season had renewed the foliage of their darling abodes.” How gracious a way of luring the shy, sweet wild-woods spirits into the homes of men!
But whatever the origin of decking our homes with holly, mistletoe or with branches of any green plant hardy enough to carry with it a hint of immortality by remaining fresh and green throughout the apparent death of the world during the winter—the custom is now well established, and who would willingly let it slip into oblivion! It would seem strange indeed not to welcome this child’s festival,—the holiest festival of the year’s calendar,—with fragrant boughs from the forest set at our doorways and windows and on our altars. It is a fitting and beautiful way to symbolize our love and worship of the One who made immortality credible.
Of those bearing bright berries that we can gather from the woods or fields to adorn our homes at this Christmas season, perhaps the general favorite in the East is the holly—in the West it is the toyon. These two glossy leaved bushes of the scarlet berries are too well known to need words in their favor. The mistletoe of the South and of the West should be mentioned in the same breath with these favorites, for they are closely associated in our minds. The “Lord of Misrule” and the “Abbot of Unreason” [both terms apply to a peasant or low level church official appointed to be in charge of Christmas revelries, which often included drunkenness and wild partying] have claimed these white Christmas berries from the time of their first hilarious coronation day when fate was precipitated with surety upon the head of the maiden of their merry courts who was caught under the fruiting branch of their wand—the mistletoe bough!
Among the evergreens whose beautiful leaves are polished to glossiest perfection by Jack Frost, are the magnolias, rhododendrons, mountain laurel, bay laurel, madrone. The pepper tree of the Southwest drips with red berries as well as sparkles with shining leaves. The checkerberry also combines red berries and polished leaves, though it is a tiny humble little plant compared to the showy pepper tree. Galax leaves are coming into favor, and deservedly so, for they are of the richest, glossiest dark green and bronze, and their heart-shaped surfaces are beautifully veined, a fine example of natural engraving.
Besides all these green things that are to be had as reward of a walk in field or forest, are the evergreen trees of all kinds, the firs, spruces, arborvitaes, pines, hemlocks, whose balsamic fragrance add so much to Christmas cheer. The Christmas rose should be better known—should be made to bloom in our gardens as well as in Nature’s garden.
Life changes can interrupt the most heart-felt, best laid plans. A marriage, a divorce, a new baby, a job transfer, a lay-off, a family member in need of care, any one of these things can profoundly affect your circumstances.
1. Research the history of your house & neighborhood. Dig deep. In our disconnected world, people are searching for connections. You want to make the builders & former owners of your home real & lovable. Read my article on 
6. Here’s a biggy. Most municipalities have historically designated houses. With all the research that you have done, you probably have sufficient information to apply for & be granted such a designation, at the local, state or even national level. This designation can go far in protecting your house, at least its exterior. There is nothing cannot be challenged in a court of law, but generally this designation will chase people away who want to seriously maul your house.
7. Connect with your neighborhood group. Older neighborhoods tend to have strong neighborhood associations. You will make good friends & learn much about the history of your area.
1. De-clutter. Yard sale or donate anything that you do not need. Just get rid of it! This includes furniture.
7. Wash your sheets & mattress covers & your pillows if they are washable. Again, skip the scented products. I wash with baking soda, letting stinkier loads soak. I do not use fabric softener. It is made with cheap, petroleum-based ingredients & fragrance & 
1. Understand the market for your price point in your area. Right now, inventory is very low so although interest rates are high, the shortage of houses is acute, raising the value of those available.
1. 11” X 17” paper costs about a nickel a sheet. Doing a 4 page flier in a foldover instead of the standard 2 back & front, sets you apart from the crowd & allows you to really tell your bungalow’s story. Here are some things you could include:
1. Ensure your Realtor is going to promote your bungalow on every line that she has. My open was so full of people that we could hardly make it out the door. People were taking turns to see our beautiful bathroom. It was a total party! And it generated 5 offers.
Wondering how to decorate your bungalow for the holidays? Let this quote by William Morris, the father of the Arts & Crafts Movement be thy guide.
CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS FROM WINTER’S GARDEN also suggested, “Of those bearing bright berries that we can gather from the woods or fields to adorn our homes at this Christmas season, perhaps the general favorite in the East is the holly—in the West it is the toyon. These two glossy leaved bushes of the scarlet berries are too well known to need words in their favor.”
My tree was fir. Since childhood my mother had taught me about Christmas trees adorned by candles. Because they came into common use in 1917, & the town where she lived had been electrified in 1911, I’m thinking that she, born in 1919, never got to have the experience of candles balanced on the ends of branches. My mother’s tales of these candles included stories of horrible fires so I didn’t go that route, instead opting for strings of white electric lights which seemed like a good (but sorry) compromise, though quite likely the Hare’s used candles on their tree. I had some of my mother’s childhood glass & celluloid ornaments which I embellished with the ones that I had gifted her over the years.
”Would we not be entering more into the spirit of Christmas by going out to meet it, as it were, by searching for these aromatic symbols of immortality & bringing them into our homes, rather than by unromantically ordering wreaths, vines & branches from the florist’s.”
The 
I love watching old Christmas movies to celebrate the day. They somehow minimize the disappointment of opening all my gifts & discovering once more that there is no time machine under the tree. These old films are the most efficient way I know of taking a trip back to yesteryear.
I learned about the culture of the early 20th Century at my mother’s knee (& other low places. Her favorite joke.) . The stories she told me about my grandmother, born in 1888, growing up on the farm, & the fascinating tales of her own life & times, combined beautifully with my own old-timey nature & held me securely me in those periods as others are anchored to the generation of their birth.
My suggestion for keeping the maze of information easy to follow is to start by creating a system in which to keep your research orderly because you could end up with many pages of documents, both hard & digital. Set up a dedicated hard file & a digital one in your computer in which to stash your finds.
Your local historic society can often provide a great deal of information from their archives. Also, see if there’s a preservation advocacy group near you & enlist their aid. Even if they don’t have information about your specific house, they will be able to provide you with a great deal of information on your city, maybe even on their website! I recommend being connected with & supporting these groups. If you are an old house lover, they’re your peeps!
Know this- the older your house is, the more changes could have occurred with regard to its location- street numbers, street names, even town & city names & borders. And, the house itself could have been moved maybe just blocks or even many miles! So pay attention to any oddball changes you might see as you are doing your research- those facts that don’t line up. For example, an odd build date can reflect a house move. You don’t want to be researching the history of the house that was demolished to make room for your house! I’m sure the lives of its inhabitants are worth knowing about, but it’s not what you’re after! This Folk Victorian that I restored (You can see the sad tale 
Visit your local county’s Tax Assessor’s office which will provide ownership records & descriptive information. You may have to go to a separate location to view archived records, or perhaps they will be helpful to find them for you & bring them to the office.
The Library of Congress’s collection of 
These maps were created to allow fire insurance companies to assess their total liability in urbanized areas of the United States. Founded in 1866, the company made maps of churches, schools, commercial, industrial & residential properties. These maps are helpful for determining build dates & also footprints of houses, including outbuildings. They also show the locations of windows & doors, building use (sometimes even particular room uses) as well as the composition of building materials including the framing, flooring, & roofing materials.
Another great tool is census records which paint a detailed picture of each person living in the house. For example, the 1910 (my favorite year) census records the following information for each person:
A large number of bungalows were built from plan books, many of which can be accessed 
You will find many names as you are looking through the above sources. (Luckily, you have jotted them in your well-organized, copious notes.) You can plug these names into these sites to find out more & can even help you locate living relatives. Some of these folks will be happy to speak with you & might even have old images.