travel

• Arts & Crafts Hotels

  
  

  pictured: the Brewery Gulch Inn in Mencodino, CA

  A recent thread at American Bungalow's online forums gives very truncated run-down of Craftsman-style hotels throughout the United States; I've started there and added a number of others. Take a look at the list below, and add any of your personal favorites by commenting on this entry.

  The Grove Park Inn Resort & Spa sits on a ridge in the mountains above Asheville, NC.

  The Black Dog Inn B&B is in Estest Park CO. The Pitcher Inn, in Warren VT.

  The Brewery Gulch Inn is located along California's beautiful North Coast in Medocino, CA.

  The Lodge at Torrey Pines, near San Diego CA, site right aside the famous golf course.

  There are a number of pleasant very pleasant Spanish-revival and Mission style B&Bs and hotels on Catalina Island, off the coast of Long Beach, CA; The Avalon Hotel is the ritziest of the new development on the hill up above the bay.

  The historic Hotel Pattee is in Perry, IA.

  The Hotel Elliott in Astoria WA has recently been completely refinished.

  The Cooney Mansion Inn is located in Cosmopolis WA, just a bit north from Astoria.

  The Settlers Inn B&B is in the heart of the Pocono Mountains of PA.

  Dickens House B&B is located in St. Petersburg, FL.

  Alexander's Inn B&B is located in Santa Fe, NM.

  The Amber House B&B is just down the street from me, here in Sacramento, CA.

  The very pretty villas at El Encanto, in Santa Barbara CA, are a sort of Craftsman-cottage / Spanish Colonial revival style; also in Santa Barbara is The Pierpont Inn.

  The Eureka Street Inn is located in Sutter Creek, in the heart of California's old Gold Country.

  Rhythm of the Sea is a small B&B on the beach in Cape May, NJ.

  Disney's opulent Grand Californian Hotel in Anaheim CA is Craftsman in appearance and, unfortunately, anti-craftsman in reality.

  RiverPlace, in Portland OR, is another huge quasi-boutique hotel whose management, like that of the Grand Californian, believes that to decorate in a vaguely Craftsman style somehow authenticates a very non-Craftsman experience.

  new additions: reader Merideth of Housemade suggests the Gaslight Inn in Seattle. Thanks, Merideth!

• 4th Annual Arts & Crafts Chicago show & sale

  Just got this press release in my inbox. If any of you go, please send me photographs! And remember, the Frank Lloyd Wright home & studio is in River Forest, too, so you could easily make a nice weekend out of this:

  The 4th Annual Arts and Crafts Chicago Show and Sale is coming back to
  Concordia University in River Forest on Saturday, May 30th and Sunday,
  May 31st 2009. Focusing on mission furniture and accessories of the
  American Arts and Crafts Movement (approximately 1890-1920), this show
  will truly be one you won’t want to miss. You’ll find 20th Century
  Decorative Arts including furniture, metalwork, pottery, textiles, art
  and lighting; everything from Stickley, Limbert, Roycroft, Rookwood and
  much more. Over 50 of the nations leading dealers will be on hand to
  answer questions and advise on how to decorate your home. This
  specialized event has proven to be one of the premiere antique and
  contemporary shows in the Midwest.

  Dealers attending this year’s show are coming from all across the
  country. We have dealers from Massachusetts, New York, California,
  Texas as well as the best dealers from the Midwest. JMW and Crones
  Collectibles from Massachusetts will be featuring high-end pottery from
  the Northeast such as Grueby, Saturday Evening Girls and Marblehead, as
  well as furniture and accessories. Jack Papadinis Antiques,
  Connecticut, will be showcasing some of the premiere lighting in the
  country and David Surgan from New York will offer the best Heintz
  Collection for sale in the country. Paramour Fine Arts, which
  specializes in arts and crafts era woodblocks and art, will be on hand
  showcasing some fabulous artwork from the era. Local dealers such as
  John Toomey Gallery will be exhibiting as well, highlighting Midwest
  artists such as Frank Lloyd Wright, TECO and Jarvie.

  Not only is this an antique show, but the weekend will showcase the
  highest quality contemporary craftsfirms as well. Ephraim Faience
  Pottery, Door Pottery, Arts and Crafts Hardware and Dard Hunter Studios
  will be in attendance, just to name a few.

  With the success of the show over the last three years and with the
  rich tradition of bungalows, as well as the Prairie School heritage of
  Frank Lloyd Wright, Chicago has proven to be a perfect fit for this
  specialized show.

  Homeowners interested in educating themselves as to the appropriate
  furnishings for their turn of the century bungalows and craftsman style
  homes shouldn’t miss the 4th Annual Arts and Crafts Chicago Show and
  Sale, Saturday May 30th, 2009, from 10 am – 5 pm and Sunday May 31st
  from 11 am – 4 pm at Concordia University at Geiseman Gym in River
  Forest, Illinois. Admission price is only $7 each. Free parking on site
  in a 5-level garage. No parking on Monroe.

• Arts & Crafts Tours

  Elaine Ellis’ firm, Arts & Crafts Tours, produces specialy-crafted tours – led by world-renowned experts in the field – of private homes, gardens, exhibitions, collections and sites important to the Arts & Crafts Movement. Currently in development are a few tours of the United States, specifically to Cranbrook and in the New York City region, to visit work by the architecture Bertram Goodhue.

  Arts & Crafts Tours offers highly individualized tours to sites and countries where the best of this work still exists and where new work is being created. We look at the past to help us understand the present – and we would like to have you join us. Take a short virtual tour through our site and then we hope you’ll take a real tour.

  While most of our programs are offered through museums, art, craft and architectural organizations and institutions, we are always happy to prepare an itinerary for individual travelers and we are happy to work with small groups (6 – 12 people) to plan and arrange tours specifically designed to satisfy specific interests.

• Seattle’s Tilth: a top restaurant – in a bungalow

  
  Last month, the New York Times Dining & Wine section began a series called "Coast to Coast: Restaurants That Count." #9 on the list is Seattle’s Tilth, of which dining critic Frank Bruni writes:

  Did I let in a draft? Should I take off my shoes?

  As I stepped into Tilth, I felt as if I were dropping by somebody’s home, not entering a restaurant.

  There’s
  no proper vestibule, no host stand. And the tables — for only 40 diners
  — are squished together in two downstairs rooms of a Craftsman-style
  bungalow with a humble fireplace in which squat, fat candles flicker.

  That’s
  a big part of what distinguishes and recommends this sweet, sweet
  restaurant, but Tilth, whose name refers to tilled earth, also boasts
  an organic certification — from the exacting Oregon Tilth association.

  That
  doesn’t mean that everything Tilth serves is organic, because wild fish
  and foraged mushrooms, for example, aren’t eligible for such
  designation. But the restaurant is consistently finicky about its
  suppliers, and that was abundantly clear in meaty, juicy, snowy slices
  of albacore tuna, pan-seared, oil-glossed and served with celery root
  in various forms: a purée, crisp wedges like French fries.

  Above right photograph by Stuart Islett. Visit the Tilth Blog.

• South Buffalo’s “bungalow belt”

  After reading our recent note on a modest but pretty bungalow going for a half-million dollars in Sacramento, reader Jean Emery sends us this article from Buffalo Rising on that town’s own "bungalow belt." Read the complete article on their site. There are plenty of good photos as well, and Jean notes that she "can guarantee these don’t cost half a million dollars like the one in Sacramento!"

  One of Buffalo’s most charming neighborhoods is centered on a
  cluster of streets running off Abbott between Lakewood and Hubbell on
  the South Side. The streets stand out from their surroundings as they
  are lined with distinctive bungalow style houses. The bungalow,
  sometimes referred to as craftsman style, was popular in the early 20th
  century. It is a derivation of an Indian house type with rustic
  detailing and broad porches. Common features include low rooflines on a
  gabled or hipped roof, deeply overhanging eaves, exposed rafters, and
  decorative brackets. The front porch is often formed by extending the
  main roof out past the front wall.

  The craftsman style of design became popular as people started
  yearning for a simpler time. The 20th century was a period of major
  change. Rapidly developing technology and a shift to urban living
  brought new wealth and convenience along with a sometimes stressful and
  unfamiliar way of life to many people. Design, with an emphasis on hand
  craft and natural materials, was a way to capture the nostalgia of a
  simpler America. The Roycrofters in nearby East Aurora, led by Elbert
  Hubbard, were leaders in this movement. Even the work of Frank Lloyd
  Wright could be included as a part of this movement (if peripherally
  so). His Connection to Darwin Martin and subsequent commissions in
  Buffalo came through Hubbard.

• a visit to the Lodge at Torrey Pines

  

  Given that the New York Times recently opened up their archives, I’ve been spending lots of time looking for interesting A&C related articles. Just found this gem by Barbara Lazear Ascher, dated September 2002. The first few paragraphs are below; visit the NYTimes site to see the full article.

  I’m driving down a twisting, clinker-brick driveway banked by
  boulders, wildflowers and rare Torrey pines. Ahead is a green-stained,
  cedar-shingled building, which from my East Coast perspective resembles
  an Adirondack lodge. Then I am reminded of Frank Lloyd Wright’s prairie
  houses with their celebration of the horizontal line. An outward sweep
  of unpainted, broad roof overhangs, projecting outriggers, and rafter
  tails appear to dance with the light.

  This isn’t Surfin’
  Safari, Southern California. John Ruskin, William Morris and Charles
  Rennie Mackintosh have come to La Jolla.

  I’d heard about the
  recently opened Lodge at Torrey Pines from my stepdaughter in San
  Diego. Tucked between the Pacific Ocean and Torrey Pines State Reserve
  by the 18th green of the South Course of the famed Torrey Pines Golf
  Course, the hotel is a result of its owner William Evans’s love affair
  with California’s Arts and Crafts Movement.

  I’m curious how a
  hotelier in the Era of Asphalt will interpret the movement’s reverence
  for nature and craftsmanship. How will he tip his hat to Ruskin, whose
  espousal of the meditative and redemptive qualities of crafting and
  living in beautiful surroundings inspired the movement in England? And
  how is it possible to integrate into a 175-room hotel the intimate
  details of Mr. Evans’s inspiration, the 1907 Blacker and 1908 Gamble
  Houses designed by his idols, the Pasadena architects Charles and Henry
  Greene?

  I drive beneath the port-cochere composed of massive
  timbers stacked horizontally on one another like a bird’s wing
  feathers, which impart an ironic sense of lightness, as though the
  entire lodge could be carried skyward on these outstretched wings.

  photo of the Torrey Pines Lodge courtesy of Flickr user John Koss

• Minneapolis neighborhoods profiled in new book

  A recent article by Ellen Tomson in Minneapolis’ Pioneer Press describes local historian and author Larry Millett’s research and subsequent book on Minneapolis’ historic neighborhoods. excerpt:

  Larry
  Millett biked the streets of St. Paul and Minneapolis for three summers
  to produce his latest book, (the) AIA Guide to the Twin Cities, the first
  major neighborhood-by-neighborhood handbook of its kind.

  But the foundation of his 665-page book was decades of
  research and writing about the Twin Cities, first as a Pioneer Press
  reporter, columnist and critic, and then as author of Lost Twin Cities, Twin Cities Then and Now, and Strange Days, Dangerous Nights, all which focused on local structures and events.

  "The book is the result of three years of work and, in a sense,
  it’s the work of a lifetime since I’ve worked here all my life," says
  Millett, 59, who grew up in North Minneapolis and has spent much of his
  adult life in St. Paul.

• off-topic: the new Google Maps and how to REALLY improve them

  I posted this over at Urban Cartography, but thought some people here might be interested too, especially since my test use of this new technology will be to make a map showing the locations and some background data on all still-existing Greene & Greene properties here in California.

  I was all excited to learn that Google is now allowing user-created
  data in custom maps. This is great! However, when I went to go play
  with it, I learned the current implementation – which in most ways is
  an alpha release – is missing 90% of what could make it useful. Such as:

  • the ability to import, not just export, addresses. I want to
    make a canonical map of all currently existing properties by the late
    great architects Greene & Greene; this is not very easy by
    hand-entering every single one. However, if I could import
    tab-delimited text, I could have the full list of 200 up in a few
    minutes!
  • the ability to display multiple maps at once – on top of each other
    (i.e., LAYERS). this would make google maps a useful tool for data
    analysis: you could display maps of different data layers at once, but
    what would make this feature REALLY shine would be…
  • the ability to pipe in data from online databases. if you combined
    #1 with the ability to bring data in from online databases, not just
    uploaded text files, you could use this with the ability to see
    different layers at once to see real causality – that is, you could see
    how income, for example, and property values, tax base, parks, etc. all
    interact. It would be a really democratic tool – the ability, for
    example, to see if public works projects actually happen in poor
    neighborhoods as they do in rich, or to see what zipcodes public
    university admissions come from (if that data were available), or to
    see what area codes had the most telemarketer calls originating, etc.
    In fact, this would turn Google Maps into the ultimate social
    researcher’s dream tool – the killer app that sociologists, activists,
    criminologists and others have been waiting for.

  Just a few (big) suggestions for the Google Maps folks to think about…

• The Vagabond Traveler visits Berkeley

  The Vagabond Traveler is a charming and entertaining tag-along on one person’s trips through Europe and elsewhere – it might be less polished than a fancy travel-blog site, but it more than makes up in personality what it lacks in bells & whistles.

  Welcome to Vagabond Traveler. This web site has come about as an
  organization of thoughts and experiences from traveling through Europe
  numerous times. The site started out as bits and pieces of information
  that was once
  kept on a little 486 linux box when I was an undergraduate in college.
  Over time, as my travels brought me back
  to Europe time and time again more information was added and the site
  expanded.

  What brings it to Hewn & Hammered, however, is the Vagabond Traveler’s interests in Arts & Crafts architecture and photography. Strolls through Berkeley, San Francisco and Oakland are documented with many photographs of some really striking Arts & Crafts and Tudor homes, including an early residence of Bernard Maybeck and that architect’s stunning Temple of the Winds. Also well-covered is the UC Berkeley campus, which is full of some of the state’s best examples of Beaux Arts, Italian Revival and similar turn-of-the-century Mediterranean styles. And should you wish to take an architectural tour of Berkeley, home hometown and one of my favorite places in the world, the author includes a helpful and extensive FAQ for visitors.

• 36 hours, courtesy of the New York Times

  The New York Times’ weekly 36 Hours features are capsule city guides, often with lots of attention to historic architecture. Some recent guides that may be of interest to aficionados of the Arts & Crafts movement:

  • 36 Hours in Syracuse NY, by Hart Seely: not only does much of Syracuse’s historic civic architecture reflect the movement, but their Everson Museum of Art contains a large room devoted to local resident Gustav Stickley and his furniture.
  • 36 Hours in Guthrie OK, by Kathleen Leighton: An attractive and often-overlooked prairie town, with a downtown that is in its entirety a National Historic Landmark. Take the First Capitol trolley on a tour of "downtown brickwork and houses in Victorian, Craftsman, Prairie, Bungalow and Colonial Revival styles."
  • 36 Hours in Nashville TN, by Taylor Holliday: Certainly one of the most hospitable cities in the country, "the Athens of the South" is chock-full of neat restored and well-maintained Craftsman homes, including several that have entered a second life as bed & breakfasts – like The Cat’s Pajamas, a 1918 downtown bungalow with three large guestrooms to let. And don’t forget to stop at Hatch Show Print, one of the greatest letterpress poster shops in the country, still cranking out vibrant, colorful work under manager and master printer Jim Sherraden, who I once studied under.

  Other Times travel features that may be of special interest include:

  • Road Trip, Route 20 through New York State: Bouckville and its art galleries and Craftsman frame houses, and of course East Aurora and the Roycroft Campus and inn are worthy of a visit, and this is a particularly pretty drive in autumn.
  • Mining Aura Inside a Mountain: Ann Crittenden visits the Grove Park Inn in Asheville, NC, home of the world’s largest annual Arts & Crafts festival and conference.
  • The Quirky Heart of the East Bay: Megan Harlan explores Berkeley and Oakland, stopping at the Claremont Hotel (which she relays Frank Lloyd Wright’s report of being "one of the few hotels in the world with warmth, character and charm"), has a meal at Chez Panisse, one of the finest restaurants in the country and perhaps the world (situated, in fact, in a beautifully restored Craftsman bungalow which my father lived in – when it was a roominghouse, many years ago – as a UC Berkeley undergrad), and wanders some of my favorite neighborhoods and places I frequented as a child.