ARTICLES

Irvington's Architectural Diversity
By Paul Diebold

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ARTS AND CRAFT PERIOD

The Arts & Crafts movement in Western cultures began in the mid-late 19th century, as a reaction to Victorian excess in furnishings and architecture. In the United States, builders and homeowners caught on the idea of simpler housing styles in the early 1900s. The movement’s designers rejected historicism, or, reduced it to its simplest traditional elements. There was an emphasis on expressing the nature of construction, and on using locally available materials. Ornament was reduced or incorporated into structural features. The most common expression of the Arts & Crafts movement was the bungalow. The term bungalow comes from India, where it referred indigenous housing – low, one story vernacular buildings with porches for escaping the heat. English Colonials adopted the idea, then, imported the concept to the English Isles. Americans emulated the British trend. In Indiana, writers described a “bungalow craze” in the 1910s. The bungalow was the first modern house. Even the most basic bungalow usually had hot and cold water, wiring, central heat, even telephone service, right from the start.

Craftsman is a term often used to describe bungalows and similar housing that are finely crafted or more expressive than average in finish or detail. The term comes from The Craftsman magazine, published in New York State by Gustav Stickley. The magazine served as an important spokesperson for the Arts & Crafts movement. Stickley made furniture and house wares under the Craftsman name that are highly prized today. Stickley and his staff also designed homes. Irvington has a true Craftsman home, ordered from Stickley’s magazine.

Prairie Style is another outgrowth of the Arts & Crafts movement. Frank Lloyd Wright and his Oak Park followers created their own version of the modern housing that the movement inspired. The style was considered radical by many, and Irvington has only a few houses that bear similarity to Wright’s works of the early 1900s.

Forsythe House on East Beechwood Avenue

Indianapolis has no houses by Frank Lloyd Wright, but this house was influenced by his Prairie period.  It stands in the Irvington Historic District and was built in 1912 for William Forsythe (no relation to artist William Forsyth).  Charles Byfield was the architect.  The house also shows debt to the Craftsman and Arts & Crafts style.  Practitioners of these design idioms rejected the historical styles of the past for “honest” architecture that was comfortable and artistic, but above all, modern. The stucco and timbered exterior expresses the geometry of the structural framing of the house. Ornament is kept to a minimum.  Irvington was an important center of the Arts & Crafts movement in Indianapolis, and this house is but one of many houses in this design genre in the area.

Prairie Style House on North Lowell Avenue

This house was built in about 1920, well after Frank Lloyd Wright abandoned his Prairie phase, but it shows a clear debt to his modernism.  The windows are metal sash.

Craftsman Style House On North Lowell Avenue

Unfortunately, the architect of this house remains unknown.  Dating to 1909, this house was first owned by the Thornton family.  It is one Irvington’s best examples of the Craftsman style.  One of the most important concepts of the modern Craftsman style was to use locally found materials.  Glacial boulders were used by some architects and builders to create a natural, rustic appearance.  These stones were easily found along creeks in the area.

William Jolly House on North Ridgeview Avenue

One way of beating the high cost of getting your own home was to buy a “kit house” – a complete package with precut framing and some prefabricated elements, such as windows and doors. Beginning in the early 1900s, several companies provided such kits, ordered by mail, and shipped by rail.  Sears was one of the biggest providers of kit housing, which could save homeowners thousands (if they provided the labor) or perhaps hundreds (if they hired a carpenter).  This Craftsman bungalow is a Sears kit house, called the Osborn in their catalogs.  The tripled porch posts and flared roof line show interest in Japanese architecture – a favorite inspiration of many designers, because of the informal and artistic design of traditional wooden Japanese houses.  Jolly was a foreman for Citizen Gas.

Semi-Bungalow on East Michigan Street

Built in about 1920, this house is a full two stories high, unlike most bungalows, which are typically (by definition) one to one-and-one-half stories high.  Many families needed more room, and to accommodate them, builders made “semi-bungalows” like this one.  The simple use of materials and large porch are typical Arts & Crafts features.  This part of Irvington, called Pleasanton, is known for its porte-cocheres or drive-throughs, for the cars many middle class homeowners had.

Wilbur Watts House On North Kenmore Road

Built in 1922, the architect of this brick bungalow incorporated historical detail into the design, as seen in the Palladian window in the porch gable.  The use of brick and stone trim show that bungalows could be as expensive as one could afford.  Many bungalow porches feature square tapered columns like the ones supporting this porch.  Watts owned a printing company in downtown Indianapolis.

Bungalow on North Poplar Road

This well-preserved bungalow, c.1925, has a full width porch supported by heavy brick piers.  Many bungalows had bay windows, but, unlike the ones on 19th century houses, bungalow bay windows are rectangular and simple.  Inside, these bays often included a window seat, cupboard, or cabinets. Many Pleasanton bungalows have raised geometric panels in their porch gables, as does this one.

House on South Hawthorne Lane

This house represents the other popular housing form of the Arts & Crafts movement, the American Four Square.  The name was coined by writers for the Old House Journal, however, interestingly, Indianapolis newspapers of the era describe these houses as being of the “square type of construction.”  The type is always identified by its cubical form, hipped roof, often with dormer, and simple use of materials.  Irvington has many examples.  Very often, builders gave these homes a horizontal division by using differing materials for each story.  This example has a wood clapboard first floor and wood shingle second floor.  The porch has classical columns but many have large brick piers.

Everett Johnson House on East Pleasant Run Parkway South Drive

Thomas Hibben, later a draftsman for Robert Daggett & Sons, architects, designed this "airplane" type bungalow.  Aviation was a new science that captured the imagination of Americans.  Architectural writers latched onto the idea of calling California bungalows with double "+" shaped plans "airplane bungalows,"since they were somewhat reminiscent of the shape of biplanes of the era.  The raised clerestory level is an unusual feature, providing plenty of light and ventilation for hot Hoosier summers.  Everett Johnson and his family were the first residents; Johnson was the treasurer of the Acme-Evans Flour MIll in downtown Indianapolis.