Article published July 08, 2009
At home in arts and crafts
Magazine features Old West End homes built in 'modernist style'
Ruth and Michael Ashford in front of their Collingwood Boulevard home.
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THE BLADE/LORI KING
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By ANN WEBER
BLADE STAFF WRITER
The big stucco house on Collingwood Boulevard wrapped its arms around Ruth Ashford seven years ago as she peeked through the front door.
"This is the house of my dreams," she told her husband, Michael Ashford, District 4 city councilman, who had been captured as well.
"We just fell in love with it," Mrs. Ashford said. "We bought it the next day - It was a Sunday and we wrote up the deal that day."
Their 1912 home is one of more than a dozen in the Old West End that are pictured with an article in the May-August issue of American Bungalow magazine. Written by Douglas J. Forsyth, PhD, an associate professor of history at Bowling Green State University, it focuses on homes in the historic district that were built between about 1900 and 1915 in the Arts and Crafts style, which was then considered "modernist."
"Instead of taking a [design] language from some earlier historical period and reusing it, people were trying to create their own language for the first time," Mr. Forsyth said. Locally, the movement included architects David Stine and Harry Wachter, who designed many of the homes in the Old West End that have Arts and Crafts features.
Such homes have a practical, comfortable look - clean lines, overhanging eaves with graceful supporting beams, broad front porches, and window designs incorporating rectangles and squares of different sizes. Inside, they have open floor plans - a departure from the Victorian footprint of many small rooms - and lots of built-ins."There is infinite variation on a basic format," said Mr. Forsyth, who lives in a 1913 Arts and Crafts home on Robinwood Avenue. "It's rare to see two houses in a row that are identical."
Arts and Crafts architecture can be seen in single-family homes, townhouse complexes, and two-family houses in the Old West End. Many of the single-family homes are "Foursquares" (so-named because they have a bedroom in each corner of the second floor) and some are bungalows, with the low-slung profile of smaller versions that developers for the mass market put up across Toledo after World War I.
Look for Arts and Crafts architecture in parts of the Old West End that are north of Delaware Avenue, Mr. Forsyth suggested. "As you get closer to the museum, you get into the 1880s, 1890s homes that are more Victorian in character," he said.
Those grand homes built in historical-revival styles have dominated the attention that's been given to the architecture of the Old West End, he said. "It's natural for people to devote more attention to a house with 13,000 square feet and lavish materials," he acknowledged.
But the people who live in Arts and Crafts homes tend to be crazy about them.
"This house was designed for family living and entertaining," Mrs. Ashford said. "There's a nice flow to the home," and although it's large, "it's real warm and real inviting."
Sarita Brown - who as of last week hadn't seen a copy of the article and photo of her home - said her Parkwood Avenue Foursquare has a wide-open third floor that once served as a perfect play space for children. Built in 1913, the house has hardwood floors, wood beams, a built-in buffet, and a small fireplace in her bedroom.
Robin Karrick, whose home on Stratford Place also is shown in the magazine, talks fondly of its trademark Craftsman features, including an inglenook (a cozy little reading area) next to the fireplace, and lots of windows and natural wood trim.
But she said it was the open floor plan that sold her on the house in 1998. "The whole idea [of the Arts and Crafts movement] was simplicity," Ms. Karrick said.
This is the second home she has owned in the Old West End. "I would find it difficult to live anywhere else in Toledo," she added. "There's a real sense of community here."
Thank the architecture for that - at least in part, Mr. Forsyth maintains in his article, calling the bungalows and Foursquares "a crucial factor in the stabilization of the Old West End." One reason is that these houses are generally more manageable restoration projects than the sprawling Victorian homes, he explains. Secondly, "The ubiquitous front porches foster an informal culture of sociability."
The article just might draw more people to the party, said longtime Old West End resident Larry Stine, whose Wachter-designed home on Collingwood is shown in American Bungalow.
"Our hope is it will inspire other people to save these houses down here," he said.
Contact Ann Weber at: aweber@theblade.com
or 419-724-6126.
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