The Coolest Craftsman Houses in America
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Built at the turn of the 20th century during the Arts and Crafts movement, craftsman-style houses can be found across the United States. They're characterized by open floor plans, wood framing, exposed beams, tapered columns and inviting front porches. And homeowners are willing to pay a pretty penny for them because they are incredibly well-built, often using quality natural materials that aren't available anymore.
While there are lots of smaller, craftsman bungalow houses built in this style, we wanted to highlight some of the more extravagant examples of this home design. We're talking about the most famous craftsman-style homes that all have an interesting story to tell — with impressive price tags to boot.
The Gamble House
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Location: Pasadena, California
Cost: Built for $79,000 in 1908 ($2.5 million today)
Year: 1908
Size: 8,100 square feet
Tours available: Yes
Bottom Line: The Gamble House
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The Gamble House was built and designed by brothers Charles and Henry Greene in 1908.
David Gamble was a second-generation owner of Procter & Gamble, who, when he retired in 1895, started spending winters in California. By 1907, he and his wife, Mary, put down permanent roots in Pasadena and lived in the home until their deaths in the 1920s.
In 1944, their son, Cecil, considered selling the property but changed his mind when the new owners wanted to paint the interior. It stayed in the family until 1966 when it was deeded to the city of Pasadena and the USC School of Architecture. It was made a National Historic Landmark in 1977.
Today, it's a museum that anyone in the Southern California area can visit. However, if you happen to be a fifth-year architecture student at USC, you can spend even more time on the property — the school picks two students each year to live in the house full-time.
The Blacker House
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Location: Pasadena, California
Cost: $100,000 ($2.9 million today)
Year: 1907
Size: 12,000 square feet
Tours available: Yes
Bottom Line: The Blacker House
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Also a Greene and Greene design, the Blacker house was built for Michigan lumberman Robert R. Blacker and his wife, Nellie. Upon her death in 1946, the home and its contents (which were made specifically for the house) went into probate, as there were no heirs.
In her will, Nellie specified everything be sold as a whole, but her executor had other ideas. The executor sold the property without its furnishings, then that buyer subdivided the lot into smaller parcels and destroyed the garden in the process. Furnishings built specifically for the house were sold in a yard sale and have since ended up in the hands of private owners, who purchased them at auction for six-figure sums.
The dismantling of Blacker didn't end there. It was sold in 1985 to a Texas rancher and an antique dealer from from New York City. They, in turn, hired a local dealer to remove its leaded art glass and light fixtures and replaced these pieces with reproductions.The originals ended up on the auction circuit, again going for six figures.
The Blacker House debacle pushed Pasadena to enact the Blacker Ordinance, which limits anyone owning Greene and Greene property from dismantling it for up to one year. Locals even guarded the house so nothing else was removed.
When the home was sold in 1994 to Harvey and Ellen Knell, they restored the property to its former glory and own it to this day. Both the Gamble House and Blacker House serve as Doc Brown's house in "Back to the Future."
Artemesia
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Location: Hollywood, California
Worth: Sold $12.1 million in 2018 ($14.2 million today)
Year: 1913
Size: 13,290 square feet
Tours available: No
Bottom Line: Artemesia
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The world's largest craftsman sits in California's Hollywood Hills overlooking Brad Pitt's Los Angeles compound.
Built in 1913 for construction magnate Frederick Engstrum, the home sits on its own road and has double gates. It went through various hands until ad agency owner Leonard Fenton purchased it in October 1987 after selling his company to the Microsoft Corporation. He made the home his main project for the next 25 years.
Artemesia was restored to its former glory before its sale in 2019; it features seven bedrooms, seven bathrooms, a fireplace in nearly every room, a boiler room, 1.5 acres of carefully landscaped wooded grounds and gardens, a ballroom and even a built-in pipe organ in the living room.
The Duncan-Irwin House
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Location: Pasadena, California
Worth: Sold for $4.7 million in 2019 ( $5.9 million today)
Year: 1906
Size: 6,400 square feet
Tours available: Yes
Bottom Line: The Duncan-Irwin House
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This earlier Green and Greene home was once the property of a seamstress named Katherine Duncan who purchased the lot in 1901 and moved a one-story cottage onto it. Greene and Greene would add six bedrooms and a second story to the property over the next five years. Duncan sold the house to Theodore Irwin who moved to Pasadena from New York and expanded the home.
Today, the Duncan-Irwin House features eight bedrooms, eight bathrooms, a three-car garage, a pool and and a guest house. The kitchen and bathrooms have been updated to modern standards.
The Charlotte and Robert Disney House
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Location: Los Angeles, California
Worth: NA
Year: 1914
Size: 1,458 square feet
Tours available: No
Bottom Line: The Charlotte and Robert Disney House
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Most craftsman homes are smaller than those built by Green and Greene, and those built across America have more in common with this small bungalow located in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles.
The Charlotte and Robert Disney House is notable for being the first L.A. home of brothers Walt and Roy Disney and the place where Walt begin production for the "Alice Comedies," in which a live-action little girl interacts with an animated cat.
The house almost didn't survive. In 2016, new owners had applied with the city to tear down the two-bedroom bungalow, but due to the public outcry, they had a change of heart.
The Disney corporation retained ownership of the house. It has been designated as a Los Angeles Historic Cultural Monument, and it will become a museum to the man responsible for the Mouse House.