Craftsman Farms, located in and owned by the Township of Parsippany-Troy Hills, is the former home of noted turn-of-the-century designer Gustav Stickley, a major proponent of the "Arts and Crafts" home building and furnishing. The log house, built in 1911, is one of the most significant landmarks of the American Arts and Crafts movement, and the site, which consists of 26 acres of the original 650-acre tract, has been designated a National Historic Landmark.  Craftsman Farms is also an Official Project of Save America's Treasures, a public-private partnership between the White House Millennium Council and the National Trust for Historic Preservation dedicated to the preservation of our nation's irreplaceable historic and cultural treasures for future generations.

Gustav Stickley, a well-known spokesman for the Arts and Crafts movement, combined the roles of furniture designer and manufacturer, architect, publisher, philosopher and social critic. Proponent of "a fine plainness" in art and the art of living, Stickley is best known today for his straightforward furniture, sometimes called "mission" or "Craftsman furniture."

Around 1905 Stickley moved his headquarters from Syracuse to New York City. In 1908 he began acquiring the property on what is now the western edge of Parsippany-Troy Hills, an area formerly part of Morris Plains where he envisioned establishing a farm school for boys. The focal point of his "Garden of Eden" was a large log house constructed of round, hewn chestnut logs that were cut from the property's woods and local stone also found on the property.

Stickley originally designed the main house at Craftsman Farms as a "club house", a gathering place for workers, students and guests. In its huge kitchen, meals could be prepared for 100 people. The living and dining rooms, reaching fully 50 feet and warmed by copper-hooded fireplaces, made ideal meeting rooms. The porch opened to a vista of the farm and brought in light and air. The house is T-shaped, with a one-story kitchen attached to the rear. The large gabled roof has long shed dormers at the front and back, which allow for light and ventilation in the bedrooms.

A separate home for the Stickley family was originally planned to be built further up the hill. When Stickley decided that the school's opening would have to be delayed for several years, he modified the upstairs plans to accommodate his family, consisting of his wife, Eda, five daughters and a son.

Stickley designed Craftsman Farms to be self-sufficient, with gardens for vegetables and flowers, orchards, dairy cows and chickens; the produce grown on the farm was used in the restaurant operated by Stickley as part of his furniture showroom and department store in Manhattan. Stickley commuted to his New York showroom by train from Morris Plains.

The property contains numerous support buildings including craft workshops, stables, a dairy barn, chicken coop, other farm buildings, and three cottage dwellings.

Stickley and his family lived at Craftsman Farms until 1915, when he filed for bankruptcy after several years of financial difficulties. By then the taste of the American people that 15 years earlier had embraced the clean, strong lines of Craftsman furniture changed once again, this time towards the revival of early American and other styles.

But Gustav Stickley had made a lasting impression on American decorative arts. It is difficult to realize what a revolutionary step his designs were without keeping in mind the crowded, highly embellished interiors of the Victorian age that had preceded him. His functional approach to design and his unornamented, clean-lined furniture introduced Americans to the modern decorative arts to come.

Craftsman Farms exemplifies Stickley's philosophy of building in harmony with the environment by using natural materials. To quote from Stickley's magazine, The Craftsman (November 1911): "There are elements of intrinsic beauty in the simplification of a house built on the log cabin idea. First, there is the bare beauty of the logs themselves with their long lines and firm curves. Then there is the open charm felt of the structural features which are not hidden under plaster and ornament, but are clearly revealed, a charm felt in Japanese architecture....The quiet rhythmic monotone of the wall of logs fills one with the rustic peace of a secluded nook in the woods."

In 1917, Major George and Sylvia Wurlitzer Farny purchased the property in the bankruptcy sale and their descendants lived on or owned the property until 1989. After Stickley left Craftsman Farms, the Farny family maintained the farm in Stickley's tradition, adapting certain interior features for modern family life. When the property was threatened with development for 52 town houses, the Township of Parsippany-Troy Hills, with the encouragement of community groups and others interested in the importance of the site, obtained the property through eminent domain. The Craftsman Farms Foundation has completed the third phase of restoration of the Main House to its 1910-1917 appearance. Work on the historic landscape has begun as well. Craftsman Farms invites you to join us... step into the Garden of Eden and experience the Stickley family's home.