Design Through the Decades: The 1910s
Frank Lloyd Wright architecture, De Stijl art and the Hoosier cabinet are among the period influences still seen today
This series looks at the stories behind iconic designs from each decade, starting in 1900.
Oil baron John D. Rockefeller and newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst each built a grand mansion in the second decade of the 20th century. For help, they turned to U.S. architects who had trained at France’s prestigious École des Beaux-Arts, which taught a style of architecture that emphasized classicism, symmetry, formality and ornamentation. William Adams Delano and Chester Holmes Aldrich designed Rockefeller’s Kykuit, a neo-Georgian estate in New York’s Hudson Valley, completed in 1913. Julia Morgan, the first woman to earn the school’s architecture certificate, began work on Hearst’s Spanish-influenced castle on the California coast in 1919.
In the middle of the country, meanwhile, a man who had never studied architecture at the French school — or anywhere — was developing a new and distinctly American style.
Previous: Design Through the Decades: The 1900s
Oil baron John D. Rockefeller and newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst each built a grand mansion in the second decade of the 20th century. For help, they turned to U.S. architects who had trained at France’s prestigious École des Beaux-Arts, which taught a style of architecture that emphasized classicism, symmetry, formality and ornamentation. William Adams Delano and Chester Holmes Aldrich designed Rockefeller’s Kykuit, a neo-Georgian estate in New York’s Hudson Valley, completed in 1913. Julia Morgan, the first woman to earn the school’s architecture certificate, began work on Hearst’s Spanish-influenced castle on the California coast in 1919.
In the middle of the country, meanwhile, a man who had never studied architecture at the French school — or anywhere — was developing a new and distinctly American style.
Previous: Design Through the Decades: The 1900s
Architect Tom Marsden designed this Colorado home for a client who is a big fan of Wright’s Prairie houses, while general contractor Brett Steury of Porchfront Homes coordinated the construction.
“Frank Lloyd Wright’s style is smaller windows but more of them,” Steury says. “This home has something like 66 windows. Typically a house of this size would only have 30.”
The owner even accessorized the exterior with urn planters licensed by the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation.
Read more about this house
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“Frank Lloyd Wright’s style is smaller windows but more of them,” Steury says. “This home has something like 66 windows. Typically a house of this size would only have 30.”
The owner even accessorized the exterior with urn planters licensed by the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation.
Read more about this house
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Photo by Peter Dutton
Art glass. One of the best-known features of Wright’s Prairie homes is their stained-glass windows. He designed these windows, displayed at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, in 1912 for Chicago industrialist Avery Coonley and his family.
Art glass. One of the best-known features of Wright’s Prairie homes is their stained-glass windows. He designed these windows, displayed at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, in 1912 for Chicago industrialist Avery Coonley and his family.
Photo from Malin Frank and Carl-Johan Callin
Bradbury & Bradbury Art Wallpapers in California used the Coonley windows as inspiration for Spheres Squared, a design in its licensed Frank Lloyd Wright wallpaper collection. A Swedish couple used the paper in the hallway of their Functionalist house outside Stockholm.
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Bradbury & Bradbury Art Wallpapers in California used the Coonley windows as inspiration for Spheres Squared, a design in its licensed Frank Lloyd Wright wallpaper collection. A Swedish couple used the paper in the hallway of their Functionalist house outside Stockholm.
See how boutique wallpaper printers are keeping history alive
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Photo by Mark Hertzberg
American System-Built Homes. Although his clients tended to have deep pockets, Wright had a lifelong interest in creating beautiful, small and affordable houses, and with Henry Ford’s introduction of the assembly line in 1913, his goal became more attainable. From 1911 to 1917, Wright designed a series of standardized houses now known as American System-Built Homes. This 805-square-foot B1 model is one in a cluster of six being restored in Milwaukee. Its components were cut in a factory and then assembled on-site.
American System-Built Homes. Although his clients tended to have deep pockets, Wright had a lifelong interest in creating beautiful, small and affordable houses, and with Henry Ford’s introduction of the assembly line in 1913, his goal became more attainable. From 1911 to 1917, Wright designed a series of standardized houses now known as American System-Built Homes. This 805-square-foot B1 model is one in a cluster of six being restored in Milwaukee. Its components were cut in a factory and then assembled on-site.
Photo by Bill Timmerman
World War I brought an early end to American System-Built Homes, but prefabricated houses live on. Lindal Cedar Homes manufactures this ModFab accessory dwelling unit designed by students at the School of Architecture at Taliesin, founded by Wright in 1932. At 470 square feet, it’s the smallest of the 13 homes in Lindal’s Architects Collaborative line.
Discover 10 important things about prefab homes
World War I brought an early end to American System-Built Homes, but prefabricated houses live on. Lindal Cedar Homes manufactures this ModFab accessory dwelling unit designed by students at the School of Architecture at Taliesin, founded by Wright in 1932. At 470 square feet, it’s the smallest of the 13 homes in Lindal’s Architects Collaborative line.
Discover 10 important things about prefab homes
American Foursquare
A popular North American home design in the early 20th century was the American Foursquare, named for the number of rooms on each of its two main square-shaped floors. Many Foursquares of this decade incorporated Craftsman and, especially in the Midwest, Prairie details such as horizontal banding and art glass. (This latter type is sometimes called a Prairie Box.)
Designer Wade Freitag of Craftsman Design and Renovation carefully brought modern functionality to this kitchen in a 1910 Foursquare in Oregon while restoring and re-creating period details that tied in with existing elements like the old-growth Douglas fir millwork, leaded-glass windows, butler’s pantry and Art Nouveau dining room buffet. Salvaged fir floor joists from the porch became handcrafted shelves and corbels. The tile behind them is a historically accurate reproduction of the flat, three-eighths-inch-thick subway tile of the early 1900s. The perimeter countertops, sink and backsplash behind the range are old-timey soapstone. The bridge faucets have a foot pedal control.
Read more about this kitchen
A popular North American home design in the early 20th century was the American Foursquare, named for the number of rooms on each of its two main square-shaped floors. Many Foursquares of this decade incorporated Craftsman and, especially in the Midwest, Prairie details such as horizontal banding and art glass. (This latter type is sometimes called a Prairie Box.)
Designer Wade Freitag of Craftsman Design and Renovation carefully brought modern functionality to this kitchen in a 1910 Foursquare in Oregon while restoring and re-creating period details that tied in with existing elements like the old-growth Douglas fir millwork, leaded-glass windows, butler’s pantry and Art Nouveau dining room buffet. Salvaged fir floor joists from the porch became handcrafted shelves and corbels. The tile behind them is a historically accurate reproduction of the flat, three-eighths-inch-thick subway tile of the early 1900s. The perimeter countertops, sink and backsplash behind the range are old-timey soapstone. The bridge faucets have a foot pedal control.
Read more about this kitchen
Image from Memory of the Netherlands
De Stijl Rectangles
After World War I, a group of Dutch artists and architects headed by Theo van Doesburg and Piet Mondrian began a movement called De Stijl (The Style). They believed that new forms were essential to postwar rebuilding and a utopian harmony. They pushed cubism to a new extreme: complete abstraction consisting of vertical and horizontal lines and primary colors. This illustration shows van Doesburg’s 1919 interior for the house of Bart de Ligt in Katwijk, Netherlands. De Stijl architect Gerrit Rietveld designed the furniture.
See the Rietveld Schröder House, a realization of the De Stijl aesthetic
De Stijl Rectangles
After World War I, a group of Dutch artists and architects headed by Theo van Doesburg and Piet Mondrian began a movement called De Stijl (The Style). They believed that new forms were essential to postwar rebuilding and a utopian harmony. They pushed cubism to a new extreme: complete abstraction consisting of vertical and horizontal lines and primary colors. This illustration shows van Doesburg’s 1919 interior for the house of Bart de Ligt in Katwijk, Netherlands. De Stijl architect Gerrit Rietveld designed the furniture.
See the Rietveld Schröder House, a realization of the De Stijl aesthetic
A De Stijl painting inspired a stained-glass partition in Masterson Architecture & Design’s renovation of a Brooklyn, New York, apartment.
Find stained-glass artisans on Houzz
Find stained-glass artisans on Houzz
Architect John Marx of Form4 Architecture designed this addition to his one-bedroom 1907 Edwardian house in San Francisco. He referenced Rietveld for the volumetric composition and Mondrian for the subdivision and coloring of the glass.
Read more about this addition
See how designers draw from Mondrian to energize interiors
Read more about this addition
See how designers draw from Mondrian to energize interiors
Red Blue Chair
On the main floor of their 18th-century palace in Galatina, Italy, Antonio Scolari and Christian Pizzinini placed Rietveld’s Red Blue chair, a signature design of De Stijl, under a ribbonlike work by Italian sculptor Eduard Habicher.
Rietveld designed the chair out of standard lumber sizes in 1918, adding the primary colors a few years later. He set the back at a 30-degree angle, which he believed offered optimum relaxation. In reducing the traditional armchair to 13 square-profile battens, two rectangle-profile armrests and the rectangle-profile back and seat, he emphasized its functionality.
Read more about this palace
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On the main floor of their 18th-century palace in Galatina, Italy, Antonio Scolari and Christian Pizzinini placed Rietveld’s Red Blue chair, a signature design of De Stijl, under a ribbonlike work by Italian sculptor Eduard Habicher.
Rietveld designed the chair out of standard lumber sizes in 1918, adding the primary colors a few years later. He set the back at a 30-degree angle, which he believed offered optimum relaxation. In reducing the traditional armchair to 13 square-profile battens, two rectangle-profile armrests and the rectangle-profile back and seat, he emphasized its functionality.
Read more about this palace
Shop for chairs by color
Delaunay Circles
Ukrainian painter Sonia Delaunay gravitated toward rings in rainbow colors rather than the rectangles of De Stijl. While living in Paris in 1911, she made a patchwork quilt for her infant son, a work that marked her big move toward abstract art and textile design. She and her husband, French artist Robert Delaunay, rode out World War I in Spain and Portugal, where she began designing costumes for the Ballets Russes and interiors. She went on to create avant-garde fashions for the likes of American actress Gloria Swanson in the 1920s and fabrics for European department stores such as Metz & Co. and Liberty in the 1930s. In 1964, the Louvre museum in Paris honored her with its first retrospective of a living female artist.
Yaya Mosaics made this backsplash for an artist who admires Delaunay. Composed of ceramic and vitrified-glass tiles, it brings color, texture and energy to a mostly white kitchen.
Find out what’s involved in installing a backsplash
Ukrainian painter Sonia Delaunay gravitated toward rings in rainbow colors rather than the rectangles of De Stijl. While living in Paris in 1911, she made a patchwork quilt for her infant son, a work that marked her big move toward abstract art and textile design. She and her husband, French artist Robert Delaunay, rode out World War I in Spain and Portugal, where she began designing costumes for the Ballets Russes and interiors. She went on to create avant-garde fashions for the likes of American actress Gloria Swanson in the 1920s and fabrics for European department stores such as Metz & Co. and Liberty in the 1930s. In 1964, the Louvre museum in Paris honored her with its first retrospective of a living female artist.
Yaya Mosaics made this backsplash for an artist who admires Delaunay. Composed of ceramic and vitrified-glass tiles, it brings color, texture and energy to a mostly white kitchen.
Find out what’s involved in installing a backsplash
Photo by David Bramhall
Ohannessian Ceramics
David Ohannessian had one of the finest ceramics workshops in Turkey, crafting hand-painted tile and other wares for Ottoman rulers. In 1911, he had a fateful encounter with British diplomat Mark Sykes, who commissioned him to create this room in Sledmere House, Sykes’ ancestral residence in Yorkshire, England.
A few years later during World War I, Ohannessian’s fortunes changed when he and his family were exiled to the Syrian desert. They managed to make their way to Aleppo, where Ohannessian ran into his former patron when the British army entered the city in 1918. Sykes then brought him to Jerusalem to renovate the 16th-century Ottoman tiles on the Dome of the Rock, an Islamic shrine. Ohannessian recruited other artists, establishing an Armenian ceramics center in the holy city.
Ohannessian Ceramics
David Ohannessian had one of the finest ceramics workshops in Turkey, crafting hand-painted tile and other wares for Ottoman rulers. In 1911, he had a fateful encounter with British diplomat Mark Sykes, who commissioned him to create this room in Sledmere House, Sykes’ ancestral residence in Yorkshire, England.
A few years later during World War I, Ohannessian’s fortunes changed when he and his family were exiled to the Syrian desert. They managed to make their way to Aleppo, where Ohannessian ran into his former patron when the British army entered the city in 1918. Sykes then brought him to Jerusalem to renovate the 16th-century Ottoman tiles on the Dome of the Rock, an Islamic shrine. Ohannessian recruited other artists, establishing an Armenian ceramics center in the holy city.
The Armenian Ceramics of Jerusalem, which created this mural and border tiles for a California pool, and Jerusalem Pottery are among the businesses that continue the Armenian ceramics tradition in Jerusalem today.
Feast of Ashes, a biography of Ohannessian by his granddaughter Sato Moughalian, is to be published by Stanford University Press this spring.
Find a tile installer near you
Feast of Ashes, a biography of Ohannessian by his granddaughter Sato Moughalian, is to be published by Stanford University Press this spring.
Find a tile installer near you
Hoosier Cabinet
By the end of World War I, Hoosier cabinets were a bona fide hit in North America. These freestanding kitchen cabinets often featured a flour sifter, meat grinder and lazy Susan in addition to a work surface and storage shelves. “A million and a half women have chosen Hoosier because of its many wanted features, scientifically arranged conveniences that make any kitchen modern” and “save miles of steps,” touted a 1919 ad for The Hoosier Manufacturing Co. And Hoosier was just one in a score of mostly Indiana-based companies that made the cabinets.
Today, Hoosier cabinets are highly collectible. In this LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold-certified house in Michigan, the team at Image Design arranged the kitchen to include its client’s antique Hoosier cabinet, left, and worktable.
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By the end of World War I, Hoosier cabinets were a bona fide hit in North America. These freestanding kitchen cabinets often featured a flour sifter, meat grinder and lazy Susan in addition to a work surface and storage shelves. “A million and a half women have chosen Hoosier because of its many wanted features, scientifically arranged conveniences that make any kitchen modern” and “save miles of steps,” touted a 1919 ad for The Hoosier Manufacturing Co. And Hoosier was just one in a score of mostly Indiana-based companies that made the cabinets.
Today, Hoosier cabinets are highly collectible. In this LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold-certified house in Michigan, the team at Image Design arranged the kitchen to include its client’s antique Hoosier cabinet, left, and worktable.
Find a kitchen designer
1920 New York Tribune ad
Home Refrigerator
Out of view in the foreground of the previous photo is a stainless steel refrigerator. The remarkable metal was invented in 1913. A year later, engineer Nathaniel Wales figured out how to build a compressor into the first home-size refrigerator, which he sold under the Kelvinator brand. Together, the two discoveries would revolutionize the kitchens to come.
Share: What designs from the second decade of the 20th century would you highlight? What are the standouts of the 1920s and the current decade? Let us know your thoughts in the Comments.
Next: Design Through the Decades: The 1920s
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Houzz TV: Tour Frank Lloyd Wright’s Hollyhock House
See the century-old mansion of legendary hair care magnate Madam C.J. Walker
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Home Refrigerator
Out of view in the foreground of the previous photo is a stainless steel refrigerator. The remarkable metal was invented in 1913. A year later, engineer Nathaniel Wales figured out how to build a compressor into the first home-size refrigerator, which he sold under the Kelvinator brand. Together, the two discoveries would revolutionize the kitchens to come.
Share: What designs from the second decade of the 20th century would you highlight? What are the standouts of the 1920s and the current decade? Let us know your thoughts in the Comments.
Next: Design Through the Decades: The 1920s
More on Houzz
Houzz TV: Tour Frank Lloyd Wright’s Hollyhock House
See the century-old mansion of legendary hair care magnate Madam C.J. Walker
Find an interior designer
Shop for home products
Robie House. Frank Lloyd Wright sought to design simpler, holistic houses that married site and structure, interior and exterior. His expression of what came to be called Prairie School style was in full flower by the time he completed the Robie House in Chicago in 1910.
The house’s strong horizontality, with long bands of brick and limestone, evokes the wide, flat Midwestern plains. Deep overhangs shelter terraces and balconies. Inside, a fireplace bisects a large open-plan living and dining room, whose furniture, lighting and rugs Wright also designed to be of a piece with the house. In fact, the dining table features wood piers mounted with electrified fixtures of leaded glass, for an innovative integration of furniture and lighting.
While in Europe that year, Wright compiled a monograph and 100 lithographs of his Prairie work in his Wasmuth Portfolio, introducing himself to and influencing a generation of international architects.
Read more about the Robie House
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