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The Eastlake movement was a nineteenth-century architectural and household design reform movement started by British
architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...
and writer
Charles Eastlake Charles Locke Eastlake (11 March 1836 – 20 November 1906) was a British architect and furniture designer. His uncle, Sir Charles Lock Eastlake PRA (born in 1793), was a Keeper of the National Gallery, from 1843 to 1847, and from 1855 its fi ...
(1836–1906). The movement is generally considered part of the late
Victorian period In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardian ...
in terms of broad
antique furniture A piece of antique furniture is a collectible interior furnishing of considerable age. Often the age, rarity, condition, utility, or other unique features make a piece of furniture desirable as a collectors' item, and thus termed an antique ...
designations. In architecture the Eastlake style or Eastlake architecture is part of the Queen Anne style of
Victorian architecture Victorian architecture is a series of architectural revival styles in the mid-to-late 19th century. ''Victorian'' refers to the reign of Queen Victoria (1837–1901), called the Victorian era, during which period the styles known as Victorian we ...
. Eastlake's book ''Hints on Household Taste in Furniture, Upholstery, and Other Details'' posited that furniture and decor in people's homes should be made by hand or machine workers who took personal pride in their work. Manufacturers in the United States used the drawings and ideas in the book to create mass-produced Eastlake Style or Cottage furniture. The geometric ornaments, spindles, low relief carvings, and incised lines were designed to be affordable and easy to clean; nevertheless, many of the designs which resulted are artistically complex. Although Charles Eastlake did not make furniture, his movement influenced the interior design of American homes with English designs that were easy to clean, functional, and simple. The ‘Eastlake’ style is of Victorian architecture and one of the core principles of this style was that Eastlake thought that the furniture in people's homes should be good looking and be made by manufacturers who enjoyed their work. This was contrary to the previous style of furniture, with pieces that were large, heavy, and thick, and that collected dust and germs.


History

Eastlake movement was named after the English architect Charles Locke Eastlake (nephew of
Sir Charles Lock Eastlake Sir Charles Lock Eastlake (17 November 1793 – 24 December 1865) was a British painter, gallery director, collector and writer of the 19th century. After a period as keeper, he was the first director of the National Gallery. Life Eastlake ...
) following the release of his influential book ''Hints on Household Taste in Furniture, Upholstery and Other Details''. Eastlake was originally a painter who trained in Rome and was considered to have great knowledge in art however he had a specific preference. In ''Hints on Household Taste in Furniture, Upholstery and Other Details'', Eastlake promoted Victorian style furniture which had opposed the curved features of the French Baroque Revival Styles. Instead, Eastlake style had "angular, notched and carved" features and although he did not produce any furniture himself, cabinet makers produced them. His book influenced custom designers as well as machine-made manufacturers who Eastlake abhorred. His quote "I find American tradesmen continually advertising what they are pleased to call Eastlake furniture, the production of which I have had nothing whatever to do, and for the taste of which I should be very sorry to be considered responsible" shows his stance on this. This influence later led to the Eastlake movement in the United States where Eastlake style furniture were being produced for the middle-class. It was known to be affordable while also being handcrafted and easy to clean which shows the transformative nature of Eastlake's ideas to furniture.


Characteristics

Eastlake style applied to houses as well as furniture. Characteristics of these houses include the lathe-shaped wooden forms and mechanical jigsaw wooden forms. Porch posts and railings had intricate wooden designs and curved brackets and scrolls were placed at corners. The façade also included "perforated gables and pediments, carved panels and a profusion of beaded spindles, and lattice work found along porch eaves." Mansardic porches were another characteristic and had wrought iron crestings. The color combination of the houses also emphasized the contrast between the lighter colors of the details and the darker colors of the house body. In the United States, especially in California, American home builders in the 1880s replaced flat-cut
gingerbread Gingerbread refers to a broad category of baked goods, typically flavored with ginger, cloves, nutmeg, and cinnamon and sweetened with honey, sugar, or molasses. Gingerbread foods vary, ranging from a moist loaf cake to forms nearly as crisp as ...
ornamental elements that were popular in the 1860s and 1870s with lathe-tuned spindlework for
baluster A baluster is an upright support, often a vertical moulded shaft, square, or lathe-turned form found in stairways, parapets, and other architectural features. In furniture construction it is known as a spindle. Common materials used in its cons ...
s and wall surface decoration. Charles Eastlake criticized the American adaptation as "extravagant and bizarre". However, the style lived on and it was later combined with
Italianate The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian R ...
and
Second Empire Second Empire may refer to: * Second British Empire, used by some historians to describe the British Empire after 1783 * Second Bulgarian Empire (1185–1396) * Second French Empire (1852–1870) ** Second Empire architecture, an architectural styl ...
elements to create the "San Francisco Style". In furniture, Eastlake was particularly fond of oak and cherry wood grains; however, American manufacturers still used ebonized wood despite Eastlake's suggestions. The forms of the furniture were often rectilinear and had "geometric ornament, turnings, brackets, trestles, and incised linear decoration." Additionally, the designs were easily made by machines. Eastlake also believed that the prices of his furniture should be "as cheap as that which is ugly" as he could not understand why anyone would buy a more expensive piece of furniture for a more intricate design. Eastlake's furniture was for the middle-class home, and being easy to clean was another one of the characteristics.


Gallery


William S. Clark House

One example of an Eastlake movement building is
William S. Clark House The William S. Clark House, in Eureka, Humboldt County, northern California was built in 1888 by master carpenter Fred B. Butterfield. Its design includes elements of both Eastlake and Queen Anne Styles of Victorian architecture. It was bu ...
in Eureka, California. The house was built in 1888 and contains "an elaborately decorated entrance porch, flanking square bays, side slant bays, and roof gables". Eastlake ornamentation can be seen in the bays, gables, windows, frieze, and porch. The entrance is decorated with spools, sunbursts, holes, buttons, brackets, scallops, and pierced cylinders, and is supported by large chamfered columns. The glass planes of the recessed double doors are decorated with panels above and below. The square and slant bays contain brackets, panels, moldings, and buttons. The gables contain a grillwork of stickwork, knobs, bevelled sticks, and pierced scallops that hang from the edge of the roof. The gable bracing of William S. Clark House is untraditional as most gable bracings of Eastlake Style would connect to the edge of the roof. The gable bracing instead hangs from the edge which provides shadows on the house wall. The frieze contains vertical and zigzag bevelled sticks, and pierced and chamfered brackets that surround the cornice. Below the bays, the corners of the stringcourse are filled by bevelled sunbursts. The slant bays have side porches that extend to the back of the house and there is a rear hall that connects the house with a storage/laundry annex at the back of the property. On the north side of the house, there are small, squared windows on either side of the round headed window, which create a Palladian effect.Susie Van Kirk (December 9, 1986). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: William S. Clark House".
National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propertie ...
.
The entrance hall, double parlors, and dining rooms are significant in that the décor and character is preserved. The unpainted windows and stairway banister have natural wood finishes that have darkened over time. The doors, stairway panels below the railing, and dining room wainscoting have the same 19th century oak graining. The wallpapers, picture railings, period furnishings, and potted ferns are in the same style as the Victorian features of the interior. In the fireplaces in the rear parlor, family room, and dining room, there are highly polished, hardwood mantels above small fireplaces. Mirrors, polished tiles, and intricate shelves extend close to the picture railing. The entrance hall stairway has a banister and a light-topped newel post leading to the second-floor hallway which is surrounded by another open-work banister. There is a contrast between the white-painted woodwork and light embossed wallpaper with the darker woodwork and paper of the parlors and dining room. The doors upstairs are painted and panelled and each has a glass of transom above. The bathroom still has an old pull-chain tank toilet and the bath has an old clawfoot tub.


Winters House

Winters House is an Eastlake movement-building in Sacramento, California and was built in 1890. It has 3 stories and is approximately 4500 square feet. Some exterior features of the house include ornamental details, such as "sunburst pediments, a frieze of scrollwork sunbursts, dentil work in the gables, a mansard porch canopy, and a decorative balustrade with spindles and stick work. " The house has not had any significant deviations from the original design, materials and workmanship.Vickie M. Cosentino (September 30, 1998). "National Register of Historic Places Registration: Winters House / 2324–2326 H. Street, Sacramento CA 95816".
National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propertie ...
.
The characteristics of Winters House can be seen in the "steel pitched hip and gable roof, asymmetrical front façade, two-story angled bay under forward gable, mansard front porch and second story bay windows on both sides of the house". The roof of the house made of asphalt shingles and the walls are made from pattern siding covered heart redwood. The foundation of the building is a cement parged brick stem wall and the decorative brick chimneys are part of a coal burning fuel system. The interior of the house reflects the Eastlake style in the mantel spindles, the ornate tile work surrounding the two fireplaces, 12-foot second story coved ceilings and other details. The wall cladding in the main house is a horizontal shiplap with vertical lapboard. All of the windows are framed with grooved vertical moulding and other trim work, such as sunbursts above the second story windows. Below the cornice, the house also has a frieze board which includes scrollwork sunbursts and stars. In the front porch, above the front doors are cut window panels in jewel tones. The porch has a framing of fans, flowers, dentils and spindlework. The spindlework and stickwork is repeated from the upper porch to the lower porch balustrade.


Thomas F. Ricks House

Thomas F. Ricks House The Thomas F. Ricks House, also known as the Y.W.C.A. House, The Palms and St. Francis Hospital at 730 H. Street, Eureka, California was designed and built by Fred and Walter Butterfield in 1885 for owners Thomas Fouts Ricks and his wife, Eva. ...
is an Eastlake movement-building in Eureka, California. It was built in 1885 and in Eureka, the building is the most prominent example of Eastlake style. The building had several renovations to parts of the building, leading to the interior having a mixture of period styles. Many of the interior millwork were replaced during the hospital renovation in 1907 and in 1952 the dining room and kitchen were constructed in the style of that year. On the second floor, there are two Eastlake style bedrooms that have been unchanged. The entry hall of Thomas F. Ricks House contains a recessed ceiling panel that is outlined with molding ornamented with modillions. A bead course is used for decoration for the staircase newel post and squared balusters have a simple railing. The entry to the living rooms are double pocket doors and the living room ceiling is surrounded with box molding and underneath it, a picture rail. The floor is a carpeted hardwood floor with a plain 12-inch baseboard and all other rooms contain the same floor and ceiling finishes with a few variations in the walls. The Victorian rooms’ surrounds had bullseye corner blocks and lower ceiling finishes. The building is unique in that in Eureka, it is the only two-story building that is symmetrical with squared bay windows. Other Eastlake features of the house include: "the vertical stripes in the frieze, the brackets extending from the vertical strips, the narrow belt course, the cornice and brackets over the windows, and the wide band of trim under the cornice".


Spread in the United States

Although Eastlake's book ''Hints on Household Taste in Furniture, Upholstery and Other Details'' was originally released in England and was positively received, its influence was greater in the United States. The book was reprinted four times in England and six times in the United States. However, following the Civil War, the middle class desired a design reform due to the increasing awareness of the English movement. In England, Eastlake was one of many who desired a design reform, but in America his simplicity and taste were exposed to "unprecedented new readers". ''The New York Times'' stated that the home furniture was becoming simpler and that "the demand for extravagant and florid goods for household use" was gone. In the nineteenth century, as machine-production became more mainstream, many household artists thought that the designs produced lacked artistic characteristics and had untraditional craftsmanship. Unlike manmade furniture, artists believed that machine-made furniture did not have holistic designs and "had a basic form, a skeleton so to speak, to which various moldings and appendages of different styles were hastily applied." Eastlake, like many others, disliked the machine-produced furniture that replicated handcraftsmanship. He stated that the "elaboration and finish" should be a lower priority and most artists concurred that the "educated ideas of construction and proportion" were preferred. One person who popularized Eastlake's ideas was Henry Hudson Holly, an architect who wrote multiple articles using Eastlake's book but only cited him once. Although Holly profited from Eastlake's ideas, he echoed his ideas on furniture. Eastlake's book led to a demand in Eastlake furniture; however, Eastlake himself denied that there was an Eastlake style. This led to furniture manufacturers—who initially thought that Eastlake's ideas would be more harmful than good—to invent their own Eastlake furniture, with it reaching a point that it was "seen everywhere". In 1876, the Centennial Exhibition showcased Eastlake's ideas from his book to thousands of Americans. While the ‘old’ Renaissance style was featured in most of the exhibitions, manufacturers were criticized for prioritizing profits over creating well-designed pieces of furniture. Following George W. Gay's comment on Eastlake having "far reaching influence" which could be compared to the best of America's and Europe's manufacturers, manufacturers of cheap furniture began to use Eastlake style whereas before little attention was paid to the appearance.


Well-known Eastlake style houses

Two well-known Eastlake style houses in the
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area, in
Echo Park Echo Park is a neighborhood in the east-central region of Los Angeles, California. Located to the northwest of Downtown, it is bordered by Silver Lake to the west and Chinatown to the east. The culturally diverse neighborhood has become known fo ...
and
Angelino Heights Angelino Heights, alternately spelled Angeleno Heights, is one of the oldest neighborhoods in Los Angeles. Situated between neighboring Chinatown and Echo Park, the neighborhood is known for its concentration of eclectic architectural styles from ...
, are both on Carroll Avenue. The first is at 1330 Carroll Avenue. It was used in
Michael Jackson Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. Over a ...
's '' Thriller'' music video, as well as in episodes of the television show ''
Charmed ''Charmed'' is an American fantasy drama television series created by Constance M. Burge and produced by Aaron Spelling and his production company Spelling Television, with Brad Kern serving as showrunner. The series was originally broadcast ...
'', and was a focus set in the episode "Size Matters". The second house is at 1329 Carroll Avenue. The exterior of this house has been shown, in one way or another, in all 178 episodes of ''
Charmed ''Charmed'' is an American fantasy drama television series created by Constance M. Burge and produced by Aaron Spelling and his production company Spelling Television, with Brad Kern serving as showrunner. The series was originally broadcast ...
'', through eight seasons, from 1999 to 2006. In the show the house was dubbed "
Halliwell Manor ''Charmed'' is an American fantasy drama television series created by Constance M. Burge and produced by Aaron Spelling and his production company Spelling Television, with Brad Kern serving as showrunner. The series was originally broadcast by ...
". The house depicted in the show shares the same house number, 1329, but is on the fictional Prescott Street in
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.
Chateau-sur-Mer Chateau-sur-Mer is one of the first grand Bellevue Avenue mansions of the Gilded Age in Newport, Rhode Island. Located at 474 Bellevue Avenue, it is now owned by the Preservation Society of Newport County and is open to the public as a museum. C ...
, on
Bellevue Avenue The Bellevue Avenue Historic District is located along and around Bellevue Avenue in Newport, Rhode Island, United States. Its property is almost exclusively residential, including many of the Gilded Age mansions built by affluent summer vaca ...
in Newport,
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, was altered and expanded during the
gilded age In United States history, the Gilded Age was an era extending roughly from 1877 to 1900, which was sandwiched between the Reconstruction era and the Progressive Era. It was a time of rapid economic growth, especially in the Northern and Weste ...
to incorporate an Eastlake style billiard room and bedrooms. Glenview Mansion in
Yonkers, New York Yonkers () is a city in Westchester County, New York, United States. Developed along the Hudson River, it is the third most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City and Buffalo. The population of Yonkers was 211,569 as enu ...
, also known as the John Bond Trevor Home, was completed in 1877. Glenview is now part of the
Hudson River Museum The Hudson River Museum, located in Trevor Park in Yonkers, New York, is the largest museum in Westchester County. The Yonkers Museum, founded in 1919 at City Hall, became the Hudson River Museum in 1948. While often considered an art museum by th ...
and has six interpreted period rooms in the Eastlake style.Westchester: The American Suburb (Hudson River Museum, 2006)


See also

*
Victorian decorative arts Victorian decorative arts refers to the style of decorative arts during the Victorian era. Victorian design is widely viewed as having indulged in a grand excess of ornament. The Victorian era is known for its interpretation and eclectic revival ...
* Stick-Eastlake


References

{{Reflist 19th-century architecture in the United States American architectural styles History of furniture House styles Eastlake Victorian architectural styles Eastlake .