Welcome to the Stickley Store Project Blog – or SSP as I like to call it! You’re probably wondering “what” is the SSP? The short answer is it was, and remains, a quest to discover and share information about Gustav Stickley’s Washington, D.C. retail store that operated at 1512 H Street, NW from October 1, 1912 through approximately May 23, 1915. 

The longer answer is I’m a naturally curious person, and I believe it’s important to learn all you can about the things that drive your passion.  As the Arts & Crafts movement, and the role Gustav Stickley played in integrating that movement into American culture, heavily influence my furniture, it seemed natural that I should know something about this store. But what started as a simple Google query, quickly snow-balled into a major research project.  Each time I asked-and-answered one question, it raised twenty more.  

Before I knew it, I had spent countless hours reading books, articles and webpages.  I had made several research trips to the Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum; the Washington DC Historical Society; the United States Library of Congress; and the United States National Archives. Interviews were conducted with various Stickley scholars and experts including – David Cathers, Bruce Johnson, David Rudd, Mike McCracken, and Mike Danials.  Eventually, I sought the help of a professional researcher to find the things I thought existed, but could not find. And I was also fortunate to connect with another Arts & Crafts enthusiast, writer and researcher, Jim Kane, who brought new information and expertise to the project.  

All this research lead to a fairly large collection of legal documents, advertisements, classified ads and government records related to the store -- the bulk of which can be acessed via the links to the left of this page. It also lead to the conclusion that no significant body of (published) research existed about Stickley’s retail stores. The natural conclusion from those two facts was I should write a book or article. While a book, I suppose in theory remains a possibility; I simply didn’t want to do that; so I decided to write an article. But there’s only so much content you can include in an article. So until I get the motivation to write a book, I thought that a blog would be the best vehicle to share the large cache of information I have accumulated. 

This blog is a place to park, and share all that I have learned about Stickley’s Washington, D.C. Craftsman store. I hope you enjoy it.


February 12, 2021

The Stickley Store Project Presentation

The slides and audio recording of my presentation at the 32nd National Arts & Crafts Conference.


September 26, 2018

Presenting the Stickley Store Project Research!

32nd National Arts & Crafts Conference Announcement


March 21, 2018

Delivery Services @ The Craftsman Store

A summary of what we've learned about Stickley's Autocar Delivery truck and the delivery services he used.


March 14, 2018

Another Stickley Store Mystery solved!

Solving the mystery of whether Gustav Stickley had relatives in the Washington, D.C. area.


January 08, 2018

Another Couple Days @ Winterthur!

A summary of a couple days @ Winterthur doing more research on Gustav Stickley's Washington, D.C. store The Craftsman.