New York City architect Christopher Jend presents “E.G.W. Dietrich: Rediscovering His Cranford Designs,” highlighting six Dietrich designs still standing in Cranford’s Roosevelt Manor neighborhood.
An early proponent of the Colonial Revival and Arts and Crafts styles, Dietrich collaborated with celebrated furniture designer Gustav Stickley and is credited with designing the first “Craftsman” style house.
Ernest George Washington Dietrich (1857 to 1924) was born in Pittsburgh, where he trained at the architectural firm of Drum and Kuhn. After forming a partnership in 1883, he moved to New York City in 1886 and practiced there for nearly 40 years. His work included churches, libraries, hotels and public buildings, but he is best known for residential designs in the Shingle, Colonial Revival and Arts and Crafts styles.
His link to Stickley came through The Craftsman, the magazine Stickley founded in 1901. In 1903 it published two of Dietrich's essays, and in May of that year it presented the first "Craftsman House," designed by Dietrich with Stickley, with Stickley furniture shown in its interior views.
The Cranford Historical Society, founded in 1927, operates the Crane-Phillips House Living Museum at 38 Springfield Avenue.
For more information, visit cranfordhistoricalsociety.org.