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(Photograph by Matthew Aungst) -
(Photograph by Matthew Aungst)
Frank Stephens and Price's philosophies owed much to nineteenth-century English reformer William Morris, who had founded the Arts and Crafts movement with his home at Bexley Heath, Red House (1850s), a name copied here. The little, gable-roofed frame building housed Arden Forge and Stephens's studio. Stephens promoted crafts in order to provide year-round employment for his community. The gambrel-roofed Craft Shop was built next to Red House in a speedy building campaign that used oak and poplar from Arden woods.
The concrete basement housed a water pump and bakery; the first floor, a woodworking shop, salesroom, and sewing and costume room; the second floor, facilities for weaving and metalwork, studios, and a classroom. Craft Shop closed in 1936, and later, it served as an apartment house. Across Millers Road is the former Weavers Plant, and at 1806 Millers stands Rest Harrow, now Lone Pine (c. 1913, William Price), part of a row of four low-cost houses—“Little Arden”—aimed at attracting master craftsmen to the nearby shop.