Arts and Crafts homes in Massachusetts (12 active)

The Arts and Crafts movement (c. 1890–1920) reformed design against Victorian excess and machine production, prizing handcraft, honest natural materials, and harmony with the landscape. In Massachusetts houses it runs from the architect-designed Craftsman and the everyday bungalow to Arts & Crafts–inflected Colonials, and is still invoked by builders today. — Photo: John Phelan · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 3.0

What is an Arts and Crafts home?

Arts and Crafts is a family of homes built between about 1890 and 1920, when designers pushed back against the busy, machine-made look of the Victorian house. They wanted homes made by hand, from real materials, in simple and sturdy shapes. The result is a warm, grounded house that still feels honest today. It is a family, not a single floor plan. The Craftsman house and the everyday Bungalow both belong to it, and the same spirit shaped Arts and Crafts Colonials. Builders still reach for the name, so you will see it on new construction too.

Why it’s special

The idea was to show the house for what it is. Wood is left as wood, brick as brick, stone as stone. Where a Victorian builder added store-bought ornament, an Arts and Crafts builder kept things plain and let good materials and workmanship do the talking. Inside, the house gathers around the fireplace and the garden. The hearth anchors the main rooms, often framed by built-in bookcases, window seats, and cabinets. Deep covered porches and long low rooflines reach toward the yard. Stained glass, small-paned windows, and handmade metal hardware add the few quiet flourishes.

What it’s like to live in one

These homes feel solid and calm. The built-ins do real work, and the natural wood gives rooms a warm glow paint cannot copy. In Massachusetts they cluster in the streetcar suburbs and mill cities of those decades. Newton and the towns just west of Boston (Arlington, Belmont, Watertown) have many, as do the West Side, Greendale, and Tatnuck neighborhoods of Worcester and the streetcar districts of Springfield, Holyoke, and Pittsfield. These houses are roughly a century old, so plan for the usual updates to heating, wiring, and plumbing.

Is it the real thing?

The name is used loosely, so it helps to know what you are looking at. A true Arts and Crafts home comes from that 1890 to 1920 window and shows the honest materials, exposed wood, built-in hearth, and deep porches described above. A newer house may borrow the name and a few details without the age or the handwork. We surface a home here only when the listing makes a real “Arts and Crafts” claim about the architecture, not the hobby meaning of the phrase.

Last reviewed June 16, 2026

Common questions about Arts and Crafts homes

How do you identify a Arts and Crafts home?

Natural materials left to show themselves: dark stained wood, brick, stone, stucco, and shingle
Warm wood beams and trim left exposed inside
Built-in bookcases, window seats, and cabinets around a central fireplace
Stained-glass or small-paned windows and hand-made metal hardware
Long, low rooflines with deep covered porches

When were Arts and Crafts homes built?

Arts and Crafts homes were built during 1890–1920.

Where in Massachusetts are Arts and Crafts homes found?

Newton and the Boston streetcar suburbs (Arlington, Belmont, Watertown)
Worcester West Side, Greendale, and Tatnuck
Springfield, Holyoke, and Pittsfield streetcar neighborhoods

Who designed notable Arts and Crafts homes in Massachusetts?

Gustav Stickley — The Craftsman magazine (1901–1916) and mail-order plans that carried the movement nationwide
Greene & Greene — the canonical high-style American Arts & Crafts house, widely emulated
H. H. Richardson — Massachusetts forerunner whose materials-first work fed the movement
Lois Lilley Howe and the Boston Society of Arts and Crafts (founded 1897, the first in the U.S.)