If the old saying “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery” is true, then Jud Yoho should have been mighty flattered! Anyone who has spent any time poking around search engines looking for information on Craftsman bungalows has likely run across his name. Sadly, however, it’s a name which remains surprisingly unknown. Yoho was a successful (and agressive) self-promoting designer and builder of Craftsman style bungalows in Seattle, Washington, in the early twentieth century. Because of his mail-order plans, examples of his designs can be found across the United States and in Canada.
The Texas native’s designs were very popular; so popular that they were often imitated and published without credit by competing plan-book publishers. His work even caught the eye of Sears, Roebuck and Company which, to the company’s credit, compensated Yoho when they licensed the plans for his Design No. 325 and marketed them as a kit house named the Argyle. The Argyle, as it turned out, may have been the most successful of all of the many kit house offered by Sears! An earlier design offered by Yoho in 1912, Design No. 424, is somewhat more sophisticated and may have been the prototype for No. 325.
Yoho’s designs seemed to capture the essence of the Craftsman style in a way that few competitors could. While not as polished as Greene and Greene, his work was a lot more refined — and original — than what most builders were offering at the time. His houses were joyfully expressive, particularly when it came to masonry and roof details. His most adventurous designs played up the more exotic origins of the Craftsman aesthetic and at times paid homage to Japanese traditions. Much of his work had a naturalistic, even organic, aspect to it. His designs were all interesting, even the most mundane of them.
Sometime around 1911 Yoho teamed up with Edward L. Merritt and Merritt’s brother-in-law, Virgil Hall, to found Seattle’s Craftsman Bungalow Company. And the rest, as they say, is history…
So why isn’t the name of Jud Yoho more familiar? Good question! While he’s better-known now than twenty years ago, his work still remains surprisingly unknown outside of the Pacific Northwest. I’ll leave that mystery to the historians out there. For now, let’s take a look at some of the remarkable work produced by Yoho and, in later years, Yoho and Merritt. Unless otherwise noted, all images are courtesy of archive.org.
This is a great post, A.O. I’ve long admired the Craftsman theory of extolling handcraft, but somehow when it gets applied to a bungalow I’m not a fan. I think it’s because the porches and overhangs lead to dark interiors (at least in the ones I’ve been in), which is a virtue in hot sunny climates but less so where I live (Pennsylvania) and presumably also the always-gray Pacific northwest. I think bungalows originated in India, where protection from the sun may be more the goal. They also would make a lot of sense in southern California, where they were indeed very popular. Then there is also the heaviness and squat profiles typical of many examples. They can be, however, great examples of a stylish smaller home which led directly (as you point out) to the post-war “ranch” style. (I think that in the UK a “bungalow” is actually a term for any one-level home.) I’m trying to come up with examples of Craftsman style in other types of building envelopes, but all I’m coming up with now is some of the earlier FL Wright prairie designs. Curious if you can think of any?
Hmmmm… while I can think of numerous recent examples of the Craftsman aesthetic being superficially imposed on suburban office parks and restaurants, I can’t think of any early twentieth buildings built in the style which are not residential in nature. I’d be willing to bet that examples exist, however… hopefully someone will share a link to such a place!
Man, you come up with the best architectural stuff. This guy is like an Oriental Bruce Goff. So many unique and innovative touches. I love the one with all those stone triangular pillars but upkeep would be a nightmare. The big chimneys meaning gorgeous fireplaces are great also.
Thanks so much for all your great work.
Where do I look for interior pics of his work. Many of the windows are very G&G.
Fantastic, a breath of fresh air.
Upkeep would indeed be a nightmare on some of his more complex exteriors, but at least you would have something beyond stunning to look at every day! The Craftsman Bungalow company put out many plan books, some of which show a few interiors. Here’s a link to get you started; you can find more by searching for Yoho’s work on archive.org.
Hey, AO: I can see how I wasn’t clear. I didn’t mean “non-residential”, by “other types of building envelopes” I was referring to residential design which incorporates the Craftsman aesthetic of handcraft into something without the typical large eave — lots of porches — shingle/stone mix exterior. I see a different take on Craftsman in the Robie House in Chicago, for example.
Craftsman-style houses and Prairie-style houses (such as FLW’s Robie House) were popular at roughly the same time, so both display a similar aesthetic sensibility. Hand-made tile work, for example, is often found in both styles. The thing that really sets the Craftsman style apart is its emphasis on structural elements (posts, brackets, etc.) as ornament (in place of the tacked-on decorations so common to Victorian-era houses). FLW often hid structure — making some of his designs appear to be gravity-defying!
Possibly the best thing I can think of would be some of Wright’s Usonian houses which celebrated a similar type of handcraft and use of natural materials inside and out.
Some of this hand-made aesthetic can be found in the better Tudor Revival houses of the 20’s and 30’s where great emphasis was placed on structure (such as the ubiquitous half-timbered walls which characterize Tudor Revivals). They also tend to feature hand-wrought ironwork, carved stone, and leaded glass windows. To a lesser degree, this quality can be found in many of the “romantic” revival styles.
After these styles faded, however, modernism arrived and few architects have looked back with any serious grasp of these concepts. The Craftsman style truly stands alone in many ways; its passing marked the end of an era.
The last advertisements for Yoho’s house plans ran in 1919. After that he went to work in the lumber industry. I know he advertised nationally, but I have been through hundreds of permits (more?) in the Chicago area and never seen Yoho’s name on any of them. I just wonder how many plans he actually sold and whether those were concentrated in the Pacific Northwest.
Why don’t you credit Gustav Stickley, and his magazine The Craftsman (1901-1918) for being the first to use the name “Craftsman” and to popularize the term and its ideas? It looks like Yoho was piggybacking on Stickley. See http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/serial?id=craftsman.
Thanks for pointing that out! Yes; Stickley definitely made “Craftsman” a household word which conjured up a specific aesthetic. Lots of architects and designers who followed Stickley piggybacked on his success and fame.
The term “Craftsman” soon became generic, just like “Kleenex” and “Coke” did; these terms all refer now to a variety of products rather than a specific source. It wasn’t a deliberate omission; I just didn’t think about it!
Do you send snarky emails to HGTV or the Old House Journal every time they they discuss the Craftsman style without referencing Stickley?
Great name for a punk rock band “The Snark Emails”
🎶👌✔
Having been a serious fan for decades of the ubiquitous Craftsman bungalow, after being raised in an area with neighborhoods full of them, and various other styles of kit houses primarily of Sears and Aladdin designs, on the Southeast coast of Virginia. Aladdin having had a major production mill located in North Carolina helped to contribute to their popularity there, over Chicago-based Sears Honor Bilt homes. This is an area known locally as the Tidewater Peninsula, encompassing Hampton, Newport News, the “Historic Triangle” of Jamestown, Williamsburg, Yorktown, etc., as well as nearby Norfolk, Chesapeake, Portsmouth and Virginia Beach, all on the Chesapeake Bay. And home to major military installations of all 5 services, especially Norfolk Navy Base, the largest Navy installation in the world, situated on the largest natural protective bay likewise.
Plus internet and in-person researcher of Craftsman Bungalows for the last 12+ years while living in central Indiana, also home to numerous neighborhoods of kit homes and Craftsman Bungalows as well! I have been a personal fan of Jud Yoho’s designs for years. Of course I discovered his work first years back via a reprint of a catalog of his designs through the wonderful work of Dover reprints. Found here, as Dover still carries it for $11.95 in softcover reprint –
https://m.doverpublications.com/0486468755.html
And an e-book copy for under $9.00. I bought the softcover book, since at the time I wasn’t into e-books. I also own every other Dover edition of every book even remotely close to the subject!
I’ve also been a devoted, but careful bidder/buy-it-now purchaser of every real kit home catalog of about every company that produced them, from just before this subject became exceptionally popular, prices became prohibitive, and sources became rarer. I have numerous bookshelves full of them now, and look on them as a sort of investment, as the ones I now own are much harder to find now, if at all. And commerce being what it is, regarding supply and demand, I fully expect to reap the benefits of early purchase of now rare catalogs, much more in demand!
Another not-so-well-known designer I admirer a great deal is Jens Pedersen, who’s catalog reprint, now titled “90 Homes of the Twenties” is located here,
https://m.doverpublications.com/0486478866.html
It shows many home designs in beautiful colors, with floor plans. Again, not a well known name, but an admirable designer.
I enjoy reading your articles, particularly regarding Jud Yoho and his work. It was nice to see his plans in original form, but slightly disappointed that they were not available to enlarge on my screen, since I am disabled, cannot spend any time sitting at a computer screen, and use a smartphone for all my internet access. But I did the best I could with them, and thank you for providing them! Very informative, and it hopefully will help inform and educate others of the kind of world we lived in “Between the Wars” 100 years ago!
Thanks for the links! I was not aware of Jens Pedersen but will have fun exploring the plan books of his which can be seen at archive.org! Your collection sounds wonderful.
You’re quite welcome. My pleasure to continue spreading the word on the very talented, but less well known architects, designers, and publishers of the kit home and early plan book era.
And yes indeed, archive.org is an absolutely marvelous source of materials on this subject! My own “Favorites” list has around 1,000 or so saved publications of several different subjects, covering more than one personal interest, but the vast majority of them cover this subject. I’ve been a member there for around 20 years, and also a regular monthly contributor to help to support their work. It’s worth every penny IMHO, since this is a volunteer organization who is doing untold amounts of work to gather, scan and make available millions of sources that most of us would never know about, or have access to, even if we did know about them.
YES I am “tooting their horn” more or less, but even though I have no official affiliation with them beyond my own membership, I try to do my best to make sure they become better known as the source of so many publications that we can all benefit from!
I do love their “Filter” process that one can use to narrow down what they have to suit our purposes! It works wonderfully to make that process much more intuitive and easy. Once you learn the little tips and tricks that make the process itself much easier!
Hope you enjoy the catalogs they have there from Jens Pedersen’s work!
Ooops! I meant to say about 10 years, not 20! But the 1 and the 2 can get pressed accidentally sometimes because I always use my smartphone for internet access, and the keyboard is rather small. I usually catch such things when I reread my posts to edit anything that needs it before posting, but I apparently missed this one! Didn’t mean to mislead anyone!
Always happy to plug great resources such as archive.org! Obscure designers such as Yoho and Pedersen are of far more interest to me than famous ones with instantly recognized names; there has been plenty written about those folks already.
I’m trying to determine which house designs seen in Yoho’s publications were actually his own design; his introductions have acknowledged that not all of the designs are his:
“The man with the experience and training is the one to give you the best results. All of the designs in this book are bungalows pure and simple. Most of them are our own ideas. They are only a few of the many designs on hand, but they will serve to show you something of the concentrated beauty, convenience and comfort to be obtained from owning a real California Bungalow.”
As you know, it was quite common at the time for plan book publishers to “borrow” each other’s work, and sometimes shamelessly so. I have already traced some of Yoho’s published designs to other architects but am still working on others. Not sure what to think at this point; I only wish I had more time to delve into this because it is a fascinating journey.
I have had fun with Jens Pedersen’s plan books! I was previously familiar with the Brown-Blodgett Company but not Pedersen specifically. I am impressed with the Tudor Revival, Spanish Eclectic and Prairie designs especially.