East Aurora and Beyond - 2007 Visitors Guide - (Page 10) 10 NATIONAL LANDMARK PRESSES ON WITH RESTORATION During its heyday, the Roycroft Inn and Campus was a proving ground for some of America’s best virtues. This groundbreaking Arts and Crafts colony was esteemed for its resourcefulness, community spirit and rejection of the status quo. Today, dedicated caretakers have embraced those same virtues in a quest to restore the entire Campus to its former splendor. In 1895, a businessman and upstart writer named Elbert Hubbard found himself disheartened by the dehumanizing effects of industrialization. A brilliant marketing mind, Hubbard set about building a personal print shop to disseminate his views. He chose a small rural community as the setting. Eventually, he enticed hundreds of talented artisans and tradesmen to join him in a grand experiment. Free enterprise and craftsmanship merged to spark a counter-revolution in the design of everyday items. This pioneering community made handcrafted copper and leather goods, books, furniture, lamps, clocks and other wares. Obsession with quality and detail resulted in high demand for their products. Mechanized production was reviled by the Roycrofters. It was deemed a dishonest shortcut, stripping men of their talents. As Hubbard observed, “One machine can do the work of 50 ordinary men; no machine can do the work of one extraordinary man.” The idea was for the artisan to create beautiful goods with meticulous labor and love for the material he plied. The resulting joy was a soothing tonic for both craftsman and consumer. Art was weaved into everyday life. It was during this design era that the stuffy Victorian “parlor room” yielded to the open, more functional “family room.” Hubbard’s selfcontained colony was visited by luminaries like Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Frank Lloyd Wright and Clarence Darrow. With the help of his print shop, this eccentric entrepreneur, writer and lecturer had become champion of a burgeoning culture in America: the Arts and Crafts Movement. Hubbard christened his colleagues “Roycrofters,” a portmanteau of royal and craft. With their distinctive stamp of authenticity, Roycroft artisans treated everything they created as if it had a soul. Lest we forget, this all happened in East Aurora. Though branded differently, Arts and Crafts communities began to grow in other parts of the country. But they would not have flourished as they did if not for the inspiration of Hubbard and his press. That’s why the Roycroft Inn & Campus is a National Continued on page 12 Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of East Aurora and Beyond - 2007 Visitors Guide East Aurora and Beyond - 2007 Visitors Guide East Aurora and Beyond - 2007 Visitors Guide - (Page 1) East Aurora and Beyond - 2007 Visitors Guide - (Page 2) East Aurora and Beyond - 2007 Visitors Guide - (Page 3) East Aurora and Beyond - 2007 Visitors Guide - (Page 4) East Aurora and Beyond - 2007 Visitors Guide - (Page 5) East Aurora and Beyond - 2007 Visitors Guide - (Page 6) East Aurora and Beyond - 2007 Visitors Guide - (Page 7) East Aurora and Beyond - 2007 Visitors Guide - (Page 8) East Aurora and Beyond - 2007 Visitors Guide - (Page 9) East Aurora and Beyond - 2007 Visitors Guide - (Page 10) East Aurora and Beyond - 2007 Visitors Guide - (Page 11) East Aurora and Beyond - 2007 Visitors Guide - (Page 12) East Aurora and Beyond - 2007 Visitors Guide - (Page 13) East Aurora and Beyond - 2007 Visitors Guide - (Page 14) East Aurora and Beyond - 2007 Visitors Guide - (Page 15) East Aurora and Beyond - 2007 Visitors Guide - (Page 16) East Aurora and Beyond - 2007 Visitors Guide - (Page 17) East Aurora and Beyond - 2007 Visitors Guide - (Page 18) East Aurora and Beyond - 2007 Visitors Guide - (Page 19) East Aurora and Beyond - 2007 Visitors Guide - (Page 20) East Aurora and Beyond - 2007 Visitors Guide - (Page 21) East Aurora and Beyond - 2007 Visitors Guide - (Page 22) East Aurora and Beyond - 2007 Visitors Guide - (Page 23) East Aurora and Beyond - 2007 Visitors Guide - (Page 24) East Aurora and Beyond - 2007 Visitors Guide - (Page 25) East Aurora and Beyond - 2007 Visitors Guide - (Page 26) East Aurora and Beyond - 2007 Visitors Guide - (Page 27) East Aurora and Beyond - 2007 Visitors Guide - (Page 28) East Aurora and Beyond - 2007 Visitors Guide - (Page 29) East Aurora and Beyond - 2007 Visitors Guide - (Page 30) East Aurora and Beyond - 2007 Visitors Guide - (Page 31) East Aurora and Beyond - 2007 Visitors Guide - (Page 32) East Aurora and Beyond - 2007 Visitors Guide - (Page 33) East Aurora and Beyond - 2007 Visitors Guide - (Page 34) East Aurora and Beyond - 2007 Visitors Guide - (Page 35) East Aurora and Beyond - 2007 Visitors Guide - (Page 36) http://www.nxtbookMEDIA.com
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