# American Homes Should Proclaim Fine Democratic Standards by Gustav Stickley > “We are a country of self-supporting men and women, and we cannot expect to develop an honest significant architecture until we build homes that are simple, yet beautiful, that proclaim fine democratic standards and that are essentially appropriate to busy intelligent people.” > **— Gustav Stickley**, *Craftsman Homes, 1909* ## Sources and Context - **Primary text:** [Craftsman Homes (1909) — Internet Archive](https://archive.org/details/craftsmanhomes00stic) — Stickley’s book from The Craftsman Workshops. The sentence appears in the editorial introduction to the chapter “The Art of Building a Home,” which presents the lectures of the English architects Barry Parker and Raymond Unwin; the introduction argues that Americans submit to imitation of foreign ideals in the one matter that should express them most, the home. - **Locator:** Chapter introduction to “The Art of Building a Home: By Barry Parker and Raymond Unwin,” early in the volume. No page number is legible in the digitized text. ## Related Articles and Collections - **Collection:** [[collections/Simple Reminders|Simple Reminders]] - **Collection:** [[collections/American|American Collection]] - **American route:** [[american/American Aesthetic - Interior Design and Space Composition|Interior Design and Space Composition]] - **American route:** [[american/American Aesthetic - Architecture and Design|Architecture and Design]] ## Related Topics - [[wiki/Arts and Crafts Movement|Arts and Crafts Movement]] - [[wiki/American Design|American Design]] ## Share on Social Media ``` “We are a country of self-supporting men and women, and we cannot expect to develop an honest significant architecture until we build homes that are simple, yet beautiful, that proclaim fine democratic standards and that are essentially appropriate to busy intelligent people.” — Gustav Stickley, Craftsman Homes, 1909 https://bryantmcgill.com/simple-reminders-gustav-stickley-homes-democratic-standards ```