Halloween 1913 Tour: Inside Gustav Stickley’s Log House at Craftsman Farms

The Halloween, 1913 Tour at The Stickley Museum at Craftsman Farms in Morris Plains, New Jersey, offers an after-hours step back to an autumn evening in Gustav Stickley’s Log House. Located at 2352 NJ-10, Morris Plains, NJ 07950, USA, this immersive program highlights Stickley’s original furnishings and period-accurate paper-mâché decorations. Guides weave stories about Craftsman design, domestic entertainments, and Halloween customs from 1910–1917, explaining how early twentieth-century Americans marked the holiday with parlor games, divination rituals, and handmade ornaments.

Inside the low-slung log structure, the house itself reads like a primary source: pegged joinery, exposed wood grain, and furniture crafted to match the ideals of honest materials and simple lines. The tour foregrounds the Log House, its parlor hearth, and the domestic objects that anchor Stickley’s philosophy. The paper-mâché decorations are reconstructed from period photographs and references, offering a rare look at ephemeral folk art that seldom survives under museum conditions.

This is a museum experience that turns theatrical without sacrificing scholarship. Guides connect the objects in the room to broader shifts in American design and social life, making the Stickley residence a focal point for the regional history of the Arts and Crafts movement. Because the program runs after normal hours, lighting and small-group storytelling create a distinctly intimate atmosphere, capped by light refreshments that replicate the social rituals of the era.

Practical details matter: arrive at The Stickley Museum at Craftsman Farms for the announced check-in time and plan for uneven wooden floors and low doorways. The event’s after-hours format makes it a good evening option for travelers based in nearby towns, or for locals looking for a seasonal cultural outing. Note the museum’s stated media policy: visitors may be photographed or recorded during programs.

For enthusiasts of architectural craft, material culture, and Halloween lore, this tour is a compact, focused way to experience a living historical interior. It’s particularly valuable because the house preserves original furnishings and Stickley-designed pieces in situ—an educational contrast to collections dispersed across institutions. Whether you come for the period decorations, the stories about early twentieth-century pastimes, or simply to see a standout example of Craftsman-era domestic architecture, the Halloween, 1913 Tour at Craftsman Farms delivers a precise, atmospheric evening that feels both curated and lived-in.

Pair the tour with a daytime walk around the property’s rolling lawns and original landscape features to extend the visit; the house sits on grounds that reward a slow, observant pace. Parking is available on site at the address above, and the program’s evening timing makes it a convenient cultural cap to a day of local exploration in Morris Plains. Expect thoughtful interpretation, measured pacing, and a detailed close-up view of an intact Arts and Crafts interior.