Walter Gropius was one of the founders of the Bauhaus school in Germany in the 1920's. He escaped Nazi Germany in the late 30's and settled in Lincoln in 1938. The Bauhaus style is not talked about too much anymore by the general public but the movement and style were highly influential to many aspects of modern art and architecture.

The literal translation of "Bauhaus" is "House of Building". A related secondary meaning of the German verb "Bauen" is "to till or to cultivate" -- truly a wonderful term for a forward thinking holistic approach to the teaching of building arts.

Though a trained architect himself, Gropius originally saw the school not as a place to teach Architecture but as a place to train Architects. The difference being that the Bauhaus school included a wide range of the arts: painting, sculpture, graphic design, interior design, industrial design and typography. In a 1919 pamphlet promoting the new school, Gropius proclaimed "The ultimate aim of all creative activity is a building!... Let us desire, conceive, and create the new building of the future together. It will combine architecture, sculpture, and painting in a single form, and will one day rise towards the heavens from the hands of a million workers as the crystalline symbol of a new and coming faith". This was a very passionate man who was completely devoted to his new endeavor!

One of the central idea's behind instruction at the school was training directly in the arts. Students would have dual instructors; both a master craftsman to teach technical proficiency in understanding craft and a master artist to oversee the aesthetic development of students. Mies van der Rohe, another highly influential German/American architect, was the third and last director of the school before the Nazi regime closed the school and expelled him.

The Bauhaus style, also known as "the International Style", can loosely be defined by the absence of ornamentation and by harmony between the function of an object or a building and its design. At the end of the French Expressionist and English Victorian styles, this was a radical new design approach. Bauhaus design sought to embrace the capabilities of mass production and reconcile that modern development with the individual artistic spirit; to unify art, craft and technology. One of Gropius' most famous designs is for a door handle with very clean modern lines.

His home in Lincoln has flat roofs and clean lines throughout and is set in a beautiful New England meadow. It was intended to mix traditional New England materials like brick, wood and field stone with modern mass produced materials like stainless steel railings, large panes of glass and glass blocks. He even used traditional New England clapboards but installed them vertically in the interior entry of the home. Even with it's high style it was planned as a highly efficient, simple and economical home. It was built for $18,000 in 1938.

After moving to Massachusetts, Gropius taught at Harvard's Graduate School of Design and later in 1945, he founded The Architects' Collaborative (TAC), which became a highly successful and influential Architecture firm.

Gropius is known as one of the most influential architects and visionaries of the 20th Century. We are truly blessed to be able to visit his home right in our own back yard. All of it's original furniture and belongings are still in place.  Gropius lived in his house in Lincoln until his death in 1969.

The House, at 68 Baker Bridge Road, Lincoln, MA, is now owned by Historic New England and is open to the public Wednesday through Sunday (June 1-October 15, and weekends (October 16-May 31). An admission fee is charged.