Parsipapany - Troy Hills -Fashion trends repeat. This past year you could go to the nearest department store and find leggings, a remnant of fashion from the 1980’s. Furniture trends come back in style as well. The popularity of Mission Furniture in the last couple of years proves that. Remnants of the American Arts and Crafts Movement can be easily found today, even at such stores as JC Penney and Macy’s. To see the real thing, though, from the father of the Arts and Crafts Movement himself, Gustav Stickley, takes no more time than a trip to the mall for Sussex County residents. Located off of Route 10 in Parsippany is The Stickley Museum at Craftsman Farms. It is a National Treasure, and according to this Springs Style 1900 magazine, one of three Great American Architectural Houses in the county- the other two designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and Charles and Henry Green, designers of the famous Gamble house. President and Acting Director of the Craftsman Farms Foundation, Davey Williams, showed off his love of Gustav Stickley’s work as he explained Stickley’s dream and the Farm’s original intended purpose. “It was Gustav’s dream to build a trade school for boys to come and learn the craft and for local artisans to come together.” He dream was short lived, as no one enrolled in his school, so he moved his family into the Log House and they lived there for seven years. The theory behind the Arts and Craftsman Movement was “Form and Function,” and the largest result of this movement was what we still call Mission Furniture. Stickley not only owned a furniture company, but owned and published The Craftsman magazine, which was printed from 1901-1916. Stickley’s furniture was built not only for beauty’s sake, but to serve a purpose and to last a lifetime. “That’s what happened, what went wrong. People got tired of it,” Williams said. As the love of the furniture passed, so did Stickley’s good fortune, and he was forced to sell the 650 acre farm. In 1988 the township of Parsippany-Troy Hills purchased what was left of the original property- 26 acres, the log home and two smaller cabins. In 1999 the Foundation added the stable, the milk house and the chicken coop and the four acres on which they were located. The museum itself is in the Log House. Stickely originally designed it be a club house for the boys and artisans in residence, but when he plans fell through, used it as his home with his wife and children. The living and dining areas still have the open feel of a club house, however. The foundation has been working since it’s inception in 1998 to acquire the original furnishings and décor of the house to restore it to it’s original state. Most of the original furniture has been returned to the Log House, through purchases and donations. “Today we have all but two pieces of the original furniture. One piece sits in a warehouse in the Smithsonian, and the other, the Grandfather Clock, is in a personal collection,” said Williams. Though Williams is a self proclaimed “pottery nut”, he has three personal favorites at the museum. “Each for a different reason: For functionality, the corner cabinets in the dining room. For uniqueness, there’s a cedar lined Blanket/Dresser Unit upstairs that was built in 1906. There are only two in the world, ours and one other, and the cedar still smells like it was built yesterday. For aesthetic beauty, though, the piano - the wood graining and the Harry Ellis inlays.” The piano still functions, but to preserve it, it isn’t played. The current goals for the foundation are to expand the site: open other buildings to the public, have resident crafters living on premise like Stickley planned, open a study and interpretation center and an educational study center for the Arts and Crafts movement. Like most local museums, Craftsman Farms relies heavily on its volunteers and supporters. What’s different from other museums is their motto for the volunteers, “Learn and Serve.” You learn all about not just the Stickley furniture but about the history of the area and the Arts and Craftsman Movement. Their season begins April 1 and run to Nov. 15, Wednesday through Sunday. For more information about the volunteer program or visiting the museum, call 973-540-0311 or visit them online at www.StickleyMuseum.org.