In 1940, thousands of enthusiastic consumers and curious spectators flocked to the America at Home pavilion at the New York World’s Fair (fig. 1). They admired architects’ and designers’ showrooms, which included contemporary interiors ranging from urban apartments to country retreats. According to pavilion organizers, these spaces were intended to represent “the wide variety of interests and living habits in a democracy such as ours.”[1] They showed visitors what domestic life looked like from coast to coast.
Of the sixteen showrooms, one was a collaboration between the innovative furniture maker Wharton Esherick and Philadelphia architect George Howe. Esherick and Howe’s interior, called the Pennsylvania Hill House, was loosely based on the design of Esherick’s home, but at the fair it was marketed as a “comfortable camp, rather than a year-round dwelling.”[2] For their so-called cabin in the woods—what one reporter alluded to as “rustic” and “modern” in design—Esherick contributed about a dozen pieces of furniture (fig. 2).[3] Visitors to the 17-by-18-foot room found an efficiently arranged and dramatically decorated space filled with handcrafted works of art.
Esherick’s now iconic Spiral Stair from 1930 stood near the center of the room (figure 3).[4] The red oak staircase, along with a curved sofa, helped create a division between the bedroom and the living and dining space.[5] Esherick also staged seating areas, one of which included an upholstered leather armchair with a whimsical dog-shaped footstool. Nearby, a five-sided hickory table and chairs could be used for dining, as a coffee table, or as a desk. Esherick’s decision to use different types of wood in the room also created visual interest: cherry planks rose behind the sofa, while a walnut lamp with a dramatic arc hung on the opposite wall.[6] An article in the New York Times noted the room’s “odd, sculpturesque quality”—no doubt due to the fact that Esherick was a sculptor—but went on to assert, “Those who wish to hark back to the handicraft age and still be modern will find their ideal in the ‘Pennsylvania hill house.’”[7]
To further showcase the talent of the region, Esherick enlivened the space with handmade ceramics and fiber art by local craftspeople, which made the Pennsylvania Hill House look and feel like a home. A journalist observed that the room “reminds us that the Quaker State has a pioneer tradition” that “translates pleasantly into a modern idiom.”[8] Perhaps it also encouraged fairgoers to look closer to home for their decorating needs.
In a letter to Esherick, the fair’s publicity director Louise Sloane reported that the Pennsylvania Hill House was very popular with visitors, specifically noting the staircase, which continuously brought forth “exclamations, questions and comments” from those who went through the building.[9] Esherick’s first large-scale public installation was a success. The America at Home project not only showed visitors what living looked like in different parts of the United States, it also brought attention to some of the country’s leading architects, designers, and craftspeople.
The above article is an excerpt adapted from Ann Glasscock, “For All the World to See: Presenting the Work of Wharton Esherick,” in The Crafted World of Wharton Esherick (New York: Rizzoli Electa, 2024), 201–211.
[1] America at Home informational sheet, “Exhibitions, 1920–85,” Wharton Esherick Museum Archives.
[2] Mansfield Bascom, Wharton Esherick: The Journey of a Creative Mind (New York: Abrams, 2010), p. 169.
[3] James W. Holden, “Progress of Modern is Shown,” newspaper clipping, May 25, 1940.
[4] Most of the works on display were for sale; Esherick priced the staircase at $900 (an estimated $20,000 in today’s dollars). “Exhibitions, 1920–85,” Wharton Esherick Museum Archives.
[5] The sofa, which was previously in the Curtis Bok House, and the staircase are now in Esherick’s Studio.
[6] Oral history interview with Ruth Bascom, Feb. 1990, transcript, p. 4, Wharton Esherick Museum Archives.
[7] Walter Rendell Storey, “Decorative Art: Exhibit at Fair,” New York Times, May 19, 1940, p. 51.
[8] Elizabeth MacRae Boykin, “Pioneer Architecture for Rustic Retreats,” Cincinnati Enquirer, June 16, 1940, p. 21.
[9] Louise V. Sloane to Wharton Esherick, July 27, 1940, Wharton Esherick Museum Archives.
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