31 S. Grove St

The Roycroft Campus in East Aurora stands as the most significant surviving complex of the American Arts and Crafts movement — a fourteen-building campus where craftsmen produced hand-printed books, copper metalwork, furniture, and leather goods from 1895 until the 1930s. Founded by Elbert Hubbard, a charismatic writer and philosopher who left the Larkin Soap Company to pursue his artistic vision, the campus grew from a single print shop into a thriving artisan community that employed over five hundred workers at its peak.

Hubbard was inspired by a 1894 visit to William Morris's Kelmscott Press in England, and he returned to East Aurora determined to establish an American equivalent. The Roycroft Press began publishing limited-edition books in 1895, decorated with hand-lettered titles, hand-illuminated borders, and bindings in hand-tooled leather. The quality and artistry of these productions attracted a following nationwide, and Hubbard expanded into furniture, copper metalwork, wrought iron, and leather.

The campus buildings, constructed over three decades, represent a coherent expression of Arts and Crafts ideals in architecture — honest stone and timber construction, hand-crafted ornament, and buildings that seem to grow naturally from their landscape. The Roycroft Inn, constructed in 1905, housed the steady stream of visitors who came to experience the community firsthand. The campus became one of the most-visited destinations in New York State in the early twentieth century.

Elbert Hubbard and his wife Alice perished on the RMS Lusitania in 1915, and the campus continued under his son Elbert Hubbard II until economic pressures forced closure in 1938. Since the 1970s, a major revival has brought artisans back to the campus. Today the Roycroft Inn operates as a boutique hotel and restaurant, and numerous original buildings house working craftspeople continuing the Roycroft tradition.