Frederick Meyer

Frederick Heinrich Wilhelm Meyer (1872 – 1961), was prominent in the Bay Area Arts and Crafts movement. Born near Hamelin, Germany in November 6, 1872.

Early years

As a cabinetmaker in his native Germany, Meyer had a father and uncles who were also cabinet makers. He became involved in the movement before emigrating to San Francisco at the turn of the twentieth century. There, he established a cabinet shop and taught at the Mark Hopkins Institute of Art on Nob Hill prior to the 1906 earthquake. He was also a faculty member of San Francisco Art Association and the California School of Design.

He designed the Bethlehem office building at Potrero Point San Francisco on the south-eastern waterfront.

Founding of the school

After that institution was destroyed in the fire caused by the earthquake, Meyer expressed his dream of a school that would fuse the practical and ideal goals of the artist at a meeting of the Arts and Crafts Society shortly after the disaster. Meyer founded the California College of Arts and Crafts as California Guild of Arts and Crafts in 1907 in Oakland. In 1936 the school was renamed the California College of Arts and Crafts, with Meyer as its first president, a position he held until his retirement in 1944. The school provides an education for artists and designers that would integrate both theory and practice in the arts. Meyer's vision continues to the present day. Today, Frederick Meyer's "practical art school" is an internationally known and respected institution, drawing students from throughout the world.