Ernest Batchelder: Kindling the Warmth One Fireplace at a Time

By Julie Jaskol | February 14, 2025 | Photography by Christopher Gonzalez and Joshua Scheide

PASADENA, Calif. – They glow from fireplace surrounds, shimmer on floors, sparkle in fountains, and line shaded walkways. In mostly muted colors and matte glazes, they feature peacocks, knights, sailing ships, and bold Mayan figures, among other elegant and graceful designs. They are handcrafted tiles by Ernest A. Batchelder, and they helped define the timeless Arts & Crafts style in Southern California and beyond.

“There is an ‘aha’ moment when you first discover something that might be Batchelder,” Jen Dunbar, an architect who works on historic architecture (as defined by the Secretary of the Interior’s Professional Qualification Standards), said. She describes walking into a house and spying a sure sign of the prized tile. “I saw the peacock – it’s a very common motif that Batchelder used. ‘That’s Batchelder!’ You see that and it’s just like ‘oh my goodness. This is special. Someone wanted this extra detail when the house was built. It meant something to them.”

Batchelder began making tiles in 1910 in a shed in the backyard of the bungalow he built along the Arroyo Seco in Pasadena, at a time when some of the leaders of the Arts & Crafts movement, including painter and glassmaker William Lees Judson and architects Charles Sumner and Henry Mather Greene, lived and worked nearby.

Batchelder’s handmade tiles, with their irregular glazes and soft colors, subtly complemented the dark wood interiors of the Craftsman bungalows being built by the Greenes and others. Within two years, Batchelder left his backyard kiln and moved to a larger factory. By 1920, he had moved to an even larger factory in Los Angeles.

A 1923 catalog of Batchelder tile describes “color schemes luminous and mellow in character, somewhat akin to the quality of a piece of an old tapestry,” and describes pavers as having “the subtle quality of an Oriental rug.”

But his colors became brighter in some circumstances, his glaze shinier. By the late 1920s, wrote Batchelder expert Robert Winter, “Batchelder was producing Art Deco tiles and was responsible for many lavender and black bathrooms.”

Batchelder tile also appeared in Spanish, Romanesque, and Modernist settings (including the Irving Gill-designed home where Jen Dunbar unexpectedly encountered it). He worked on large public buildings, most notably perhaps the Fine Arts Building in Downtown Los Angeles, now a designated landmark, where visitors can still marvel at the spectacular arched lobby covered in tile.

One of his earliest commissions was the Dutch Chocolate Shop, once a popular Downtown Los Angeles café. Batchelder covered virtually every inch of the vaulted walls and ceilings with whimsical Dutch scenes in chocolatey shades of brown, including windmills, tulips, clogs, and maidens with winged caps. The tiles are still intact, although they have darkened over time, but the building has been closed for many years, available to visitors only on periodic guided tours.

Batchelder tiles can be found on the floor of the nave in Pasadena’s All Saints Church, where they are luminous in the glow of stained-glass windows designed by Judson Studios, his old Arroyo Seco neighbors. They can be seen in a colorful fountain in the courtyard of the Pasadena Playhouse, where Batchelder served on the Board of Directors.

They appear as well in homes, churches, and public buildings throughout North America, including an intriguing cluster of homes in Wichita, Kansas, thanks to land developers who imported bungalow style to the Midwest. Batchelder had showrooms in major cities including Chicago, New York, and Oakland, Calif.

Despite its growth, Batchelder’s firm could not survive the Depression. It closed in 1932. Over the years, his work has gone in and out of style.

The muted colors and picturesque themes of Batchelder fireplaces were not always valued by homebuyers. “Many years ago, Craftsman was not in vogue,” artist Cha-Rie Tang said. “People were ripping out their fireplaces.”

Not anymore. Real estate listings boast of Batchelder tile that can add thousands of dollars to a home’s value. “The revival of interest in Craftsman architecture has lasted much longer than the first wave of Arts & Crafts,” Tang said.

Years ago, Tang began making tiles from original Batchelder molds that a friend found buried in his Eagle Rock backyard. Fascinated, she studied his techniques, adding her own interpretations.

She and her daughter now work with clients to bring back the Batchelder warmth to their homes. “When you go to her studio it’s like seeing magic. It’s just…art,” Dunbar said.

Dunbar is currently working with clients to reverse a late 1970s/early 1980s kitchen remodel. “They were very interested in celebrating the Craftsman aesthetic and having Cha-Rie do tile for their kitchen,” she said.

Which is not to say the kitchen is old-fashioned. “This is a modern house, with state-of-the-art technology,” she said. “It’s contemporary for the family but connected to Craftsman roots.”

Working with the tile requires care. “You have to have a good craftsman install it,” Dunbar said. “They see they are working with a special product, and it really taps into their meticulousness. You see the pride in craftsmanship, which is so cool.”

That’s what the Arts & Crafts movement was all about. “Having tile like this brings joy to the person who makes it, the person who uses it, the person who installs it,” Dunbar said. “There’s a very earnest love for what’s being made.”