The Studio Shop at 100! The Benson Years

The Studio Shop at 100! The Benson Years

(Third in a series of posts describing the 100 year history of The Studio Shop. The last post left off with John and Martha Benson purchasing the business in 1955 from Mrs. Carolyn Misselwitz (The Studio Shop at 100, The First Forty Years).

Previous posts:
The Early Years
The First Forty Years

Martha and John Benson were a young married couple with a one year old baby when they decided to give up the security of John’s teaching job to buy a small gallery and frame shop in Burlingame. It was 1955 and seeing a For Sale ad for The Studio Shop in the Chronicle offered the young couple with an opportunity that they had been hoping for. The art and framing business that they found would allow John and Martha to utilize their talents in art and woodworking, and also allow a certain freedom for their independent imaginations.

Martha’s father lent them $500 for the down-payment, and the Bensons took the leap of faith to own their own art and framing business. They bought the business from relatives of the founder, Dorothy Crawford, after she passed away in 1952. The Studio Shop’s tradition had been carried on by Dorothy’s brother, Sid Frink, and niece, Carolyn Misselwitz. John learned the craft of picture framing from Sid’s tutelage and quickly mastered the craft with his background in woodworking and photography. Always a true artisan, John completed everything by hand in the shop. He cut every mat, and moulding, and joined frames with the rabbit hide glue that had been used for centuries. The quality of a finished product was his ultimate goal, and he would never take a shortcut to get there. But John certainly did not run the business by himself.

Martha’s talents were an apt pairing for the business as well. Not only did she manage the store’s bookkeeping, merchandise, artwork, and gift items, but raised three young daughters to boot. Long before credit cards, and Quickbooks, Martha took care of all of the bookkeeping and invoicing with pen and paper. Together John and Martha dedicated themselves, and their business, to quality craftsmanship, creative design, and to customer service. They were a charismatic pair, and despite having a young family to raise, and a business to run, quickly became active members in the Burlingame community.  

In the early 1960’s the Benson’s were able to purchase a home on Paloma Avenue, across from what was then Coolidge School. Janet remembers her Dad riding his bicycle by her classroom on the way to work, honking his horn as he passed by. John and Martha raised their three daughters in and around the shop, teaching and encouraging their creativity and craftsmanship. Even in the most frugal of times, John and Martha made sure the girls had art supplies with which to express their creativity. Until Janet was in high school, the couple worked six days a week. Sunday was left for church, grocery shopping, and garden work. In addition to teaching the girls about craftsmanship, art and framing, the philanthropic couple instilled in their daughters the importance of community, and giving back.

Both John and Martha were charter members of PPFA (Professional Picture Framers Association) in the 1960’s which was founded in Northern California and then expanded internationally. The PPFA established conservation standards in the picture framing industry with the use of acid free materials and UV glazing to insure the long term protection of framed artwork. Today, Studio Shop co-owner Carl Martin is president of the Northern California chapter of PPFA.

When John passed away in 2012 at the age of 86, he had over 55 years of perfect attendance at the Lions Club, and had donated well over 10 gallons of blood! He served on every position possible in the Lions, including a term as District Governor in 1982. Despite having three daughters, John was active in Boy Scouts, he was a Deacon at the Presbyterian Church, and his name is on a plaque in the Burlingame Main Library for serving as a trustee. Martha was active in the PTA and was also a Deacon at the Presbyterian Church. She served three terms (nine years) on the Burlingame Beautification Commission, and three terms on the Burlingame Civil Service Commission. Their unending spirit in giving time to philanthropy, running their own business, and raising three daughters, is a modern mystery!

For their years of service to the community, John and Martha were jointly awarded Burlingame Citizens of the Year in 1989. They were truly a beloved couple, for the quality of their work at The Studio Shop, for the continuity of their giving back, and for the gusto and heart with which they lived, and shared their lives.

By the late 1980’s John and Martha were nearing retirement, and their daughters Janet and Kristen took turns helping at the shop. In 1994 Janet and her husband Carl moved The Studio Shop to 1103 Burlingame Avenue, returning to the street where the business had begun 80 years before. Back on the main downtown avenue again, the business quickly grew. Happy to see the younger generation take the business into their own hands with such success and ambition, John and Martha soon retired.

As the business continued to grow in the 90s with the addition of a warehouse production facility and a later move to the gallery space at 244 Primrose, John and Martha would visit the shop almost daily to check that the “kids” were doing okay.

John passed away in 2012 at the age of 86, but not without attending his last party, hosted by his Burlingame Lions friends to honor John’s many years of achievement and service in the Burlingame community. It was a memorable evening attended by many friends and family from around the Bay Area.  

As The Studio Shop enters its second century under the guidance of Benson daughters Janet and Kristen and Janet’s husband Carl, Martha continues to pay daily visits during her walks that keep her spry and healthy.

The Studio Shop at 100! The Benson Years

The Studio Shop at 100! The First Forty Years (1915-1955)

This is the second in a series of posts describing the 100 year history of The Studio Shop. The last post left off with Dorothy and Ralph K Crawford’s marriage in San Mateo, and the opening of Dorothy’s photography studio on Burlingame Avenue (The Studio Shop at 100, The Early Years).

The Studio Shop began when Ralph bought a picture framing business from Henry Schath on San Mateo Drive. He was establishing his store in the Husing Building in 1915, which is now a parking lot on California Drive, behind Kabul Restaurant.

A newspaper article from January 1916 writes of a flood caused by heavy rains that winter. Ralph's store was one of the local businesses that sustained damage. He estimated his loss at an astounding $50 from the water that poured in under the doors, running over pictures and other goods.

Studio Shop business card, undated.
Courtesy of the Burlingame Historical Society.

Two weeks later another news article announces that Ralph and Dorothy Crawford plan to move their separate art and photography studios to a new building, the Stark building at 1289 Burlingame Avenue. At this time they merged the two businesses, and housed themselves above the Studio Shop on the second floor of the Stark building.

On June 18th, 1922, The San Francisco Chronicle wrote “Travelers from afar tell us of their delight with the charming Studio Shop in Burlingame which Dorothy and Ralph Crawford conduct and in which their art is expressed--the unusual Photographic Art of Dorothy Crawford, and the connoisseur’s appreciation and collection of rare objects of Art in which Ralph Crawford excels.”

Soon after establishing herself in the area, Dorothy had an eager following of clientele in San Mateo, Burlingame, and Hillsborough who sought for her to photograph and memorialize their every special event. Not just an exceptional photographer, Dorothy was charismatic, witty, and extremely driven.

In 1925 they purchased a vacant lot, 311-315 Primrose Road. Ralph drew the design for a new English cottage style building, in which to run their business.

Ralph K. Crawford building opening announcement.
Published in San Mateo Times, 1931

But in 1929, at just 52 years old, Ralph passed away from leukemia. Only a few months later the Great Depression began. In the face of these tragic events, Dorothy persisted in having the shop built. It was constructed by Williams and Burroughs, and dedicated as the Ralph K. Crawford building in 1931.

Ralph K. Crawford building, undated.

After Ralph’s passing, and through the Great Depression, Dorothy Crawford kept the Studio Shop running. Not only did she run the business, but sought to give back to her community of Peninsula residents in keeping them in touch with the art movements of the day. A series of exhibitions of leading California artists were featured at the Studio Shop during the thirties. Notable artists Maynard Dixon, Percy Gray and Ralph Stackpole were showcased.

Later, as a succession of relatives came to help with the business, Dorothy traveled extensively, through the United States, Europe, and even to China. She led a driven and exceptional life, well ahead of the changes being made in women’s rights during her lifetime. At 67, having run the business independently for 15 years after Ralph’s passing, and through the devastations of the Depression, Dorothy retired due to Parkinson’s Disease in 1944. Her niece Carolyn Misselwitz took over the management of the business, continuing with its gifts and framing aspects until she retired in 1955.

John Benson, ca 1955.

John Benson was a high school shop teacher, between jobs with a young family to support in 1955. Seeing a For Sale ad in the Chronicle for a picture frame business, John borrowed $500 from his father-in-law for the down payment, and together with his wife Martha, bought the Studio Shop.

Dorothy’s brother, Sid Frink, taught John the art of picture framing during the Bensons’ first six months with the business. Much like Ralph and Dorothy, John and Martha quickly became established and involved members of the community. They were a perfect couple to continue what the Chronicle had described 33 years earlier as customers’ “delight with the charming Studio Shop in Burlingame.”

Next episode: John and Martha Benson run the Studio Shop, raise their three daughters, and continue the business’s dedication to its community.

The Studio Shop at 100! The First Forty Years (1915-1955)

Studio Shop at 100! The Early Years

This is the first in a series of posts describing the 100 year history of The Studio Shop, beginning here in the 1890s when the founders Dorothy and Ralph Crawford met at school in Kansas.

Before Dorothy and Ralph opened the Studio Shop in Burlingame in 1915, Dorothy had been a pioneering entrepreneur in rural Kansas with the emerging technology of photography. In the early 1900s Dorothy was an independent minded single woman who apprenticed with an established photographer and eventually ran two successful studios of her own.

Dorothy was born in 1877 with the given name of Maude Frink along with a twin sister, May Frink, on a Kansas farm settled by her parents who arrived by covered wagon. To get a decent education the twins were sent to boarding school at a Baptist college in Ottawa, KS, now called Ottawa University and named after the local Indian tribe. After graduating in 1897 Maude returned to the farm to take care of family. At school she met her future husband, Ralph Crawford, though they wouldn't marry for another 16 years.  Ralph continued his education as a civil engineer and left to Alaska for a surveying job in 1900.

Ottawa Boarding School, Ralph Crawford,
Maude Frink and twin sister May Frink.
Courtesy of Burlingame Historical Society

Dorothy Crawford, nee Maude Frink, undated.
Courtesy of Burlingame Historical Society

Maude had a short stint teaching in a country school but she didn't like that and later contacted the school photographer from boarding school for an apprenticeship. After a few years of apprenticing, independent Maude opened her own studio in Wellsville, Kansas in 1904 where she lived with her sister May who was now married to the editor of the Wellsville newspaper.

By 1907 Maude was living on her own and it was noted in the local newspaper gossip column (a little like Facebook today) that she got a telephone installed.

By 1909 she moved back to the big city of Ottawa where she purchased the studio of her former employer, Mr. Martin, when he moved to a prestigious studio in New York.

In 1911 Maude achieved some photographic success by winning state awards for her photo portraits of her niece Carolyn, May's daughter, who would later help her aunt run The Studio Shop.

Ralph Crawford, undated
Courtesy of Buirlingame Historical Society

Over the years Ralph Crawford would return to Kansas to visit relatives and maintain some relationship with Maude, but he would soon leave for another surveying job, such as Death Valley and the high Sierras for the Los Angeles Water Project.  He was part of the great quest to conquer the West, like so many Google cars mapping today's city streets, armies of surveyors were employed to swarm over deserts and mountains to map the West. The Crawford family history states that during one of these visits Ralph and Maude became "engaged" only to be later called off by Maude as she grew tired of waiting.

By 1913 Ralph had landed a job as assistant engineer for the City of Burlingame and he lived in San Mateo. His new found stability must have lured Maude to California because she packed up her photo studio, moved to California and the two got married in February of 1913.  She was 35 years old and Ralph was 33. This is when Maude Frink completely changed her name. She claimed to have never liked her name, Maude, and its rhyming sound with Crawford would only make matters worse.

Soon she opened her third photo studio as Dorothy Crawford Photographer at the corner of Burlingame Ave. and Lorton, on the second floor of the Miller Drug building, what is now the Luggage Center.

In the photo below a small Dorothy Crawford Photographer sign can be seen above "Miller" in the Miller Drug sign. This photo would be 1914 or 1915.

Next episode: Ralph and Dorothy join forces by opening a new picture frame shop and photo studio called Crawford's Studio Shop.

I would like to thank Jennifer Pfaff and Martha May of the Burlingame Historical Society for their assistance with research and supplying images.

Studio Shop at 100! The Early Years

The Studio Shop Turns 95!

During The Studio Shop 95th anniversary last fall, the national Professional Picture Framers' Association learned of our milestone and featured us in the January national newsletter.
PPFA January newsletter   Try the link or view below.

The Studio Shop Turns 95!