“Booth’s Garage” Looks to Past and Future Creating

Tinkering, making, and innovating have a long history in the Booth family. In England, Henry G. Booth was a coppersmith; his son Henry W. Booth invented a popular coffee substitute. In America, George G. Booth (whose favorite childhood birthday present was a microscope) was a major supporter of the Arts & Crafts movement and learned about carpentry, iron work, and printmaking. George was also an entrepreneur and visionary. He and his wife Ellen Scripps Booth planned and created the place that grew to be Cranbrook. Their son James was an artist and engineer, designing experimental automobiles, and son Henry was a painter, designer, and architect.

The Booth bee family symbol illustrates their philosophy of emulating industrious bees who produce more than they need and share their wealth with others.

The Booth family is aptly remembered in the Upper School maker space. According to Educational Technologist Kathy Sinclair, students, faculty, and staff use Booth’s Garage for curricular, extra-curricular, club, and personal use. Last year, students built and tested prototypes of rockets, chairs, lamps, tables, electronics, presents, and paintings. Classes designed and built board games, theatrical props, night lights, mugs, t-shirts, logos, robots, sun dials, bags, clothing, trebuchets, and lockers. Faculty designed and built musical instruments, furniture, and clothing.

This year students will build clocks and electronics. In a current course using the space, students use machines in the garage to prototype, build, and test their own inventions. It is a fitting legacy to gather all of this curiosity and creativity under the storied Booth family name.