Booth opened the Saarinen-designed craft studios in 1929, which featured different departments headed by a printer, weavers, a silversmith, a cabinetmaker, an ironworker, and a bookbinder. Although they ultimately closed in 1933 in the midst of the Great Depression (with the exception of Studio Loja Saarinen, a commercial weaving studio opened by Eliel Saarinen’s wife Loja in 1928), they laid an important foundation for the Cranbrook Academy of Art, which officially opened in 1932.
