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Home & Interior Design books:
101 Classic Homes of the Twenties: Floor Plans and Photographs

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1920s Houses and photographs -
As another reviewer pointed out, this book is really a straight reprint of the 1925 Harris, McHenry and Baker Lumber company. It's a book of house plans (not whole kits) offered for sale.

Unlike some of the kit home catalogs, this book showed actual photographs of the finished properties.

For those restoring a 1920s home to its original grandeur, this is a wonderful book. If you're just a nut about old houses and enjoy studying the early 20th Century architecture, you'll love the vintage photos.

One of the things I loved about the book was finding that my home town (Portsmouth, VA) was loaded with houses pictured in this book. I grew up in a section called "Waterview" and found six houses from this book in that one area.

So, apparently these homes were quite popular in certain locales.

All that aside, as someone with a deep, abiding love of historic architecture, I would highly recommend this book. It's interesting, informative and a wonderful window into our past.

Rose
author, The Houses That Sears Built
co-author, California's Kit Homes

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A good starting place -
This book is a good starting point for anyone interested in the homes built in the 1920-1930's. The plans are small, but do give you an idea of the basic setup.

Great addition to a collection of plan books -
This is a reprint of a house plan catalog from 1925; originally, it was the catalog of the Harris, McHenry & Baker Co., a lumber company. These books from Dover are exact reprints of original plan books from the turn of the century (1880-1925, roughly - this book is one of the latest years in the series). Dover adds little or no modern explanations, just presenting the catalog as it was. So when one looks to review these books, one isn't really judging the modern-day publisher, or editing, or writing. To judge the books, one has to compare each one to others of its kind, and then to decide whether the material in it is thorough and complete according to the standards of its time. Since there are several dozen of these catalogs published by Dover, we have the basis for such a comparison.

This particular homes catalog has several unusual elements to it which make it worth adding to a collection. For starters, almost all of the houses are illustrated with photographs, rather than drawings, so we are seeing actual, finished models of the houses. The photographs include some things we'd be unlikely to see in a drawing or artist's rendering, for example, the photo of the Webster model shows the driveway, and the garage with carriage-house type doors behind the house. And the Kingston shows a car in the driveway - just the rear of the car, I couldn't identify the make or model, but it is neat to see a nice middle-class house with a car, something we couldn't take for granted in earlier years.

Some plan books have no text except the price listings and how to order; others have entire sections of articles, or extensive suggestions as to furnishings, colors to finish the house in, etc. This book falls in between those extremes as to amount of text, but what's actually written for each house, although short, is quite unusual. The company is apparently trying to push social engineering along with new homes. For example, here's the text accompanying the photo of the Van Buren model: "Clean men, both of hand and heart, are invariably the product of happy home unions. It is around the harmonious hearthstone where the glow of mutual interest and understanding temper the finer senses that men mould character of sterling worth. It would be a violation of a natural law if homes in The Van Buren class should produce other than men of clean purpose." And here's the text for the Dumont Duplex: "The Dumont cannot be surpassed as a double house, and will make homes of exceptional advantages and refinements for those whose experience and education have taught them the value of good fellowship and neighborly kindness. Learning to co-operate with our fellow creatures is the secret of overcoming selfishness and all of its poisoning effects upon our better selves." Well! Is that the best reason for living in multi-family housing you've ever heard?

This book is late enough into the century that we can take interior bathrooms for granted; the 1920's are quite modern compared to 15 years earlier. A plan book from 1912, for example, still has half the houses without indoor baths, and many not wired for electricity. On the other hand, there are not yet garages featured automatically with the houses, and the kitchen stoves still need a chimney vented to the outside. I greatly enjoy comparing books from a few years apart, to see the progress being made. Many of the houses have the "built-in" features that became popular in the teens: built-in fold-down ironing boards, breakfast nooks with built-in bench seating, laundry chutes from upstairs to downstairs, built-in bookcases next to the fireplace or between the living room and dining room.

There are quite a few houses that seem ahead of their time as to modern features. The Van Buren has two bathrooms upstairs, one for the master bedroom and the other for all the other bedrooms. Both bathrooms have both a bathtub and a shower stall. In fact, looking at the floor plan for the Van Buren, one could imagine living in it today fairly easily, with just the addition of a bit more kitchen counter space. The Chesterfield, likewise, is a house I'd love to live in, with not only two full bathrooms, but built-in bookcases downstairs, and built0in window seats upstairs in the bedrooms, a walk-through pantry with more built-in cabinets than most, and beautiful balconies. The Webster has a "radio room" off the dining room - presumably for the hobbyist! It also has a downstairs powder room as well as the usual upstairs bathroom. The Westhaven offers a dumbwaiter to the basement (presumably where there is storage), a separate laundry room, a downstairs washroom with both toilet and a double sink and an upstairs bathroom, as well as a sewing room, a clothes chute, an indoor refrigerator instead of an ice box that has to be near the back door, and a waste-burner disposal. (Remember, this is before we were worried about air pollution! A waste burner was very modern then!) Most of the houses still have the refrigerators situated right by the back door, still assuming the need for ice delivery, and many with slots for milk delivery as well, but there were the first few real refrigerators, as well as real washing machines, at this time, and this company appears to be forward thinking enough to have designed houses for these brand-new conveniences.

In summary: a must for continuity from "old" houses to "modern" and also for the unusual text which will keep you amused.

Interesting Reproduction of an Original House Plan Catalogue -
This faithful reproduction of a 1920's home plans catalogue offers a wide range of plans covering many different styles and house sizes.

Each page provides a photograph or rendering of the house exterior, a floor plan including dimensions, and a "unique" promotional blurb which shows how times have changed!

On the downside, all homes are shown in black and white and there are no interior views to indicate finishings, accessories or furniture for those who are looking for a restoration resource book. The last few pages, however, do include sections on possible additions, garage styles and renderings of interior and exterior doors.

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