500 Small Houses of the Twenties

Architects featured most frequently are George W. Repp, Frederick L. Ackerman, Whitman S. Wick, William Carver, Charles F. White, Jr., George H. Schwan, and R.C. Hunter & Bro.; designs also contributed by Verna Cook Salomonsky (the only woman architect represented at the 1939 New York World's Fair's World of Tomorrow), African-American architect Paul Williams, Claude Bragdon, James Dwight Baum, and others noted below. Perspective drawings, floor plans, and descriptions of principal features of outstanding 1920s designs, many by leading architects of the period. Reprinted from the major 1923 architectural publication, The Books of a Thousand Homes. Includes perspective drawings, floor plans and descriptions of the principal features of outstanding 1920's small homes, many by leading architects of the period, most inspired by colonial architecture and the bungalow concept. 1,135 b/w line illustrations, 262 b/w photographs and tone drawings. Vast treasury of floor plans, descriptions, and perspective drawings and photographs. Bungalows, colonials, semi-bungalows, other styles presented. Concise descriptions outline special features of each house, details of construction, siting, materials, more. Also, essays with practical advice on house building. Architects, architectural and social historians, students and enthusiasts of architecture and design will find in these pages a rich selection of small-home concepts that once set the standard for a new era in American home design, and that still form an integral part of our landscape many decades after their first inspiration. Henry Atterbury Smith's compilation provides an accurate and intriguing reference to the historical development of the modern suburban environment. This book represents a set of ideals aspired to by the Arts and Crafts movement, ideals which should be appreciated and emulated by the architects and builders of the twenty-first century.

If you like old houses, (or at least early 20th Century houses) or you want to get a feel for some of the social history of the period, this is a wonderful book. I think it complements nicely the other house catalog reprints from Dover. While the illustrations and plans are smaller than those in some of the other books such as the Sears 1926 house catalog or the Aladdin built in a day catalog, it does show 500 houses. It also has some interesting articles concerning the state of domestic architecture circa 1925 or so.

Did you ever find yourself stopping your car to oggle and old brick or stucco bungalow, now a bit run down but free from "modernization"? Ever wonder how they were designed or what kind of floor plan they might have? For the amateur or the professional architect, Henry Atterbury Smith's compilation provides an accurate and intriguing reference to the historical developement of the modern suburban environment. For those of us who enjoy dreaming of one day designing and building our own bungalows, this book is pure delight. The house plans are displayed with the information which would have been available at the time of their initial distribution which can be quite amusing as well as historically informative. This book represents a set of ideals aspired to by the Arts and Crafts movement, ideals which should be appreciated and emulated by the architects and builders of the twenty-first century. Do plan on a long, leisurely perusal of this book if you enjoy history, architecture and craftsmanship as much as I do!