Manuscripts Collection
Founded in 1919, the Architects’ Small House Service Bureau of Minnesota began as a
small commercial stock holding corporation that branched out into nearby regions
before incorporating under a national head, the Architects' Small House Service
Bureau of the United States in March 1921. The following month, the Minnesota bureau
amended its bylaws to become the Northwestern Division. Both the U.S. Bureau and the
Northwestern Division were headquartered in the same office building shared by the
two firms Hewitt and Brown and Tyrie and Chapman at 1200 Second Avenue South in
Minnespolis, Minnesota.
The incorporators of the Minnesota Bureau were a group of Minneapolis and St. Paul architects that included William Channing Whitney, Edwin H. Hewitt, Edwin H. Brown, Frederick M. Mann, William W. Tyrie, George A. Chapman, Roy Childs Jones, Harry T. Downs, Harold H. Eade, Robert V.L. Haxby, Edward S. Stebbins, Carl A. Gage, C.B. Strauss, Thomas G. Holyoke, Beaver Wade Day, and A.R. Van Dyck. These architects were attempting to create a solution for the lack of middle class, single-family housing in the U.S. They did this through the creation of economical and well-designed stock plans of small homes of six rooms or less that could be modified for any home site as well as providing other professional services such as counseling and advice to people with moderate and limited income.
Edwin H. Brown, chairman of the American Institute of Architects Committee on Small Houses, long served as president of the board of directors of the U.S. Bureau. His close affiliation with both organizations helped the Bureau gain an endorsement from the American Institute of Architects (AIA) in early 1921. To earn that approval, membership in the Architect’s Small House Service Bureau (ASHSB) was limited to qualified architects, typically those who were also members of the AIA. The AIA also had authority to appoint the majority of the U.S. Bureau’s board of directors as well as the option to assume management should the Bureau dissolve.
Maurice I. Flagg served as director of service for the Northwestern Division from its inception and Robert T. Jones served as its technical director. Flagg primarily managed the Bureau's publications and marketing operations while Robert T. Jones was responsible for coordinating the production of the many designs and specifications that the Bureau published.
The house plans were primarily advertised through a weekly newspaper service, but
they could also be found in magazines, the ASHSB monthly bulletin
The ASHSB began to decline when Maurice I. Flagg resigned from his position in 1927.
Around this time the subscriptions to
For additional information on the history of the Bureau, please see:
Architects' Small House Service Bureau of the United States.
Harvey, Thomas. “Mail-order Architecture in the Twenties.”
Schrenk, Lisa D.
Tucker, Lisa M. “The Architects’ Small House Service Bureau and the American
Institute of Architects.”
Tucker, Lisa M. “Net Zero Housing: the Architects’ Small House Service Bureau and
Contemporary Sustainable Single-Family House Design Methods for the United States.”
The collection contains records documenting both the Northwestern Division and the U.S. Bureau. The files primarily reflect the activities of Edwin H. Brown, Maurice I. Flagg, and Robert T. Jones, but also represent the work of other national and regional officers including George A. Chapman, Edwin H. Hewitt, Roy Childs Jones, and Frederick M. Mann.
Correspondence files form the bulk of the collection and include three discrete sets. These include a general set of correspondence (1919-1940), a small set pertaining to newspapers (1923-1924), and a set particular to inter-bureau communications (1921-1941). The general set is all-encompassing and includes matters between the U.S. Bureau, its regional divisions, the American Institute of Architects, individual architects, the U.S. Department of Commerce, the National Home Finance Corporation, newspaper and book publishers, lumber and building supply companies (particularly Southern Pine Association and Weyerhaeuser Forest Products), and consumers of the Bureau's stock plans and other architectural services. Scattered throughout are reports, financial information, committee matters, convention proceedings, proposals, drafts, agreements, questionnaires, articles, clippings, and miscellaneous printed material.
Minutes are widely scattered throughout the correspondence files but are also present as two separate and incomplete sets: one filed as loose sheets and the second in bound volumes. A set of financial statements and stock certificate books are included as are secretary's and director's files. Printed materials include pamphlets and brochures, copies of the newspaper mat service, and materials printed by other architectural organizations or lumber and supply companies that the Minneapolis headquarters collected. A small set of original drawings and blueprint copies of stock plans are also included as is a plan sales file that details the sale of specific plan numbers.
Many of the Bureau's published plan books are available in the Minnesota Historical Society library.
Accession number: 5416.
Catalog ID number: 001714861
The ASHSB general correspondence is organized by year, and thereunder alphabetically by surname of individual correspondent, organization, or topic. The correspondence files for each letter of the alphabet also included one or more folders of miscellaneous letters. These have been retained; their contents are only roughly in alphabetical order. Thus, each letter of the alphabet generally consists of two sequences: one of letters from individually identified correspondents followed by one labelled "miscellaneous." Letters from a given individual may be found in either or both sequences. Only the first box of this set has been detailed at file level in the list below.
Includes correspondence with C.C. Zantzinger, chairman of the Institute's
Committee on Education, in regard to ASHSB giving publicity to the
committee's book,
President of the Oregon Chapter of the American Institute of Architects.
Salaries for ASHSB drafting work done by member firms and their employees.
Financial, budget, sales, inventory, and annual reports by ASHSB officers and committees.
Consulting architect for Weyerhaeuser Forest Products.
Drafts of articles on ASHSB and its plans and services as available through Hearst's Home Building Department.
1923 correspondence for Bu-N appears to be missing but may be those files that are evident in box 1.
Includes draft of a contract between ASHSB and Weyerhaeuser Forest Products for the joint production, publication, and sale of plan books.
In reverse chronological order.
ASHSB's western advertising representative, based in Chicago.
Correspondence between ASHSB and newspapers or newspaper publishers pertaining to the Bureau's mat service, plan books, collaborative projects, and promotional activities.
Arranged into sets by regional division, each set includes correspondence with division officials, reports, documents, inter-bureau matters, and miscellaneous material kept by George A. Chapman, secretary of the U.S. Bureau. Also included are files pertaining to the U.S. Bureau and one early file regarding the Minnesota Bureau.
Contains monthly and annual audited financial statements for both the U.S. Bureau and the Northwestern Division. Also includes annual income and capital stock tax returns as well as scattered inventories, printing bids, book sales reports, and financial statements from other regional divisions.
See the Reports file in Box 1 of the correspondence for a financial statement of the Minnesota Bureau (1919-1921) at the time it became the Northwestern Division.
Includes pamphlets, brochures and small plan books, some of which are
style-specific, including modern-American, English, Colonial, and
others. Also includes a file of clippings about the demonstration houses
published in the
Contains brochures, catalogs, and correspondence with organizations associated with home building materials and home financing. A few of the companies are the United States Steel Corporation, the National Home Finance Corporation, the Southern Pine Association, the Portland Cement Association, and the Twin Cities Building and Loan Association.
A scrapbook containing material printed by the Bureau prepared for a display (1932).
Includes original pencil and ink drawings for plan numbers 101-162 and 201-203.
Contains blueprint copies of plan numbers 4A10, 6A45, 6A64, 6A69, and 6A74.
Alphabetical by topic.
Contains U.S. Bureau accounts (1921-1930), pages 1-30; ASHSB Supervisory Department accounts (1930), pages 31-34; memberships (1930-1933), pages 45-68; U.S. Bureau stock certificates received from members (1929-1931), pages 69-72; distribution of expenses (1922-1924), page 75.