Architects' Small House Service Bureau

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.

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