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.

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 Small Home, and in plan books that were published by both the regional divisions and the U.S. Bureau. The Minnesota Bureau was the first to publish a set of 102 plans in 1921 under an agreement with the Southern Pine Association. In 1923, the Northwestern Division partnered with the Minneapolis Journal to construct a series of demonstration houses based on its stock plans. The newspaper mat service called "Help for the Man who Wants to Build" also began distribution in 1923 and was produced in the Minneapolis headquarters. This column showcased stock house plans and offered advice, ideas and solutions for costs and financing, construction, repair, interior design, furnishings, and landscaping. A second column called "The Homebuilders Clinic" gave practical answers to questions drawn from correspondence that the Bureau received.

The ASHSB began to decline when Maurice I. Flagg resigned from his position in 1927. Around this time the subscriptions to The Small Home began to decrease. In 1929 the Bureau reincorporated itself as a social organization and shortened its name to just Architects' Small House Service Bureau. The following year Edwin H. Brown died and by 1934 three regional divisions had given up their charter. Several other divisions had only one active member and the national office was reduced to two employees. It was also in 1934 when the AIA withdrew its endorsement feeling that the Bureau presented too great a competition for individual architects. Although the mat service continued into January 1939, dissolution proceedings began taking form in 1938 and the ASHSB was officially dissolved in 1942.

For additional information on the history of the Bureau, please see:

Harvey, Thomas. “Mail-order Architecture in the Twenties.” Landscape 25 (1981): 1-9.

Shrenck, L. The Impact of the Architect’s Small House Service Bureau on Early Twentieth Century Domestic Architecture. Unpublished master’s thesis, University of Virginia, 1988.

Tucker, Lisa M. “The Architects’ Small House Service Bureau and the American Institute of Architects.” ARCC Journal 6 (2009): 66-72.

Tucker, Lisa M. “Net Zero Housing: the Architects’ Small House Service Bureau and Contemporary Sustainable Single-Family House Design Methods for the United States.” Journal of Interior Design 37 (2012).

From the guide to the ASHSB records., 1919-1942., (Minnesota Historical Society)