The Architect’s Small House Service Bureau: A Minnesota Concept that Brought Architect-designed Houses to the Masses

Join the Twin Cities Bungalow Club to learn the fascinating story of a little-known, nationwide housing project spearheaded by Minnesota architects during the bungalow era. In the early nineteen-teens, a group of prominent Minnesota architects grew concerned as they watched a societal shift in house building pass them by. The emerging middle class was building tens of thousands of bungalows and other small homes across the United States, but professional architects were virtually frozen out of the process. At the time, prospective homebuyers on a budget could find scores of free or inexpensive house plans through lumberyards, magazines, newspapers, and kit home manufacturers such as Sears & Roebuck. This presentation by Brian McMahon will also showcase homes in the Twin Cities that were built using plans produced by the Architect’s Small House Service Bureau.

The  home at 2919 Johnson Street NE was the first of four houses that the Minneapolis Journal commissioned to help further the Architects’ Small House Service Bureau in 1922. Brian McMahon would like to hear from folks who have their original house plans and know that they have one of these Architect’s Small House Bureau plan houses.