Parade of Homes: Salesmanship and the Post-war American Housing Industry

Abstract

In 1948, the National Association of Home Builders organized the first Parade of Homes as a public housing show to demonstrate the latest construction and design advancements in the American homebuilding industry. Parades included furnished model houses, demonstrations of building methods and crowd-drawing publicity stunts. Over the following decade, such housing shows became the industry’s stock-in-trade as builders courted a growing market of informed consumers and second-time homeowners. This article explores the marketing culture of the post-war housing industry and argues that the proliferation of housing shows during the 1950s was central to the modernization of a new generation of American builders. Through an examination of the trade journal House & Home and the 1955 Parade of Homes in Houston, Texas—one of the most celebrated shows in a record year—I identify the processes through which salesmanship became central to the business of modern housing. I conclude that the domestic forms of modern design that are often studied as expressions of architect-based formalism are better understood as the products of post-war marketing culture.