The Architects’ Small House Service Bureau and Interior Design in the 1920s and 1930s

Abstract

This research examines interior design done under the auspices of the Architects’ Small House Service Bureau (ASHSB) between 1919 and 1934. A group of Minnesota architects created the ASHSB in 1914 to provide a solution to the shortage of affordable middle–class housing in the United States. By 1919, the Bureau had offices throughout the United States and received the endorsement of both the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the Department of Commerce. During this time, the members of the Bureau produced hundreds of plan sets and monthly bulletins to assist homeowners with their housing choices. The monthly magazine The Small Home, in conjunction with the published plan books— Your Future Home, How to Plan, Finance, and Build Your Home and others—dispensed valuable information to potential home buyers across the nation. To date, only one master's thesis (Lisa Schrenk, University of Virginia, 1990) and a single article (Thomas Harvey, 1991) have been written about the ASHSB. Neither discussed the interior design aspects of these designs and publications or dealt with the broad impact of the interior design done by the ASHSB. This research takes an interpretive–historical approach to the documents and involved extensive archival research at the AIA Headquarters. A content analysis of the publications produced and distributed by the ASHSB reveals a specific design approach to the domestic interior at the beginning of the twentieth century, which was taking place concurrent with developments within the home economics movement and other reformative ideas about the family home. This paper tells the story of the ASHSB and places it within its larger historical context.