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Pattern Book Houses (1885-1940)

History

The rush to settle the West created a vast market for pattern book buildings. Pattern books, produced by mail-order and lumber companies, offered the public a wealth of well-crafted and economical house designs. These designs might be produced simply as plans and sold for as little as $6, or promoted as prefabricated building packages, right down to the nails. Building developers relied on many of the ideas promoted in pattern books to create their own versions of those designs. Pattern book designs were also sold for barns and outbuildings. By the turn of the century school buildings were the object of standardized pattern book designs. Even church organizations used pattern book designs for some of their buildings.

Characteristics

  • the simplest examples were planned on a rectangle and featured a shed or gabled roof
  • a great variety of bungalow designs were popularized by pattern books
  • the most popular of larger homes was known as the four-square, a building of commodious proportions; usually two storeys on a raised basement; low pyramidal roof with at least one front dormer
  • other small and large designs often offered a great variety of floor plans and roof designs, including minor references to other architectural styles
  • standardized building components and details