Described as a “practical and popular three bedroom home,” this 1.5 story house is compact and so familiar looking – I feel as though I have passed it in neighborhoods across the country. But one important element that I would not have realized from the exterior is that this house – if it followed the plan from the Gordon-Van Tine Catalog of 1923- did not have an indoor bathroom.
Side elevation and facade of the three bedroom home.
This omission is startling only to most of today’s audience. Indoor plumbing took a long time to become commonplace in the American home. On the eve of World War II, nearly half of all houses in this country lacked hot piped water, a bathtub or shower, or a flush toilet.
A bathroom from the 1920s.
This particular house plan was advertised as a “neatly designed six room house that is comfortable and homelike and placed on the market at such a low price that it is within the reach of all.” This is a philosophy that many folks could support today, at a time when housing prices continue to soar.
First floor plan.
The first floor of the three bay wide house contains a living room, dining room, kitchen, and bedroom (chamber). Stairs to the cellar lead off of the kitchen.
Second floor plan.
Two additional bedrooms, each with a large dormer, are located on the second story. The lowest point of the ceiling from the floor in these rooms was seven feet – the ceilings in my first bungalow were seven feet all the way across!
The compact dwelling cost only $1,501.00 – a price that included lumber, millwork, hardware, paint, nails, and tinwork – doors, windows, and frames. While most Gordon-Van Tine homes included ready cut lumber (pre-cut, which did away with the cost of carpenters sawing lumber on site), this home was priced with not ready cut lumber, to keep the cost down.
Cover of a Gordon-Van Tine Catalog from the 1920s.
The Gordon-Van Tine Company included over 150 homes in its 1923 catalog – and had been in business for over a dozen years. While Sears Roebuck & Company came out with its first catalog in 1909, offering plans and complete materials, it did not offer precut lumber until 1916. Gordon-Van Tine began offering prefabricated houses in 1910. Their range of options included imposing and handsome styles, and small, inexpensive models like this house – but all aimed at the growing middle class of America. The catalogs are a wealth of inspiration that any tiny house aficionado would cherish – and I wish developers and builders today thought more about building homes that are “attractive and comfortable, built strongly and warmly” at a price point more Americans could afford.
Three beds and a path!…….as they said in the country.
That bathroom looks just like my memory of the upstairs bath in Tishmama’s house!
When was the practice started and how prevalent of numbering the timber or boards in the assemble of the Kit Homes ?
Gordon-Van Tine started in 1865 as a wholesale building materials company. They incorporated a parallel company (Gordon-Van Tine) in 1906 to handle retail business, and offered its first prefab houses for sale in 1910. Most companies offering prefab houses had some way of numbering or labeling lumber. A great resource is this publication: https://heritage.ky.gov/Documents/HouseinaBox.pdf