, 1921-05-06
SOMETHING NEW
FOR BUILDER RS.
Original Ideas as Presented by
Keene Sumner In the Amer
lean Magazine
By e SUMNER
un American MAgazine.1

I'm
This magazine is always looking fol
ways in which 1t can be of service
to its readers II scours the field con
tinuaIly. especially TO discover ans
new thing which viii bring some
practical benent to people
n development described In this
article is newsi After several years
OF working on tho details. the orig
fnators have completed plans which
have received the unqualified ap-
prevail OF experts These plans con-
Germ you. whether you live In a city
apartment or in n house in the coun-
try: whether o uild your "
home or rent one that someone else
builds A well known New York
architect, who had nothing to do with
working out tho idea, says: 1T Is the
most important thing that has been
done in the past SO years in regard
to housebuilding-"
The plan originated with Curtis
Companies. Inc. Of Clinton. Iowa, y
nrm with plants and offices in fifteen
cities. They are not architects or
builders. They simply manufacture
the woodwork that goes into houses.
There is no patent or monopoly on
the idea The Curtis people were SIM
ply the pioneers In working II out.
and the idea Is spreading among other
manufacturers.
Just study any house. and imagine
what it would be without its wood
work There would be no floors; no
doors. windows. stairs. base boards.
holdings. paneling. mantels. cup
boards. window seats. no porches or
columns; no hay windows or dormer
windows: no roof. no cornices. no
brackets.
Even though a house Is Of brick. or
stone. or cement most Of the details
j have mentioned must be made Of
wood. And it Is these details that
give your house its architectural ef-
fcc With precisely the same ground
plan. you could entirely change the
appearance of a house, merely by
changing the design and arrangement
OF these woodwork details.
People often buy an old house,
change the architecture details. and
thus transform 1t from an ugly thing.
OF a thing without character. into
something hat has genuine distinc-
ton- Invariably these transformed
houses are sold far more readily. oven
At a much higher figure, tina houses
alongside OF them which had the very
same walls but lacked the attractive
details
It is IA this tremendously important
matter of designing details that a j
highly trained architect is valuable.
But even IL you could afford to en-
ploy him TO plan your house. you
would find yourself facing another
problem as n direct result Of having
one to him; at least. you would have
had TO face this problem under tho
ntd hufrdfr9 conditions for fht. a..
what would have happened: The at
hactive details. which his type Of
architect put into the plans for your
house. wou have had to be made to
order. And making anything TO or
der is the most expensive method Of
getting 1t done.
Here. then. are two problems which
have confronted the builder Of mod
erate-priced houses: The first was that
1t cost a lot of o to employ an
architect of high standing. The sec
ond was that 1t cost another lot OF
money to get the beautiful and con.
venient things he designed. because
they had TO be made especially to fit
his plans.
Inevitably. the average person had
to do without h trained architect.
And. az another economy. no used
stock" doors. windows. holdings. and
70 on You can . the result in mil
lions Of houses; cheap. ugly doors
n windows. ugly stairs and newell
posts. ugly gingerbread" trimmings.
ugly entrances and porches.
All good architects will ten you.
with a groan. that the old standard
woodwork" was mostly bad. These
architects did not use stock trim" in
their house designs. unless they were
absolutely compelled to. Yet these
stock patterns. shown in mauufactur.
ers' catalogues. have been and are
now h ones on which the average
person must derend-
Like all manufacturers OF wood.
work, h Curtis people issued cata.
logues containing hundreds of de,
signs of doors. windows, stairs, mold.
tngs. and so IN. By a~nalyzing their
records they Dur that about one
fourth OF their stock patterns fur
nished about 90 per sent of their sales