2022 Theses Master's

The Small House Movement of the 1920s: Preserving Small "Better" Houses

Smith, Valerie

The Small House Movement of the 1920s: Preserving Small "Better" Houses examines origins and contributors and identifies and analyzes the houses built as a result. The movement began in 1919 when the American Institute of Architects (AIA) founded the Architects' Small House Service Bureau. The non-profit offered a plan service, which allowed prospective homeowners to buy small house blueprints through the mail.

The standards they set for small houses were highly influential and led to many other architect plan services springing up in the 1920s. A national program called Better Homes in America used small house design to promote social reform and the beautification of suburbs. They not only partnered with the Architects’ Small House Service Bureau but formed their own robust research and educational programs including an annual model house demonstration in cities all over the country.

In order to examine the built assets from the Small House Movement, model houses from the Better Homes in America program were researched. Extant assets were analyzed to determine the possible significance of small 1920s houses and bring attention to an underrepresented typology in the field of historic preservation. Through the research, 1920s house trends and key historical information was identified that will be useful to historians and preservationists researching that decade. A case study of Santa Barbara was conducted to identify extant model houses from the Better Homes in America to provide historians and preservationists with resources and processes for researching Small House Movement assets from the 1920s.