Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #142743 in Books
• Published on: 1992-01-21
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 144 pages

Customer Reviews

Praise from the Owner of a Gordon-Van Tine Home
I live in one of the delightful Gordon-Van Tine No. 613 homes, so finding this book was a thrill. I have seen another of these houses in Cortland, NY, in the stucco finish (one of two siding options), and one somewhat-"remuddled" one in Black River, NY, with vinyl siding (!) and alterations to the sunroom windows. Both of these houses are on main roads, so I imagine there are many others on quiet side streets, like ours. Ours is in the cedar finish--original 1924 siding in pristine condition. It is in Watkins Glen, NY. The house is framed in cedar! The floors in the front of the house and in the central hallway are oak, and those in the bedrooms are fir, which, I understand, was a common practice in homes of the era.

The interior has been changed very little, except for kitchen and bath remodeling and the addition of a small master bath in the space formerly occupied by the master bedroom closet and the linen closet. A new master bedroom closet was bumped into a screened porch added to the back of the house (designed by our contractor to conform to the original home design and trim), and a new hall closet to replace the one lost to the master bath was added in the dead space at the end of the basement stairwell. The tile hearth had to be replaced due to cracked and loose tiles, and when fuel prices shot up, we re-lined the chimney and installed a Vermont Castings woodstove in the fireplace. After over 80 years, this is still a lovely, very-liveable house.

I love to show the facsimile catalog to guests. I purchased one for the daughter of some friends, who admires our house, and says she wants one just like it. If you own a kit house of this era, I strongly recommend that you borrow all the available books through inter-library loan and keep looking until you find your house. Then buy "your" catalog. Having documentation of its provenance adds to the home's value in many markets, and it is fascinating to be abe to look at the price lists (this book includes complete price lists, down to the plumbing options and electrical fixtures), to see what the original owners paid for the house.

Another keeper for those who are obsessed...
As I am!

"117 House Designs of The Twenties" is a reprint of the 1923 Gordon Van Tine catalog. There are a few errors in the introduction (such as the statement that Sears started selling kit homes in 1909; it was 1908) and some other frustrating mis-information, but that's a minor point.

For those sick puppies (such as myself) who like to sit and read old catalogs for hours and hours, this book is a gem. There's lots of reading material in the front and back, giving good detail about the company and how they did business.

Gordon Van Tine was a worthy contender in the kit home business, selling roughly 50,000+ kit homes in their four decades in the housing business. (Thanks to Dale Wolicki for the stats.)

Plus (and this is a biggie) GVT was the front man for Montgomery Ward homes. Unlike Sears, Montgomery Ward did not have their own mills, architects and catalogs but turned to Gordon Van Tine to supply their kit homes.

So, if you suspect you have a Montgomery Ward home, you'll want to peruse this GVT catalog.

Rose
author, "The Houses That Sears Built"
co-author, "California's Kit Homes"

A superb resource in architectural history
"117 House Designs of the Twenties" is a reprint of the 1923 mail-order house catalogue of the Gordon-Van Tine Company. This crisp reproduction is thus an accurate window into this era in United States home architecture. The wealth of detailed artistic renderings also make this a book of great charm and beauty.

Based in Davenport, Iowa, Gordon-Van Tine was a trailblazer in the field of prefabricated houses. This catalogue covers the company's products in amazing detail. We see cutaway views of homes that reveal the construction technique. We also see plumbing fixtures, lights, and cutaway views of furnaces.

But the heart of this catalogue lies in the detailed floor plans, as well as in the detailed artists' renditions of both exteriors and interiors. This catalogue contains structures ranging in size from a humble one-room vacation cottage to roomy nine-room farmhouses. Both one- and two-story houses appear. The main styles represented are bungalow and colonial revival (the latter including "Dutch colonial" designs), in many different configurations.

The exterior drawings capture many features: columned porches, sun porches, various roof types (gabled, hipped, gambrel), dormers, exposed rafter tails, and more. Equally detailed and charming are the depictions of furnished interiors. This is truly a marvelous book.