title: The talk of the town: kit manufacturers negotiate the building industry, 1905-1929.
abstract: Urban historical scholars have neglected smaller urban centers, including their residential environments and the forces that shaped them. For a time, one of these forces was the mail-order kit home. Kit manufacturers sold houses to families throughout the United States and Canada but enjoyed their greatest success in small towns where detached single-family homes were the norm. They worked to insert themselves into local building industries: They challenged lumber dealers and ignored architects but strove to mollify the contractors on whom they and their customers depended. They attracted considerable attention and met with initial success: Emerging rapidly after 1905, they had hit their stride by 1914 and enjoyed a heyday in the 1920s. They were stricken by, and failed to recover from, the Depression in large part because lumber dealers had learned how to compete with them.
authors.affiliation: McMaster University, Canada.
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Harris
mesh_terms: D002170:Canada / Q000208:ethnology; D003252:Construction Materials / Q000266:history; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006798:Housing / Q000191:economics / Q000266:history; D012111:Residence Characteristics / Q000266:history; D012922:Social Change / Q000266:history; D014481:United States / Q000208:ethnology; D014504:Urban Health / Q000266:history; D014505:Urban Population / Q000266:history; D014506:Urban Renewal / Q000191:economics / Q000193:education / Q000266:history / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence