Instant House

The Next Wave of Usonian Homes   An unusual bunch of semi-circular houses came out of Frank Lloyd Wright's Usonian houses.  In 1943, W...

The Company That Sold It All   At the turn of the century, a significant number of households in the United States only had two books--the ...

Front Cover The Prefabricated House:  A Practical Guide for the Prospective Buyer (1947) Periodically, I scour abebooks.com for old f...

Thomas Edison Electricity and Concrete   The father of the lightbulb, Thomas Edison, had his hands in virtually everything.  Few realize ...

The original Lustron prototype--the "Esquire". Only one built. A Magnificent Folly—The Lustron What do Standard Oil gas sta...

A row of Levittown, NY Cape Cods Levittown, NY – America’s First Suburb   I’ve already blogged about the Philadelphia Levittown , but it...

Cover of the 1911 Catalog The One That Started It All—Sears & Roebuck  …Well, not really.  But Sears & Roebuck is certainly the ...