250 original designs — including floor plans, elevations, and perspective views — for a variety of charming private residences, from a four-room beach house to a four-bedroom country home. 1,500 black-and-white illustrations.

Meticulous reproduction of the now-rare catalog -- originally issued in 1887 -- includes 1,500 detailed drawings of floor plans, elevations, perspective views, architectural details, and interior ornamentation; designs for villas, farmhouses, town and country places, barns, and city brick block houses; and fine-lined illustrations of windows, eaves, and other architectural elements.

More than 100 magnificent home plans provide lovers of Victoriana the finest examples of period architecture. Compiled by Isaac Hobbs, a prominent Philadelphia architect of the period, the book also offers an informative discussion on the principles and practices of practical home design and construction. Designs and floor and ground plans for villas, cottages, and other residences are revealed in 122 detailed engravings, among them a six-room ornamental cottage (without bathroom facilities) for $1,500; an elegant Elizabethan villa, with entry hall, library, china closet, and five bedrooms, for $27,000; and an ornate Gothic suburban residence, complete with parlor, sitting room, dressing rooms, six bedrooms, and two bathrooms, at a cost of $33,000. Invaluable to architects, preservationists, and home restorers, this authentic guide to a wealth of house styles from the late 1800s will also delight anyone intrigued by Victorian life.

Old-House Journal is the original magazine devoted to restoring and preserving old houses. For more than 35 years, our mission has been to help old-house owners repair, restore, update, and decorate buildings of every age and architectural style. Each issue explores hands-on restoration techniques, practical architectural guidelines, historical overviews, and homeowner stories--all in a trusted, authoritative voice.

Old-House Journal is the original magazine devoted to restoring and preserving old houses. For more than 35 years, our mission has been to help old-house owners repair, restore, update, and decorate buildings of every age and architectural style. Each issue explores hands-on restoration techniques, practical architectural guidelines, historical overviews, and homeowner stories--all in a trusted, authoritative voice.

This work follows the evolution of the pattern book houses and how they represented the notion of home and community in American historical memory. The book also includes illustrations of such communities.

Many homes across America have designs based on plans taken from pattern books or mail-order catalogs. In Houses from Books, Daniel D. Reiff traces the history of published plans and offers the first comprehensive survey of their influence on the structure and the style of American houses from 1738 to 1950. Houses from Books shows that architectural publications, from Palladio&’s I Quattro Libri to Aladdin's Readi-Cut Homes, played a decisive role in every aspect of American domestic building. Reiff discusses the people and the firms who produced the books as well as the ways in which builders and architects adapted the designs in communities throughout the country. His book also offers a wide-ranging analysis of the economic and social conditions shaping American building practices. As architectural publication developed and grew more sophisticated, it played an increasingly prominent part in the design and the construction of domestic buildings. In villages and small towns, which often did not have professional architects, the publications became basic resources for carpenters and builders at all levels of expertise. Through the use of published designs, they were able to choose among a variety of plans, styles, and individual motifs and engage in a fruitful dialogue with past and present architects. Houses from Books reconstructs this dialogue by examining the links between the published designs and the houses themselves. Reiff&’s book will be indispensable to architectural historians, architects, preservationists, and regional historians. Realtors and homeowners will also find it of great interest. A catalog at the end of the book can function as a guide for those attempting to locate a model and a date for a particular design. Houses from Books contains a wealth of photographs, many by the author, that enhance its importance as a history and guide.