Portland and the Better Homes in America Campaign: A look at Eastmoreland’s Better (Small) Homes

Today, the annual Street of Dreams inspires and informs us as to innovations in domestic architectural design. During the 1920’s, the national Better Homes in America Campaign played an even larger role in the national discussion of the proper house for all Americans. The campaign focused on creating healthy homes while making home ownership available to a larger part of the population. Locally, leading Portland architects such as Jamieson Parker, Ellis Lawrence and Harold Doty took up this challenge and gave their attention to designing the “home for people of normal means.”

In this lecture, Judith Kenny reports on the national movement and the local response to the call for small “better homes” by highlighting demonstration houses built in the Eastmoreland neighborhood during the 1920s.  Judith is a member of the AHC Education Committee and walking tour docent. She's also a retired professor of Geography and Urban Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

This lecture program is held at the Architectural Heritage Center - 701 SE Grand Avenue

Parking is on-street (free on Saturdays) or in the parking lot on the west side of Grand Avenue between SE Yamhill and Belmont Streets - just to the north of the Grand Marketplace. Do not use the lot where Dutch Bros. Coffee is located. Thank you to Bolliger and Sons Insurance for sharing their lot with us for our evening and Saturday education programs.

Sponsored by: Craftsman Design & Renovation

Image: Cover of the 1924 RediMade Homes Catalog. Courtesy of Judith Kenny.