At the end of the nineteenth century, carpenter, architect, and publisher George Franklin Barber began publishing his residential designs in inexpensive, illustrated catalogs. Containing order forms and price lists for the drawings, the catalogs were not the first to sell private homes to the public on a widespread basis but were the first to give customers an opportunity to participate in cust…
At the turn of the twentieth century, George F. Barber ran a successful architectural firm. Today, surviving examples of Barber's signature designs are the pride of their communities. This architectural snapshot from 1901 features working floor plans and fine drawings of more than eighty of Barber's distinctive dwellings. Specializing in serving a mail-order clientele, Barber's company produced…