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FEDERAL HOUSING ADMINISTRATION
WASHINGTON, D. C.
June 13, 1936

Honorable Marriner S. Eccles, Chairman,
Board of Governors of the
Federal Reserve System,
Washington, D. C,

My dear Governor:

Mr. McDonald has asked me to transmit to you the enclosed copies of a few of the letters Y/hich we have received from various sources
concerning our recent bulletin on the Principles
of Planning Small Houses•

Very truly yours,

Miles L* Colean,
Technical Director.

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JOHNS-MANVILLE
Twenty-Two East Fortieth Street,
New York, N. Y.

May 21, 1936.

Mr. Stewart McDonald, Administrator
Federal Housing Administration,
Washington, D. C.
Dear Mr. McDonald:
Our Mr. L. R. Hoff has kindly referred a copy of
a study made by the Technical Division of the Federal
Housing Administration on the subject of lov/ priced
houses to the writer for personal consideration.
The opportunity to note the results of the careful
and scientific approach that your assistants have
made to this problem is greatly appreciated. The
benefits derived from a careful study of this subject will be invaluable to us in planning our action
in the future in connection with residential construction in the low priced field.
With appreciation for your interest, I am
Very truly yours,
JOHMS-MAHVILLE S&LES CORPORATION,
P. A. Andrews,
Vice President.




PORTLAND CEMENT ASSOCIATION
33 West Grand Ave.,
Chicago.
May 21, 1936
File 11-4
Stewart McDonald, Administrator
Federal Housing Admini stration
Washington, D. C.
Dear Mr. McDonald:
In Mr* Mehren's absence I am taking this
opportunity to acknowledge and thank you for your
letter of May 18 enclosing your new technical bulletin "Principles of Planning Small Houses."
I have read this bulletin twice and want
to congratulate those in your department who are responsible for putting together so much useful information in this publication. I think so much of it
that I am arranging to have copies sent to all of the
Portland Cement Association fieldmen and district
offices.
Yours very truly,
W# G. Kaiser
Manager, Cement Products Bureau

COPY

F. K. PAXTON COMPANY
PINE AND HARDWOOD LUMBER
PILING, MILLWOEK
PREFRABRICATED BUILDINGS
101 Broadway
Knoxville, Tennessee

Mr. H. P. Vermilya, Asst. Director
Technical Division
Federal Housing Administration
Washington, D. C.
Dear Sir:
Please accept our thanks for your Technical Bulletin No* 4> F. H. A. Form No*
2219. We have checked this bulletin and find as follows:
House
House
House
House

A
B
C
D

Your Price
$1,200.00 to
1,65O.CO to
1,750.00 to
1,750.00 to

$1,500.00
2,000.00
2,100.00
2,100.00

Our Price
# 900*00 to
1,200.00 to
1,400.00 to
1,400.00 to

$1,200.00
1,600.00
1,700.00
1,700.00

Our price would include the house erected on the site and wherever bath room
is provided for, our price includes all bath room fixtures, kitchen sink and two
wash tubs together with plumbing and wiring. The water, sewer and electric lines are
all brought to outside of building.
Our prices are all predicated upon quantity production and we will have to work
out some kind of plan whereby these can be marketed in quantities before they can be
made available at these prices. If the buyer wishes to erect the house, we will make
an appropriate allowance for this purpose.
Our prices provide for heavy building paper on both outside and inside of studs
with the dead air space filled with rock wool or glass wool. This same insulation is
used in the partitions and roof panels. Floors are double and interior is finished
in sound red knotted grade of pine using either 1x6, 1x8 or 1x10.
Yours very truly,
F. K. PAXTON COMPANY
FKP:m




F. K. Paxton

COPY
HARLAND BAETHOLOMEW AND ASSOCIATES
CITY PLANNERS - CIVIL ENGINEERS - LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS
317 North Eleventh Street
Saint Louis, Missouri

May 20, 1936
Mr, Miles L. Colean
Director Technical Division
Federal Housing Administration
Washington, D. C.
Dear Mr. Colean:
Thank you for your letter and copy of Technical Bulletin No, 4->
"Principles of Planning Small Houses," This is an excellent document
and one which should be of much practical use to architects, city planners and others interested in the housing problem. You are indeed doing very valuable work in the Federal Housing Administration on matters
of this type.
If ever this bulletin is reprinted, might I suggest that you give
consideration to at least a brief statement with respect to what land
might reasonably cost for houses of the types you describe? Would it not
also be well to discuss the cost of landscape work? Since you give very
careful estimates of house costs it would seem to be well to have a recapitulation for the prospective owner showing both cost of land, cost of
house and cost of landscape,
I presume the Federal Housing Administration is interested chiefly
in individual houses on individual lots because they lend themselves to the
making of the type of loans normally made by the FHA. It would be very helpful if someone — probably your department — could publish some material
in the form of a bulletin similar to No, 4 relating to group houses. Our
people are so accustomed to the individual house on the individual lot that
there is a phsychological objection to community housii^g. There are many
advantages of community housing, particularly in the low-cost housing field
that are not generally understood and appreciated by the great majority of
people. There should be more material available for individuals to read and
learn of the numerous advantages of community planning and housing.




Yours sincerely,

Harland Bartholomew




COPY
TITLE INSURANCE CORPORATION OF ST. LOUIS
810 Chestnut Street
St. Louis, Mo.
CAPITAL |85O,OOO.OO

May 9, 1936

Mr. Stewart McDonald, Administrator
Federal Housing Administration,
Washington, D. C.
Dear Mr. McDonald:I am in receipt of your Technical Bulletin No. 4-,
"Principles of Planning Small Houses," and wish to thank you
for sending me this. I wish also to compliment your Organization and you personally for having written this brochure. I
think it is quite the most sensible thing that I have seen for
a long time.
Perhaps some of my enthusiasm for this presentation is
due to the fact that it is precisely in line with my own ideas on
the subject. You will remember that in our recent conversations
in Washington, I took up considerable time of the group in stressing the fact that the previous development of your Housing Administration seemed to run to houses which were too expensive for the
man of average income, and that you should not continue in the position of encouraging people to go in debt beyond their means, to
provide homes which they could not afford.
In view of the excellence of this presentation of yours, I
think it should be given the widest publicity. I think, for example,
that many thousands of these pamphlets should be sent to people who
now live in rented quarters and that other publicity should be along
the lines of extensive newspaper advertisements. By placing before
the public a method of acquiring a home within its means, you will be
rendering it the highest type of service, and more important, will not
be encouraging people to undertake something which they cannot fulfill.

Yours very truly,

McCune Gill, Vice-President.