Diamond Homes; by The Diamond Match Company

About this book

Paperback booklet with red covers, held together with a tight, wire spiral along the left side. The wire is bent and the paper is ripped at the bottom. The back cover is blank. There are a few small rips and tears on the front cover. The top half of the front cover says "Diamond Homes, by The Diamond Match Company." In the upper left corner is an illustration of a home inside a circle, with the "sidewalk" extending out of the circle towards the bottom right corner where a man and woman are standing. There are words in a semi-cursive font that runs out from the house to the couple: "the diamond way to home ownership." Underneath the sidewalk it says, "1941 Edition," and at the bottom it says, "Largest Distributors of Lumber and Building Materials In New England." The pages inside have illustrations of the homes and their floor plans in brown ink on white paper. Size: 9" x 12" **The Diamond Match Company started in 1861 by Swift & Cortney in Delaware. It became one of the largest match makers, and proceeded to expand into a larger Diamond conglomerate. Over the years, Diamond started lumber mills, merged with paper, wood products, printing, and plastics companies, and more. Diamond production sites expanded to keep pace. From original factories in Wilmington, DE and Barberton, OH, others were added in NY, WA, CA, and MA. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diamond_Match_Company ***This booklet was published by the National House Plan Service. National Plan Service was a prominent house plan company that was in operation from 1902 until 1997. NHPS specialized in middle-class house designs, working to meet the huge demand for homes during the post-war years of the 1950s and 1960s.NHPS, like most companies at the time, collaborated with lumber and building suppliers. They printed brochures containing sets of plans for distribution to home builders in an effort to entice them to purchase the complete plans and materials. Most of the brochures bore the name and contact information of the building supplier. The homes were small by today's standards, given that most Americans in the 1950s had an average income of $5,000 to 10,000 a year and generally purchased homes in the 1000 square foot range. Average square footage had grown to just over 1200 square feet by 1960. http://mid2mod.blogspot.com/2011/08/national-plan-service.html