Sunday, June 18, 2017
Prefab presumption
A postwar issue of a journal for radio and appliance dealers has an article on Prefab Houses, which were supposed to take over the entire housing market. Didn't happen, though prefabs in the original sense were common through the '60s. The article assumed that most prefabs would come with built-in appliances, offering an opportunity for large sales. Didn't happen, though the LATER incarnation of prefabs as 'modular' or 'manufactured' houses based on trailers did generally include appliances.
The article also had a huge list of supposed makers of prefabs, maybe 200 companies scattered across the country. Only a handful of these were actually in the business; I'm guessing the list was compiled from a survey of companies that wanted or wished to be in the prefab industry.
Here's a chopped and channeled selection from the list, marking three notable entries and one GIANT non-entry.
GIANT non-entry: Where's ALADDIN? They were the biggest prefabber at that time, and continued operating until 1981 when the 'modular' trailer stuff took over.
In the second column: Butler, still going strong after specializing in commercial buildings. Butler has become a common noun for 'steel building', like kleenex or xerox.
In the third column: Fuller, operating from Beech in Wichita. That would be Bucky Fuller's Dumbaxion House. Beech built exactly two of them, one of which unfortunately survives. Later on, Fuller's Geodesic Dumb was also turned out in prefab form, for some unfathomable reason.
And finally, Panhandle in Amarillo made the Homettes that I "drew" and used extensively.
¶ 2:33 AM 
GIANT non-entry: Where's ALADDIN? They were the biggest prefabber at that time, and continued operating until 1981 when the 'modular' trailer stuff took over.
In the second column: Butler, still going strong after specializing in commercial buildings. Butler has become a common noun for 'steel building', like kleenex or xerox.
In the third column: Fuller, operating from Beech in Wichita. That would be Bucky Fuller's Dumbaxion House. Beech built exactly two of them, one of which unfortunately survives. Later on, Fuller's Geodesic Dumb was also turned out in prefab form, for some unfathomable reason.
And finally, Panhandle in Amarillo made the Homettes that I "drew" and used extensively.
¶ 2:33 AM
