ould be built, approximately, for from one thousand five
hundred dollars to five thousand dollars. The idea attracted attention
at once, and the architect-author was swamped with letters and inquiries
regarding his plans.

This proved Bok's instinct to be correct as to the public willingness to
accept such designs; upon this proof he succeeded in winning over two
additional architects to make plans. He offered his readers full
building specifications and plans to scale of the houses with estimates
from four builders in different parts of the United States for five
dollars a set. The plans and specifications were so complete in every
detail that any builder could build the house from them.

A storm of criticism now arose from architects and builders all over the
country, the architects claiming that Bok was taking "the bread out of
their mouths" by the sale of plans, and local builders vigorously
questioned the accuracy of the estimates. But Bok knew he was right and
persevered.

Slowly but surely he won the approval of the leading architects, who saw
that he was appealing to a class of house-builders who could not afford
to pay an architect's fee, and that, with his wide circulation, he might
become an influence for better architecture through these small houses.
The sets of plans and specifications sold by the thousands. It was not
long before the magazine was able to present small-house plans by the
foremost architects of the country, whose services the average
householder could otherwise never have dreamed of securing.

Bok not only saw an opportunity to better the exterior of the small
houses, but he determined that each plan published should provide for
two essentials: every servant's room should have two windows to insure
cross-ventilation, and contain twice the number of cubic feet usually
given to such rooms; and in place of the American parlor, which he
considered a useless room, should be substituted either a living-room or
a library. He did not point to these improvements; every plan simply
presented the larger servant's room and did not present a parlor. It is
a singular fact that of the tens of thousands of plans sold, not a
purchaser ever noticed the absence of a parlor except one woman in
Brookline, Mass., who, in erecting a group of twenty-five "Journal
houses," discovered after she had built ten that not one contained a
parlor!

"Ladies' Home Journal houses" were now going up in communities all ove