What the home builders say about Gordon-Van Tine Co

The Gordon-Van Tine Company, based in Davenport, Iowa, produced this catalog during the height of the mail-order home movement in the early twentieth century. These booklets were intended to build consumer confidence in the company's precut lumber and building materials by sharing testimonials and photographs from actual customers who had successfully constructed homes using Gordon-Van Tine kits. By the 1910s, the company had established itself as a major competitor to Sears, Roebuck & Co., leveraging the expansion of rural free delivery and the national rail network to ship entire house components directly to building sites.

The design of this publication reflects the practical, marketing-driven aesthetic of the era, emphasizing affordability, ease of assembly, and quality of materials. These documents were essential tools in the company's strategy to demystify the construction process for the average homeowner, as they served as both a reference manual and a social proof of the company's reliability. While the specific illustrator or copywriter is rarely credited by name, the materials were crafted by the company's in-house marketing department to appeal to the aspirational sensibilities of working and middle-class families of the 1910s.