A History of Homebuilders from Early Modern to Modern Times

Book excerpt: A History of Homebuilders from Early Modern to Modern Times provides a diachronic account of homebuilders’ more than 500 years history in the Anglosphere nations of the U.S., Britain, Canada, and Australia. The comparative absence of individual homebuilders’ histories in the literature, despite builders’ importance in providing our dwellings and over 70% of our entire urban built environments, is surprising. Part One introduces homebuilders from several perspectives. These are useful for evaluating the homebuilders’ whose histories are presented in Part Two, and in providing a balanced understanding of homebuilders and the societal value of what they do. The actual, albeit brief, histories of mainly large homebuilders for more than 500 years in Part II, supply historians with some particulars of homebuilder attitudes, practices, ingenuity, and resourcefulness in how they operated over the centuries, with a modest trending to community building rather than just housebuilding. Part Three specifically focuses on the following evolutionary changes in homebuilding practices: 1) increasing standardization of dwelling components, 2) increasingly institutionalized sources of financial assistance, and 3) changes in production scale. Three technical appendices on dates of homebuilder ‘firsts’ in practices; in conceptualizing housing markets; and some government regulations, follow, with a fourth appendix on homebuilders’ organizational changes over the centuries.