Stock-house-plan services are everywhere,
it seems. You see stock plans
collected in books, sold on newsstands,
and promoted in magazines where
dozens of services offer mail-order
selections. As of 1973, there were only
about 25 plan companies, but today
there are so many, we've lost count. In
Atlanta, Ga., alone, where in 1973
there was one service, there are now
13. Though it has become big business,
with about 30 large-scale companies
offering nationwide service (some shipping
as many as 13,000 sets of plans a
year) the concept of stock plans is
nothing new.
Before stock plans existed, builders
worked with plans found in "pattern
books." The first American pattern
book, The Country Builder's Assistant,
was published in 1797 by