In 1953, Techbuilt Inc put together The Techbuilt Manual in preparation for the 1954 Building Your Home show in New York City. It was intended to introduce potential clients to the way that the company worked and how to approach becoming a Techbuilt homeowner. As the front matter states, below, the intention was to develop this book into something more substantial.

I have not found any indication that a second edition was produced nor have I come across another copy of this edition. As you can see in the cover image above, this copy came from materials belonging to Robert Bacon, the source of many Techbuilt treasures you can see on the web. I plan to post the Manual chapter by chapter over the next few weeks with this first installment being the preface. This preface contains information about the origins of Techbuilt that I haven’t seen elsewhere. The role of Leon Lipshutz is especially interesting and I was inspired to finally get these posts up after some recent correspondence with his son. I hope you enjoy these posts and, if you have never seen them, I cannot wait for you to see the many wonderful illustrations that Mary MacLennan created for this book!

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The Techbuilt Manual – The Plan (1.7Mb PDF) Next up…Your Dream