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!

For nearly twenty-five years Bok continued to publish pictures of houses and plans.  Entire colonies of “Ladies’ Home Journal houses” have sprung up, and building promoters have built complete suburban developments with them.  How many of these homes have been erected it is, of course, impossible to say; the number certainly runs into the thousands.

It was one of the most constructive and far-reaching pieces of work that Bok did during his editorial career—­a fact now recognized by all architects.  Shortly before Stanford White passed away, he wrote:  “I firmly believe that Edward Bok has more completely influenced American domestic architecture for the better than any man in this generation.  When he began, I was short-sighted enough to discourage him, and refused to co-operate with him.  If Bok came to me now, I would not only make plans for him, but I would waive any fee for them in retribution for my early mistake.”