Building a Strong Foundation

The early days of the West Tennessee Home Builders Association, celebrating their 75th anniversary in 2020.

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On the morning of August 15, 1945, Memphians picked up their copies of The Commercial Appeal and read the main headline with stunned relief: WAR IS OVER! After more than four years of fighting in Europe, Africa, and Asia, tens of thousands of Allied soldiers would finally be coming home.

Many of these men and women, however, had no homes waiting for them when they got here.

During the war years, home building companies, along with businesses of all kinds, did their part for the war effort. The Fisher Body Works Plant in Memphis was converted into an airplane factory. Firestone and International Harvester churned out tires, tools, and other equipment needed by the military. Plumbing, electrical, lumber, and other supply companies essential for the construction of residences diverted their inventory towards the war effort. For almost four years, home building in America was essentially put on hold.

With all these returning veterans, the housing shortage in America after World War II was considered so dire that Congress declared a “national housing emergency.” A summary of domestic conditions by the National Bureau of Economic Research put it this way: “The housing situation, and not unemployment, was to be the nation’s critical domestic problem.” Addressing the crisis, President Harry Truman signed the National Housing Act, with the purpose of “providing a decent home and suitable living environment for every American family.”

Eleven million. That’s how many new homes the government estimated were needed by all those soldiers suddenly returning home. “Following the surreal images of World War II, the country desperately desired a return to safety and living the American dream — get a job, buy a house, marry and raise a family,” according to an article in the National Real Estate Investor. But that eagerly awaited transition to a peacetime existence — a world of new homes, schools, and happy neighborhoods — was hindered by a drastic shortage of building materials, along with wartime regulations that still rationed items like rubber, steel, copper, and aluminum — essential products for home construction.

In Memphis, the situation was so bleak for returning veterans that Memphis State College and Southwestern hauled trailers to their campuses to provide housing for married families who wished to attend school there. Grand old homes in neighborhoods like Central Gardens and Annesdale-Snowden were converted into living spaces for as many as four different families.

That’s when a group of local business leaders joined forces to tackle the problem.

Wallace Johnson, along with other Memphis home builders, realized they couldn’t solve the housing problem on their own, but by working together, they could snip away at the government red tape that was hindering their progress, and they could also link builders with suppliers and contractors.

The new group was called, quite logically, the Home Builders Association of Memphis. First organized in late 1944 and officially chartered in 1945, the HBAM had a rather broad, but strategic, goal:

“The Home Builders Association was formed as a vehicle to promote the interest of legitimate home builders, to improve their skill and technique in all of their procedures, to advance and perfect their talents for design and beauty in planning, to insure the best practices, and by fair dealings, to gain and hold the confidence of the home-seeking public.”

Since he was the impetus behind the organization, it made sense that Johnson was elected to a one-year term as the group’s first president. One of the most prolific and successful builders in Memphis history, Johnson can take credit for populating much of East Memphis with well-designed and affordable homes. The streets of major subdivisions such as Colonial Acres are lined with houses designed and constructed by his company, and he later became a partner with Kemmons Wilson to develop Holiday Inns across America.

Other officers in that first year were vice president James B. Goodwin, owner of a large construction firm here, and secretary R.A. McDougal, an executive with Pilley Nicodemus Lumber Company.

The Home Builders Association started out with only 13 charter members, all of them involved in real estate sales or construction: McNeese Construction Company, Chandler & Chandler, Dave Dermon & Company, McNeese Construction Company, J. Ripley Greer, Harry Dlugach, Benjamin Dlugach, Charles A. Cleaves, Dobson and Smith Real Estate, Sam Stephenson, Pennell and Gill, and Herman Gruber.

In the beginning the group gathered for “Dutch treat” lunches at local restaurants, hotels, and clubs, before renting offices in the Sterick Building. The group realized the need to reach out to the “home-seeking public,” and in the late 1940s and early 1950s embarked on a series of community events that have continued — with considerable improvements — to this day.

The 1946 Home Show, for example, was actually a trade show, with booths and vendors filling the Shelby County Building at the Mid-South Fairgrounds. The centerpiece of the show — and the only “home” in the show — was “a contemporary house, completely furnished, built completely inside the building.” After the show, the structure was dismantled and given to a lucky visitor who won a drawing for it.

A highlight of the weeklong event, which drew as many as 45,000 visitors every year, was the announcement of “Mrs. Homemaker,” chosen from women sponsored by various community organizations such as the Jaycees or the Rotary Club. Candidates for this honor — which came with a $300 cash prize and a week’s vacation at Holiday Shores in Long Beach, Mississippi — had to be married, from the Mid-South, and “engaged in home-making.” This was an important event for our community, with the Memphis Press-Scimitar publishing photos and profiles of each candidate (some years as many as 40 women) every day leading up to the Home Show. The competition required each contestant to speak for two minutes on “The Most Important Event in My Life.”

The Spring Parade of Homes also started in the late 1940s, presenting as many as 90 newly built homes in neighborhoods around town. Potential buyers were provided with a map and could find the model homes by searching for the large Easter bunny display in the front yard. A newsletter account noted, “It seems everybody in Memphis was watching for the Bunny signs.” It wasn’t until years later, of course, that the “parade” evolved into the annual VESTA Home Show, designed to showcase as many as a dozen residences in a newly developed subdivision.

Many other events throughout the year, such as National Home Week and even a Home Buyers School, were also quickly established, all designed to “create a better climate in the home building industry and build confidence in the home-buying public.”

Placing those eye-catching Easter bunnies in the front yards of the Spring Parade of Homes was part of the HBAM’s move towards better marketing and promotions. Members were given yard signs, decals, posters, and other marketing materials. If they wished, they could buy gold-plated lapel pins, tie chains, and cufflinks with the HBAM seal from a local jeweler. They also came up with an official slogan — “Better Living Begins When You Own a New Home” — and encouraged local businesses to display that wherever they could.

As the organization expanded, HBAM members realized a need for a permanent location that was more accessible to the general public than the rented offices in the Sterick Building. What they required was a place to showcase the skills and abilities of all their members. So, under the leadership of president Kemmons Wilson, a man known for always doing things in a big way, the Home Builders Association of Memphis opened an ultra-modern Home Builders Center, located at 2440 Central Avenue, just east of Christian Brothers College. Open to the public, the building featured offices, conference rooms, and a research library with building trade magazines, material catalogs, and government publications.

“Considered one of the finest home builders association headquarters in the nation,” according to a company history, “it enhanced the prestige and became the nerve center of the Memphis home building industry, providing a storehouse of information about homes and home building. Changing displays and exhibits attracted hundreds of Memphians and newcomers.” The HBAM eventually outgrew the building on Central, and over the years moved to new locations in East Memphis, Germantown, and today Collierville — always staying in the heart of areas with booming new home construction.

But all that was still in the future. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, as membership grew, committees were established that focused on such matters as building codes, home financing, FHA and Veterans Administration regulations and benefits, subdivision development, land planning, and publications. News about the industry was conveyed to members in the monthly Bildor magazine, a weekly Bulletin, the National Association of Home Builders Journal, and even the Legislative Flash, featuring “news from the capital and special bulletins on urgent matters.”

The Memphis Bildor magazine was especially useful, since it not only provided an updated list of members, but also gave builders tips on ways to make their new homes more appealing. “Murals Are Offered in Medium-Priced Homes” and “Fireplaces Are a Selling Point” were typical articles.

A considerable expansion from those early restaurant luncheons, monthly meetings offering “excellent speakers with excellent ideas” were still conducted for the active and associate members. These were supplemented by numerous “workhorse” meetings of the various committees, a Small Volume Builders Council roundtable, and other get-togethers that focused on business management, new construction techniques, marketing, and other topics of interest. In addition, awards were presented each year to “Bildor of the Year” and “Associate of the Year.”

A group that began with about a dozen members had, within ten years, expanded to more than 240 active members and more than 220 associate members. Although some of these names may no longer be familiar to present-day readers, every possible stage in the design, construction, sale, and upkeep of a new home was represented, with companies specializing in such details as blueprints (Campbell Blue Prints), insurance (Whitfield King Company), pest control (Atomic), in-home stereo equipment (Modern Music), and even home photography (G.W. Sipe).

The HBAM leadership kept coming up with effective promotions. One of them was the annual “Spruce Up Contest.” All owners and builders featured in this sale, held each year in late February, were urged to make their homes stand out with new paint, shrubbery, and other improvements. They were also encouraged to display the HBAM “Seal of Approval” yard sign (available for free from the Builders Center). The winner of this contest would win a special certificate (“suitable for framing and display in public”) along with a steak dinner for two at the Embers, one of this city’s finest restaurants in its day.

It wasn’t all work and no play for members of the Home Builders Association. One of the most anticipated events of the year was the annual HBAM picnic, which featured food, drink, games, prizes, and special appearances by local celebrities. Sometimes these guests had nothing to do with home building, but they were always crowd-pleasers. An old scrapbook from the late 1950s contains snapshots of Trent Wood and Tiny the Clown, co-hosts of the popular WMC-TV Channel 5 children’s television show Looney Zoo.

Perhaps the biggest event of each year, though, was the Presidential Ball. Held in December in the Grand Ballroom of the Chisca Plaza, this formal holiday party featured dinner, dancing, a fashion show, and special awards.

The group’s events weren’t confined to Memphis. Every year, the HBAM joined with the Little Rock association and journeyed to Chicago for the National Convention of Home Builders. They actually rented a special train for this journey, dubbed the Rock & Roll Express, and invitations urged members to buy their tickets soon: “If you were one of the gang who blew into the Chicago Home Show last year, you knew it was a very special trip. But that was just a shake-down run for this year’s plans for the rootin’-tootinest time you’ve ever had!”

From the beginning, the HBAM made a special effort to give back to the community. In the first years, members made annual donations to the Community Chest (a forerunner to today’s United Way). Employees of home construction companies where encouraged to donate a half-day’s wages to this organization; that drive was always successful, one year exceeding its $10,000 goal — quite a sum in those days — by $2,000. Donations were made directly to the newly opened St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, the Memphis Area Chamber of Commerce, and to the Boys and Girls Clubs of Memphis — a tradition that continues to this day.

The Home Builders Association of Memphis — now the West Tennessee Home Builders Association — was formed in 1945 to tackle the critical housing shortage in America following World War II. To say they accomplished their goal would be an understatement. Within a few years, “the tremendous demand for homes for war-weary veterans was met,” and according to a 1959 booklet, “more than 80,000 Memphis families now live in modern, comfortable homes built since the association was founded.”

A membership roster from the 1950s posed this question — “How well has the HBAM succeeded in attaining its goals?” — and then answered it: “The position of the Association merits the respect of both the home builder, his associates, and the public.” Seventy-five years after the group was chartered, it’s safe to say that still holds true today.

For more information about the formation of the West Tennessee Home Builders Association, including a list of all presidents from 1945 to the present day, pick up a copy of the September issue of Memphis.