This Month in Real Estate History
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"There is something vitally stimulating about a convention"
NOVEMBER 2009 -- "There is something stimulating about a convention," the National Real Estate Journal reported in November, 1939. "It is enjoyable, for one thing, to greet old friends, to make new ones, to swap stories and experiences in the general companionship of a Realtors' convention."
That year 1600 REALTORS® and guests gathered at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles. They came from 37 different states and the Territory of Hawaii to discuss issues vital to real estate. Accourding to the Journal, those included "the reclamation of blighted areas of our cities; brokerage problems involved in business shifts; building houses for low-income groups; and the ever-present bugaboo of taxation."
The REALTORS® Land Institute -- 65 years old (and then some)
OCTOBER 2009 -- In October 1944, George Domm, a Michigan farm broker, became the first president of the REALTORS® Land Institute. Originally known as the Agricultural Institute, the new group was an affiliate of the National Association, created to represent the interests of real estate professionals specializing in farmland and rural properties. Over the next three years, Domm organized the Institute?s Board of Directors, created chapters in sixteen states, and nearly tripled the Institute?s original membership of 178.
But RLI's story begins much earlier than 1944. By 1920 farm brokers were forming their own organizations in several different states. That year REALTOR® Wilbur Mansfield sent 7,000 invitations to other farm brokers around the country, asking them to attend the NAR convention that summer in his home town of Kansas City.
Staging Advice from Emily Post
SEPTEMBER 2009 -- ?The requirement of a house of charm is that it shall be completely satisfying to live in.? So wrote American etiquette expert Emily Post in September, 1943, for the National Real Estate Journal. ?Comfort ?means perfect adjustment to whatever it may please you to have or to do?it means the adaptability of the surroundings that are yours, to your family and to you.?
?Beautiful objects contribute to a beautiful house,? Post wrote, ?and yet, cost as a standard of beauty could not be a less accurate test. Many simple little houses that have scarcely an object of value are utterly friendly, convenient and delightful. Many great houses are so austerely unwelcoming and so obviously uncomfortable, it is a wonder that their owners can bear to live in them.?
"The backbone of a real estate board"
AUGUST 2009 -- Today they are called Association Executives, but in 1914 they were called Secretaries. Then as now they were the backbones of their local REALTOR® associations.
The National Association of REALTORS® was only six years old when Milwaukee REALTOR® R. Bruce Douglas gave a speech that was hailed as a classic, ?The Backbone of a Real Estate Board.? It was published in the National Real Estate Journal in August 1914.
?A board composed of men of character, standing before a public which has been compelled to acknowledge their superior qualities is in position to demand recognition and to compel respect,? Douglas said. ?But while the favorable public opinion is a valuable asset it is not the thing that makes the machine go.
Interstate highways beckoned REALTORS®
JULY 2009 -- In July of 1956 REALTORS® across America saw opportunities in a project that would change the country. The Interstate Highway System had been approved by Congress and would be signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
The new program designated 40,000 miles of highway as part of a "Federal Superhighway System." The program's price was set at $33 billion.
1912 REALTORS® remembered the Maine
JUNE 2009 -- At its 1912 annual convention in Louisville, Kentucky, the National Association of Real Estate Exchanges received a new wooden gavel and a piece of American history.
REALTORS® met in the city's Armory on June 19 and were called to order by President Samuel S. Thorpe of Minneapolis. After an invocation and welcoming speeches, President Thorpe paused the proceedings "for a few minutes while we have this photograph taken."
Radio legends joined NAR in promoting home ownership
MAY 2009 -- ?Hello, Jot ?Em Down Store, this is Lum and Abner.?
From 1931 to 1954 one of the most popular radio programs in the country featured two storekeepers in the small town of Pine Ridge, Arkansas. The pair kept Americans laughing despite hard times that included the Great Depression and Second World War.
On May 24, 1939, in cooperation with the National Association of Real Estate Boards, they devoted part of their show to "what things make for safety when a family goes into home ownership today and some of the things the family should look for when it is choosing a homesite or a home," according to the association's press release.
Milwaukee REALTORS® showed their pride at 1917 Home and Real Estate Show
APRIL 2009 -- In April of 1917 thousands flocked to Milwaukee Auditorium for the Home and Real Estate Show. "The show was the first of its kind ever attempted in the Northwest," the National Real Estate Journal reported. This exposition of home planning, building and outfitting...will be difficult to improve upon."
NAR Returns to Colorado Springs
MARCH 2009 -- NAR's 2009 Association Executives Institute meets March 20-24 in Colorado Springs -- the first time the National Association has held a major meeting in that city in nearly seven decades.
In January 1940 a blizzard hit the Colorado Springs area, keeping some REALTORS® away from NAREB's South Central Regional Conference. Attendance was still good with 361 paid registrations. Traveling by train the St. Louis delegation numbered the largest at 57, including four spouses.
REALTORS® honored George Washington
February 2009 - In February of 1932 the National Real Estate Journal remarked on the bicentennial of George Washington's birth. "Because in a sense he was our first Great Realtor," the Journal wrote, "present day real estate men will take special interest in the bicentennial celebration."
When he became owner of Mount Vernon at age 21 the estate comprised 2,700 acres. At the time of his death Washington's holdings exceeded 63,000 acres in seven states.
Adapting to a New Term in Real Estate
JANUARY 2009 - In January of 1918 the National Real Estate Journal reported on use of the new word REALTOR® and efforts to educate the public about what it meant. The word was coined by Charles N. Chadbourn, vice-president of the National Association of Real Estate Boards and former President of the Minneapolis Real Estate Board. In 1916 Chadbourn sold the rights to the word to the National Association for one dollar.
Three Decades of Yuletide Greetings
DECEMBER 2008 - In December of 1953, the National Association of REALTORS®' long-time executive vice-president mailed a unique holiday card to friends he had made in his thirty years with the Association. The Yuletide wishes included photographs that chronicled the Nelson family through three decades.
Movie Star Corinne Griffith's "Romance in Real Estate"
NOVEMBER 2008 - In November 1950, the National Association of Real Estate Boards held its annual convention in Florida for the first time. Thousands gathered in Miami Beach's Municipal Auditorium to hear a former movie star speak on her "Romance in Real Estate."
Corinne Griffith was certainly the most glamorous speaker at the convention. She made sixty pictures, retiring as an actress in 1932. Her performance in the silent film "The Divine Lady" earned a 1929 Academy Award nomination.
Nixon Warned REALTORS® about Red Peril
OCTOBER 2008 -- In October 1950 California REALTORS® gathered in Santa Cruz?s Casa del Rey hotel for their 46th Annual Convention. The keynote speaker at the opening session was the well known Congressman Richard M. Nixon, who had made news as a member of the House of Representatives Un-American Activities Committee.
Tensions were running high that year. In June North Korean forces attacked South Korean and American troops, beginning a war that would involve the Chinese in less than a month. A year earlier the Soviet Union exploded its first atomic bomb.
REALTOR® Fenton Parke helped build Buffalo
SEPTEMBER 2008 -- On September 21, 1966, more than six hundred REALTORS® and friends met in Buffalo?s Statler-Hilton Hotel to honor REALTOR® Fenton M. Parke and celebrate his 100th birthday.
Local historian Roy W. Nagle had long known the popular centenarian. Parke ?has had some major part in every forward-going movement in this community,? Nagle said. He also ?led in promoting and guiding industrial real estate activities for the betterment of Buffalo.?
