R.M. Williamson was a wholesale lumber dealer in Dallas, Texas. He was also an owner of property in East Texas for timber and several sawmills. Williamson produced and sold packets of documents containing a plan book of house plans with an accompanying photograph of the front façade of the house for illustration, a set of blueprints for each house in the plan book, and a list of general specifications for building the houses. He focused primarily on designs for small to medium sized homes. The packets were sold to retail lumber dealers, who would in turn sell both the design and materials to build the house to their customers. The lumber dealers would emboss their own company's name on the plan books or Williamson would entitle them as "Modern Homes". The plan books were produced primarily from 1918 until 1938 when Williamson retired. The designs are claimed to be produced by architects, especially those of C.D. Hill and Company and their chief draftsman Clifford Evans.

Williams was also active in several building materials organizations, such as for lumber and brick. He would use his associations with the organizations to also advertise in their trade journals.