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The homes originally cost between a few hundred dollars and a few thousand. The Martha Washington model, for example, originally sold for $2,688 to $3,727 (or the equivalent of $35,713 to $49,518 today), but in 2016 one sold for more than $1 million. The Sears Modern Homes catalog debuted in 1908, and it offered all the material and blueprints needed to build a house. The pieces that arrived in the mail were meant to fit together sort of like Legos, so buyers could build the houses themselves or hire contractors. The process is reminiscent of the early 1900s, when people turned to mail-order catalogs to find things to buy.
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Kit Houses from Sears, Roebuck
When Sears first sold stock to the public in 1906, the company was worth some $40 million, with close to $50 million in annual sales and around 9,000 employees. That same year, it built a distribution complex in Chicago with some 3 million square feet of floor space. Sears' retail stores spread across the country and its sales stayed strong even during the Great Depression, as the company spawned now-famous brands like Kenmore, Craftsman and even Allstate Insurance. Their first Modern Homes catalog already had over 40 models to choose from, but Sears would go on to offer 447 different designs.
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During the Modern Homes program, large quantities of asphalt shingles became available. Asphalt shingles were cheap to manufacture and ship, and easy and inexpensive to install. Sears also offered a plasterboard product similar to modern drywall (under the name Goodwall) as an alternative to the plaster and lath wall-building techniques which required skilled carpenters and plasterers. This product offered the advantages of low price, ease of installation, and added fire protection. Local building requirements sometimes dictated that certain elements of the house construction be done professionally and varied depending on where the house was constructed.
The Amazing Collection of Sears Homes in the Midwest
Sears knew its audience well and its designs were those most popular at the time. The company decided not just to sell house-building packages, but to finance them as well. If Sears could offer reasonable interest rates and low down payments, the market seemed endless. Although the financing package initially included only building materials, it soon expanded to cover the building lot. Kushel was managing Sears’s china department in 1906 when he was given the dismal task of overseeing the dismantling of the catalog company’s unwieldy, money-losing building materials department.
The end of the Sears catalog era.
According to the authors of Houses by Mail, thousands of Sears Modern homes survive throughout the country. Beginning in the late 1970s, as people began rehabilitating houses built in the early 20th century, some discovered that they owned a Sears home. Interest in studying and restoring the Sears houses has grown over the years.[10] You can use the Kit House Hunters website to see lists of Sears houses in various communities. The Sears house was often equipped with the most sought after conveniences of its time, from built-in china cabinets, mirrored closet doors, dining nooks and kitchen cupboards, to built-in ironing boards, telephone niches, and medicine cabinets. Some of these amenities came as part of the package, while others were options. Modern Homes catalogs often carried designs well past what is generally considered their peak years.
Sears Merchandise Building Tower
Sales were down, and there was too much inventory sitting in expensive warehouses. Also, it should be noted that many of the kit home manufacturers sold plans and materials, so while not a "kit house" per se, you could still have a Sears or Wards plan built with their materials, or their plan built with local materials. As might be expected, there is a hope among many old house owners that theirs could be a Sears kit. According to the information on Aladdin kit houses, it's estimated that between 1908 and 1981, there were 70,000 Aladdin homes manufactured. Sears, in the kit house business for just over 30 years, sold 70-75,000 according to the Sears Archives.
thoughts on “The History of Sears Kit Homes”
These and other house hunters have helped identify nearly 50,000 kit homes from Sears and other companies. So the next time a ragtag team of researchers armed with cameras, laptops and an old Sears catalog knocks on your door asks if they can take a quick tour or your basement, don’t be frightened. Hunter’s study of the Elgin homes, along with the work of other researchers, would help to launch fresh interest in historic kit homes, not just there but also around the country. Today, a crew of kit home hunters has self-styled specialists who organize databases, search Google maps, and photograph historic homes. Mostly, though, they hunt for houses the old-fashioned way, by meeting up in groups of two and three and four and cruising slowly down the streets of obscure midwest towns, in a car, together.
Sears, Roebuck and Company
Kushel is credited with suggesting to Richard Sears that the company assemble kits of all the parts needed and sell entire houses through mail order. That year, the Aladdin Company of Bay City, Michigan, offered the first kit homes through mail order. Sears Modern Homes offered more than 370 designs in a wide range of architectural styles and sizes over the line's 34-year history.
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So she began reaching out to residents, sending out mailers asking owners to inspect their homes for special beams bearing part numbers from Sears. Some also found shipping labels on the backs of baseboards or original Sears blueprints. So far, she and her fellow kit house hunters have found over 200 in Elgin. Today, Sears homes remain as popular as ever, especially among history buffs and home investors. If your home was built between 1908 and 1942, compare its floor plan and exterior dimensions against a Sears home field guide, such as “Finding The Houses That Sears Built” (2004, Gentle Beam Publications). You might be surprised to find that you, too, live in a mail-order home.
Sears Modern Homes offered more than 370 designs in a wide range of architectural styles and sizes over the line’s 34-year history. From 1908 to 1942, Sears sold more than 70,000 of these houses in North America, by the company’s count. Sears Modern Homes were purchased primarily by customers in East Coast and Midwest states, but have been located as far south as Florida, as far west as California, and as far north as Alaska and Canada. The elements that survive from the early period of the Sears complex development are organized around South Homan Avenue, between West Arthington Street and the railroad tracks to the south.
"I can drive five minutes, or I can ride my bike and see six different model homes that are identical to mine," he says. Some mail-order house enthusiasts estimate that about 70 percent of Sears houses are still standing today. A look at the catalog-ordered homes made by Sears from 1908 to 1940.
House-plan books like those from Palliser & Palliser date back to the Victorian period; full construction drawings were offered, and sometimes also a millwork package. By the middle of the bungalow era, a host of companies offered pre-cut kits, which would be shipped by rail for on-site construction. Not only lumber but also everything down to the nuts and bolts, and even paint, were included. Leading sellers included Keith’s, Aladdin, Sears, Harris Brothers, Montgomery Ward, and Gordon–Van Tine.
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