People Used To Order Sears ‘Home Kits’ From A Catalog In The Early 1900s And Some Are Still Standing Today
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While these days we don’t think twice about ordering all kinds of things online, with giants like Amazon offering pretty much anything you could possibly imagine shipped to your doorstep, the mail-order concept goes back much further than you might think, and you could even get an entire house delivered by mail.
Image credits: Sears Archives
Sears, once the biggest retailer in the U.S. but which recently filed for bankruptcy, revolutionized home-ownership and kick-started the American dream for thousands by offering affordable ‘home kits,’ arriving by railroad in pieces that people would put together themselves. With 400 types to choose from in a range of budgets, the mail-order homes proved to be a massive hit, with 75,000 Sears houses all over the USA between 1908 and 1940.
Image credits: Sears Archives
The scheme was an impressive foreshadow of today’s Amazon and Ikea, done on a massive scale and over a century ago. Sears catalog was a cultural phenomenon of the times, with a full one-fifth of the population signed up to the 1,400-page tome, offering more than 100,000 items to be delivered to your door.
Image credits: Sears Archives
After receiving and building your kit home, which Sears promised could be done without a carpenter and with only rudimentary skills in less than 90 days, you could then furnish it with brand-new Sears goods, including modern conveniences like central heating, indoor plumbing, and electricity.
Image credits: Sears Archives
Image credits: Sears Archives
Image credits: Sears Archives
Image credits: Sears Archives
The accessibility of these simple homes changed the face of American life, creating independence for newlyweds and young families that were more accustomed to living in multi-generational homes, than buying a house of their own. Many of them are still standing today, a testament to the quality of the materials as well as the DIY skills of many families back then, and have become buildings of historic interest.
Image credits: Sears Archives
The quaint, early 20th century American architecture designs are reminiscent of the movie Pleasantville, and have been known to fetch as much as $1 million on the real estate market!
Image credits: Old House Online
But how do you know if you live in a Sears kit home? The records for where and when many of the houses were delivered have long disappeared, but there are a growing number of enthusiasts that travel the country, searching them out. It is estimated that around 70% of the original Sears kit homes built are still standing today, many of which are located near to the rail yards they were delivered to.
Image credits: Old House Online
Atlas Obscura introduced Sears kit house hunters Wendy and Andrew Mutch, who gave an insight into their hobby which they describe as ‘a bit like birdwatching.’ They often begin their search in areas where Sears or its partners had large factories, as the kit houses are especially common in these areas. Places like Cincinnati and Newark are particular goldmines.
Image credits: Sears Archives
Then they zoom in on railroad areas, focusing on the kind of middle-class communities that remain relatively stable over the years. This means that the houses are less likely to either be renovated beyond recognition or crumbled away into disrepair.
Image credits: Old House Online
Then it’s a matter of driving around neighborhoods, with a copy of Sears kit house bible Houses By Mail, which is a descriptive guide to every model of Sears kit house ever made.
People are beginning to recognize the value of these pieces of American history, faithfully restoring them to their original glory.
“In 1916 my great-grandfather built his house from a Sears home kit. 100 years later we’ve restored it to its original beauty”- this person shared the renovation he did on a Sears ‘kit home’ (Image credits: RealHotSauceBoss)
Image credits: Old House Online
Interior of an original Sears home on Lamar Avenue in Elizabeth (Image credits: the charlotte observer)
Image credits: Sears Archives
Image credits: Sears Archives
Image credits: Sears Archives
Image credits: Sears Archives
Image credits: Sears Archives
Image credits: Sears Archives
Image credits: Sears Archives
Image credits: Sears Archives
How to know if your house is from Sears catalog:
The Arts And Crafts Society lists the following tips to help you identify whether your home might be a Sears kit home or not:
Look for stamped lumber on the exposed beams/joists/rafters in the basement, crawl space or attic.
Image credits: arts-crafts [info in the links]
Inspect the back of millwork (moldings and trim) for shipping labels.
Image credits: arts-crafts
Check the home’s floor plan, footprint (exterior dimensions) and room size, using a field guide to Sears Homes, such as “Finding The Houses That Sears Built” (2004, Gentle Beam Publications).
Image credits: arts-crafts
- Visit the courthouse and inspect old building permits and grantor records.
- Inspect plumbing fixtures for marks, such as “R” or “SR”.
- Look for markings on back of sheet rock.
- Unique column arrangement on front porch and five-piece eave brackets.
- Square block on moldings at staircase landings, where moldings meet at odd angles.
- Verify your home’s construction date. If your home was not built between 1908 – 1940, it can not be a Sears Home.
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I own a Van Jean home! Still standing strong. Built in 1932. Each window has a little number embedded on small round metal plate that I assume are references for the assembly instructions.
The floor plans and the drawings alone make you want one
Each numbered tag matches up each window with the identically sized screen and/or glass storm that went on that window. They were individual metal screen or glass storm panels in wooden frames that went up over each window with hooks that were hung up over the frame at the top, and fastened at the bottom inside sill, with matching hook/eye fasteners, depending on the design. The metal tag made sure that you could match each window with its matching screen or storm. This made it much easier to change them out each season when the weather changed from winter to spring for screens, and to the fall when glass storm windows were required. Houses then were not necessarily built with identically sized windows from room to room, and could vary by only an inch or two in each one, making it difficult to tell just by looking which one went with which window frame. Especially handy when you have a two-story house, and each upstairs window required changing by climbing up ladders!
Lovely homes back then - be a fortune today. Jealous just looking at them.
Hmm - "prices do not include cement, brick or plaster"? but an ironing board and medicine case IS included - priorities
Back in the day, these sorts of things were readily-available commodities in virtually every community. Expecting them to be part of the kit would be like expecting a "just-add-water" product to also come with water!
@diane a. You got the widows, siding, roofing, framing, floors. Why pay to have bricks shipped from wherever Sears would get them when you can simply order the required quantity from your local brickyard, or through the mason you hire to do that part. Also, there different ways to prepare plaster, leave the material details to your plasterer. If you still don't get it, pretend cement, brick and plaster are charged at "market price"
Thank you - I just couldnt figure out, from a British point of view, how the system worked. so you buy the land - get a mason to build the exterior, get the interior on mail order, then have a carpenter, plumber and an electrician sorting out the workings?
M O'Connel and Diane A - That's almost the key. But the real issue was that the materials you reference are not only available in practically every community, but they were/are very heavy materials, and shipping things by rail is always based on WEIGHT. It was much less financially sensible to send a house worth of bricks, plaster, sand, mortar, concrete, etc., on a train than it was to just get the same thing locally. Quality was much more equal by location than wood is, when that could vary so widely. If you read the feedback from their many customers, you see that the customers were singing the praises of the wood quality more than anything, especially when that could make or break the quality of the whole house.
We have ads for similar looking property from back then - but they were already built and people could just buy them, own them and move in the next week. we didnt have the kit thing then - but we do now
So what did you actually get? - the inside of a house without the outside? - Cant get my head around buying a house that didnt include bricks mortar and plaster. So you are paying for plans and a design and the fitments + ironing board rather than buying a house.? But they look amazing.
As far as you seeing things from a British point of view, nearly all 20th and 21st century "brick" homes in the US are wood-frame structures with brick veneer facades (a single course of face brick fastened to the framing with wire ties) rather than true masonry structures where the brick wall bears the load of the floors and roof.
alot of our old buildings are just pure stone - roughcast and cemented over to look less rustic
Mine on the left with a sign sticking out ulverston-...400a2a.jpg
Ok Ty - have lived in some old buildings in the UK - including several made purely of stone. currently live in a Georgian property from about 1750
This comment has been deleted.
I don't get why everything I write to Diane A gets duplicated as responses to other people, but it is. Everything that says "This comment has been deleted." Is a duplicate I deleted myself so it wouldn't look so odd!
This comment has been deleted.
This comment has been deleted.
I own a Van Jean home! Still standing strong. Built in 1932. Each window has a little number embedded on small round metal plate that I assume are references for the assembly instructions.
The floor plans and the drawings alone make you want one
Each numbered tag matches up each window with the identically sized screen and/or glass storm that went on that window. They were individual metal screen or glass storm panels in wooden frames that went up over each window with hooks that were hung up over the frame at the top, and fastened at the bottom inside sill, with matching hook/eye fasteners, depending on the design. The metal tag made sure that you could match each window with its matching screen or storm. This made it much easier to change them out each season when the weather changed from winter to spring for screens, and to the fall when glass storm windows were required. Houses then were not necessarily built with identically sized windows from room to room, and could vary by only an inch or two in each one, making it difficult to tell just by looking which one went with which window frame. Especially handy when you have a two-story house, and each upstairs window required changing by climbing up ladders!
Lovely homes back then - be a fortune today. Jealous just looking at them.
Hmm - "prices do not include cement, brick or plaster"? but an ironing board and medicine case IS included - priorities
Back in the day, these sorts of things were readily-available commodities in virtually every community. Expecting them to be part of the kit would be like expecting a "just-add-water" product to also come with water!
@diane a. You got the widows, siding, roofing, framing, floors. Why pay to have bricks shipped from wherever Sears would get them when you can simply order the required quantity from your local brickyard, or through the mason you hire to do that part. Also, there different ways to prepare plaster, leave the material details to your plasterer. If you still don't get it, pretend cement, brick and plaster are charged at "market price"
Thank you - I just couldnt figure out, from a British point of view, how the system worked. so you buy the land - get a mason to build the exterior, get the interior on mail order, then have a carpenter, plumber and an electrician sorting out the workings?
M O'Connel and Diane A - That's almost the key. But the real issue was that the materials you reference are not only available in practically every community, but they were/are very heavy materials, and shipping things by rail is always based on WEIGHT. It was much less financially sensible to send a house worth of bricks, plaster, sand, mortar, concrete, etc., on a train than it was to just get the same thing locally. Quality was much more equal by location than wood is, when that could vary so widely. If you read the feedback from their many customers, you see that the customers were singing the praises of the wood quality more than anything, especially when that could make or break the quality of the whole house.
We have ads for similar looking property from back then - but they were already built and people could just buy them, own them and move in the next week. we didnt have the kit thing then - but we do now
So what did you actually get? - the inside of a house without the outside? - Cant get my head around buying a house that didnt include bricks mortar and plaster. So you are paying for plans and a design and the fitments + ironing board rather than buying a house.? But they look amazing.
As far as you seeing things from a British point of view, nearly all 20th and 21st century "brick" homes in the US are wood-frame structures with brick veneer facades (a single course of face brick fastened to the framing with wire ties) rather than true masonry structures where the brick wall bears the load of the floors and roof.
alot of our old buildings are just pure stone - roughcast and cemented over to look less rustic
Mine on the left with a sign sticking out ulverston-...400a2a.jpg
Ok Ty - have lived in some old buildings in the UK - including several made purely of stone. currently live in a Georgian property from about 1750
This comment has been deleted.
I don't get why everything I write to Diane A gets duplicated as responses to other people, but it is. Everything that says "This comment has been deleted." Is a duplicate I deleted myself so it wouldn't look so odd!
This comment has been deleted.
This comment has been deleted.