Sears Modern Homes were catalog and

kit house Kit houses, also known as mill-cut houses, pre-cut houses, ready-cut houses, mail order homes, or catalog homes, were a type of prefabricated housing that was popular in the United States, Canada, and elsewhere in the first half of the 20th c ...

s sold primarily through

mail order Mail order is the buying of goods or services by mail delivery. The buyer places an order for the desired products with the merchant through some remote methods such as: * Sending an order form in the mail * Placing a telephone call * Placing ...

by Sears, Roebuck and Co., an American

retailer Retail is the sale of goods and Service (economics), services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturing, manufacturers, dire ...

. 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. No comprehensive list of their locations exists. Sears Modern Homes offered more than 370 designs in a wide range of architectural styles and sizes over the line's 34-year history. Many included the latest technology available to house buyers in the early part of the twentieth century, such as

central heating A central heating system provides warmth to a number of spaces within a building from one main source of heat. It is a component of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (short: HVAC) systems, which can both cool and warm interior spaces. ...

, indoor

plumbing Plumbing is any system that conveys fluids for a wide range of applications. Plumbing uses pipes, valves, plumbing fixtures, tanks, and other apparatuses to convey fluids. Heating and cooling (HVAC), waste removal, and potable water deliv ...

, and

electricity Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as describ ...

. Primarily shipped via

railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

boxcar A boxcar is the North American ( AAR) term for a railroad car that is enclosed and generally used to carry freight. The boxcar, while not the simplest freight car design, is considered one of the most versatile since it can carry most ...

s, these kits included most of the materials needed to build a house. Once delivered, many of these houses were assembled by the new homeowner, relatives, friends and neighbors, in a fashion similar to the traditional

barn-raising A barn raising, also historically called a raising bee or rearing in the U.K., is a collective action of a community, in which a barn for one of the members is built or rebuilt collectively by members of the community. Barn raising was particular ...

s of farming families. Other homeowners relied on local carpenters or contractors to assemble the houses. In some cases, Sears provided construction services to assemble the homes. Some builders and companies purchased houses directly from Sears to build as model homes, speculative homes, or homes for customers or employees. Sears discontinued its Modern Homes catalog after 1940, though sales through local sales offices continued into 1942. Years later, the sales records related to home sales were destroyed during a corporate house cleaning. As only a small percentage of these homes were documented when built, finding these houses today often requires detailed research to properly identify them. Because the various kit home companies often copied plan elements or designs from each other, there are a number of catalog and kit models from different manufacturers that look similar or identical to models offered by Sears. Determining which company manufactured a particular catalog and kit home may require additional research to determine the origin of that home.

History

1908-1940

In 1906, Frank W. Kushel, a Sears manager, was given responsibility for the catalog company's unwieldy, unprofitable building-materials department. Sales were down, and there was excess inventory languishing in warehouses. 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 The Aladdin Company was a pioneer in the pre-cut, mail order home industry. Sometimes referred to as Aladdin Readi-Cut Houses, the company was the first to offer a true kit house composed of precut, numbered pieces. Its primary competitors wer ...

Bay City, Michigan Bay City is a city and county seat of Bay County in the U.S. state of Michigan, located near the base of the Saginaw Bay on Lake Huron. As of the 2010 census, the city's population was 34,932, and it is the principal city of the Bay City Metrop ...

, offered the first kit homes through mail order. In 1908, Sears issued its first specialty catalog for houses, ''Book of Modern Homes and Building Plans'', featuring 44 house styles ranging in price from US $360–$2,890. The first mail order for a Sears house was filled that year. As its mail-order catalogs were already sent to millions of homes, Sears had a distinct advantage over other kit-home competitors. As sales grew, Sears expanded its production, shipping, and sales offices to locations across the U.S. To provide the materials needed for the Modern Homes division, Sears operated a lumber mill in Cairo, Illinois. Later, Sears constructed a second mill in Port Newark, New Jersey and purchased the Norwood Sash and Door Company in

Norwood, Ohio Norwood is the third most populous city in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States, and an enclave of the larger city of Cincinnati. The population was 19,207 at the 2010 census. Originally settled as an early suburb of Cincinnati in the wooded c ...

. The ability to mass-produce the materials used in Sears homes reduced manufacturing costs, which allowed Sears to pass along the savings in lower prices for customers. Precut framing timbers, an innovation pioneered by Aladdin, were first offered by Sears in 1916. Precut lumber was cut to the appropriate lengths and angles based on where the framing timber would be used in the house. Before 1916, the home builder had to cut their Sears-supplied lumber to appropriate lengths. These pre-1916 houses are generally considered "catalog houses", not "kit houses". Pre-cut lumber reduced construction time by up to 40%, according to Sears. Sears's use of "balloon style" framing systems did not require a team of skilled carpenters, as did previous methods. Balloon frames could be built faster and generally only required one carpenter. This system used precut

timber Lumber is wood that has been processed into dimensional lumber, including beams and planks or boards, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, w ...

of mostly standard sizes ( 2"x4" and 2"x8") for framing. Balloon framing systems rely only on nails to make connections between joints, whereas previous methods used heavier members and pegs. The method was originally named in the sense that the structure was light and could be lifted away like a balloon. Early balloon structures were very basic, to enable home buyers to assemble them independently and also because designers had yet to see the implications the method held. Shipped by

, and then usually trucked to a home site, the average Sears Modern Home kit had about 25 tons of materials, with more than 30,000 parts. Plumbing, electrical fixtures, and heating systems were options that could be ordered at additional cost; they were many families' first steps to modern HVAC systems, kitchens, and bathrooms. During the Modern Homes program, large quantities of

asphalt Asphalt, also known as bitumen (, ), is a sticky, black, highly viscous liquid or semi-solid form of petroleum. It may be found in natural deposits or may be a refined product, and is classed as a pitch. Before the 20th century, the term ...

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 Drywall (also called plasterboard, dry lining, wallboard, sheet rock, gypsum board, buster board, custard board, and gypsum panel) is a panel made of calcium sulfate dihydrate (gypsum), with or without additives, typically extruded between thic ...

as an alternative to the

plaster Plaster is a building material used for the protective or decorative coating of walls and ceilings and for moulding and casting decorative elements. In English, "plaster" usually means a material used for the interiors of buildings, while "re ...

and

lath A lath or slat is a thin, narrow strip of straight-wood grain, grained wood used under roof shingles or tiles, on lath and plaster walls and ceilings to hold plaster, and in Latticework, lattice and Trellis (architecture), trellis work. ''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.

Economic aspects

Sears began offering financing plans around 1912. Early

mortgage loan A mortgage loan or simply mortgage (), in civil law jurisdicions known also as a hypothec loan, is a loan used either by purchasers of real property to raise funds to buy real estate, or by existing property owners to raise funds for any ...

s were typically for 5 to 15 years at 6% to 7% interest. Sales peaked in 1929, just before the Great Depression. While financing through Sears helped many homeowners purchase homes, many of those purchasers defaulted during the ensuing Great Depression. The company was forced to liquidate $11 million in defaulted debt. The mortgage program was also a PR disaster, as many of the families Sears foreclosed upon refused to do further business with the company. By 1934, Sears had stopped offering mortgages. It even halted sales of houses themselves for a short time before restarting sales. Sales slowly recovered as the United States emerged from the Great Depression.

After 1940

The last Sears Modern Homes catalog was issued in 1940. Although it is sometimes claimed that no Sears kit homes were built after 1940, Sears continued to offer pre-cut kit homes through 1941 and into early 1942. Advertisements for Sears Modern Homes appeared through May 1942. Many of these post 1940 homes were based on models from the 1940 and earlier Sears catalogs but not all were, leading to debate over whether these homes qualify as "Sears Modern Homes". Because these homes were constructed using pre-cut lumber and plans provided by Sears, these homes can be considered to be "Sears Modern Homes". Many of these homes were built in Sears planned "Home Club Plan" developments in New Jersey, New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

Models

Sears offered 370 models over the 32 years it sold houses by catalog. In the early years, the models were identified with numbers. After several years, Sears also began assigning names to the various models. Some models were offered with variations, the most common of those being expanded floor plans and additional finished living spaces. Sears houses could also be ordered with reversed floor plans. While the vast majority of models were for single-family house designs, Sears offered some duplex house designs and even a few larger multiple-family buildings. The most popular models appeared in the catalog for multiple years. Other models only appeared for one year. No built examples have been found of some of the least popular models. Some models were offered in both wood siding an
brick veneer versions
with different names attributed to the same or almost identical home plan. Some of the most popular models were:

Conway/Uriel
*

Crescent A crescent shape (, ) is a symbol or emblem used to represent the lunar phase in the first quarter (the "sickle moon"), or by extension a symbol representing the Moon itself. In Hinduism, Lord Shiva is often shown wearing a crescent moon on his ...

* Dover
Elsmore

Westly
* Willard
Winona
The largest and one of the most expensive Sears models was the Magnolia. Only seven Magnolias are known to be still standing. One Magnolia built in

Lincoln, Nebraska Lincoln is the capital city of the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Lancaster County. The city covers with a population of 292,657 in 2021. It is the second-most populous city in Nebraska and the 73rd-largest in the United Sta ...

, was demolished in 1985. In addition to houses, the 1908 Sears catalog offered a kit schoolhouse with the model name "Schoolhouse No. 5008". The two-story schoolhouse was priced at $11,500 and its design included six classrooms, a library, an auditorium, and a superintendent's office. 1908 was the only year the schoolhouse appeared in the catalog. It is unknown whether any were purchased or built. There was no single architect for the Sears designs. Many of the famous designs were commandeered from other sources and/or purchased from architects but given just enough change to be advertised as their own. Later on in the Modern Homes timeline, Sears had in-office designers but titled them as "experts" rather than actual architects.

Identifying Sears Modern Homes

Identifying Sears Homes has become a pastime among history enthusiasts because of their sturdy structure, the do-it-yourself nature of construction, and the popular architectural design concepts. However, many houses described as Sears Homes are not true Sears Homes, being either the product of another kit home manufacturer or not a kit home at all. National and regional competitors in the catalog and kit home market included Aladdin, Bennett, Gordon-Van Tine, Harris Brothers, Lewis, Pacific Ready Cut Homes, Sterling and

Montgomery Ward Montgomery Ward is the name of two successive U.S. retail corporations. The original Montgomery Ward & Co. was a world-pioneering mail-order business and later also a leading department store chain that operated between 1872 and 2001. The curren ...

(Wardway) Homes. Sears houses can be identified or authenticated using the following methods. # Sears Modern Homes were sold between 1908 and 1942. There is some debate about whether some homes from Sears that were built in 1941 and 1942 qualify as Sears Modern Homes. Some of these homes were based on models offered in the Sears Modern Homes catalog. Others were not but were still pre-cut kit homes built from plans and materials from Sears. # Original paperwork for the house including blueprints and letters of correspondence from Sears. # Public records: From 1911 to 1933, Sears offered home mortgages and Sears company officials or the Sears, Roebuck corporation may be named on the mortgage or deed associated with the property where the home was constructed. Sears company officials most commonly listed on mortgages and deeds include: ::* Edwards D. Ford (starting in 1929) ::* Walker O. Lewis (primarily before early 1930) ::* John M. Ogden ::* E. Harrison Powell (starting in 1930) ::* William C. Reed (primarily from 1922 - 1929) ::* F. C. Schaub (starting in 1932) ::* Nicholas Wieland (sometimes spelled Weiland) Cities that have records of building permits may list Sears, Roebuck as the original architect. Also, homes in southern Ohio may have financing documents through the "Norwood Sash and Door Company" of Norwood, Ohio. Some Home Club homes have deeds from the "Port Newark Lumber and Material Company". # Shipping labels: Often found on the back of

millwork Millwork is historically any wood mill produced decorative materials used in building construction. Stock profiled and patterned millwork building components fabricated by milling at a planing mill can usually be installed with minimal alter ...

like baseboard molding or door and window trim, shipping labels associated with Sears may indicate that the home is a Sears Modern house. Most of the millwork was fulfilled by the Sears-owned "Norwood Sash and Door Company" of Cincinnati, Ohio. However, building materials like millwork could be purchased separately from Sears so millwork with shipping labels is not, by itself, a definitive indicator of a Sears Modern house. # Stamped lumber: Most easily found in unfinished spaces like a basement or attic, framing members were stamped with a letter and a number. These stamps are normally located on or near the ends of pieces of framing timber. However, these stamps were not used on lumber shipped before 1916, when Sears first started offering pre-cut lumber. # Compare house designs to original catalog images. Some models of Sears homes were very similar in design to models offered by other kit home manufacturers or through plan books. Designs may have been modified but generally should match in layout and dimensions. # Sears Modern Homes built in the 1930s may have a small circled "SR" cast into the bathtub in the lower corner (furthest from the tub spout and near the floor) and on the underside of the kitchen or bathroom sink. # Goodwall sheet plaster was an early drywall-like product offered by Sears and may be an indication of a Sears Modern Home.

Existing Sears Homes

Because the Modern Homes division sales records were destroyed, there is no way to definitively verify the number of Sears houses that still exist. Documented Sears houses have been found across the United States and in a few locations in Canada. Cities with large numbers of documented Sears Modern Homes include: * Aurora, Illinois, with 117. *

Arlington County Arlington County is a county in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The county is situated in Northern Virginia on the southwestern bank of the Potomac River directly across from the District of Columbia, of which it was once a part. The county ...

, Virginia, with 162 *

Carlinville, Illinois Carlinville is a city and the county seat of Macoupin County, Illinois, United States. It is also the home of Blackburn College, a small college affiliated with the Presbyterian church, and the former home of Prairie Farms Dairy. As of the 2020 ...

, with 149 in the Standard Addition neighborhood as well as several other Sears houses elsewhere in the city. Carlinville is said to have "the highest concentration of contiguous Sears homes in the nation." *

Cincinnati, Ohio Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wi ...

, and surrounding communities in southern Ohio and Northern Kentucky with over 700. * Downers Grove, Illinois, with 67. *

Elgin, Illinois Elgin ( ) is a city in Cook and Kane counties in the northern part of the U.S. state of Illinois. Elgin is located northwest of Chicago, along the Fox River. As of the 2020 Census, the city had a population of 114,797, the seventh-large ...

, with 213. *

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Western Pennsylvania, the second-most populous city in Pennsylva ...

, and surrounding suburbs, with 1,000 (540 in Pittsburgh itself). *

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

and surrounding communities. *

Prince George's County ) , demonym = Prince Georgian , ZIP codes = 20607–20774 , area codes = 240, 301 , founded date = April 23 , founded year = 1696 , named for = Prince George of Denmark , leader_title = Executive , leader_name = Angela D. Alsobrook ...

& Montgomery County, Maryland, with over 225. * Rockford, Illinois with 144. *

Massapequa Park, New York Massapequa Park is a village and hamlet located within the town of Oyster Bay in Nassau County, on the South Shore of Long Island, in New York, United States. The population was 17,008 at the 2010 census. Areas south and east of the village bo ...

: Several dozen houses were built in the 1920s and 1930s. The largest number were built on Grand Boulevard. *

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, with over 300. *

Wood River, Illinois Wood River is a city in Madison County, Illinois. The population was 10,657 according to the 2010 census. Geography Wood River is located at (38.863047, -90.088527). According to the 2010 census, Wood River has a total area of , of which (or 9 ...

, with 23. *

Yonkers, New York Yonkers () is a city in Westchester County, New York, United States. Developed along the Hudson River, it is the third most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City and Buffalo. The population of Yonkers was 211,569 as en ...

, with 111 The Carlinville, Illinois, concentration consists of houses bought in bulk by the Standard Oil Company in 1918 to house its mineworkers at a total cost of about US $1 million. The houses, comprising eight models, were all built in a 12-block area known as the Standard Addition. Construction of the houses took nine months which were completed in 1919. The bulk order is the largest known order for Sears Modern Homes and led to Sears, Roebuck naming their "Carlin" model after the city. Not all Sears houses became private residences. At Greenlawn Cemetery, near the Hampton Roads waterfront in the Newport News, Virginia, area, the cemetery office building is a 1936 Sears Modern Home. Like the Standard Addition in Carlinville, neighborhoods of Sears houses still hold a sense of identity and community. Due to reviews by homeowners then and now, it would appear that Sears Modern Homes are just as appreciated now as they were then. According to a review written by Mary Ann O'Boyle of Takoma Park, Maryland, her Sears home feels "unabashedly American, the kind of house you see in movies about the good old days" and "allows me to connect with the past". Another homeowner, Erskine Hogue Stanberry, states that his Saratoga model was the "first house in Chelsea to have electric lights" and that they "are using the original plumbing and wiring".

National Register of Historic Places

Several Sears Modern Homes are listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

. Among those are: * Alhambra: At

Triangle Ranch A triangle is a polygon with three edges and three vertices. It is one of the basic shapes in geometry. A triangle with vertices ''A'', ''B'', and ''C'' is denoted \triangle ABC. In Euclidean geometry, any three points, when non-collinear ...

near Philips, South Dakota * Saratoga: The Hogue House in Chelsea, Oklahoma * Strathmore: Chester Valentine House in Saranac Lake, New York Sears Modern Homes can also be found in

historic districts A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries or jurisdictions, historic districts receive legal protection from cer ...

listed in the National Register of Historic Places: * Eastwood Historic District: 10 Sears Modern Homes of various models in Cincinnati, Ohio * Old Town College Park: Includes a Sears Alhambra and Sears Sheridan in College Park, Maryland Rock House, Mansfield, MO IMG 1756 (2)

According to Carolyn Fraser's

Pulitzer Pulitzer may refer to: *Joseph Pulitzer, a 20th century media magnate * Pulitzer Prize, an annual U.S. journalism, literary, and music award *Pulitzer (surname) * Pulitzer, Inc., a U.S. newspaper chain *Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, a non-pr ...

-winning book, ''Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder,'' the house that Rose Wilder Lane built for her parents,

Laura Ingalls Wilder Laura Elizabeth Ingalls Wilder (February 7, 1867 – February 10, 1957) was an American writer, mostly known for the '' Little House on the Prairie'' series of children's books, published between 1932 and 1943, which were based on her childhood ...

and Almanzo Wilder, at Rocky Ridge Farm in Missouri was from a Sears kit. The kit was greatly modified by Lane's ambitious designs. Her parents did not care much for the house and eventually moved back into their original farmhouse. Without authentication, however, we can't be 100% certain that this house was ordered from Sears, as numerous kit and non-kit companies offered a very similar model, and these kinds of stories that are passed down over time, often turn out to be mistaken (with the house actually being a model from a different kit company, or simply resembling a model offered by Sears). To see a variety of models similar to the Mitchell, that were offered during the kit-house era
see this article

Modern interpretations of Sears Modern Homes

There are examples of modern homes built based on the design of Sears Modern Home. In some cases, homeowners used plans from original Sears homes to recreate a modern version of a Sears home. In other cases, the home followed the general design of a Sears house without being an exact duplicate. One well-known replica of a Sears house is at the "Farm at Prophetstown" museum in

Battle Ground, Indiana Battle Ground is a town in Tippecanoe Township, Tippecanoe County in the U.S. state of Indiana. The population was 1,334 at the 2010 census. It is near the site of the Battle of Tippecanoe. Battle Ground is part of the Lafayette, Indiana, Met ...

, which features a replica of
Hillrose
model. The house forms part of the farmstead at the museum.

History

1908-1940

Economic aspects

After 1940

Models

Identifying Sears Modern Homes

Existing Sears Homes

National Register of Historic Places

Modern interpretations of Sears Modern Homes

See also

References

Further reading

External links