The History of Sears Modern Homes - Sears, Roebuck and Co. Catalog of Kit Houses 1908-1940
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- Опубликовано: 8 сен 2024
- From 1908 until 1940, Sears, Roebuck and Company offered kit homes via their popular catalog. Varying in prices and quality, some homes offered electricity and plumbing for extra cost while others were simpler. The homes increased in popularity and Sears made money off mortgages until the Stock Market Crash in 1929. The parts for the homes, sometimes having 30,000 pieces, were pre-cut and sized in lumber mills owned by Sears to make the buildings easier to built and cheaper. Papers have been lost so out of the over 70,000 homes sold, it is unknown how many actually remain today. #retailrewind
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Just found out that ours was a Sears Catalog home !! I was baffled! It was built in 1910, and is still very much standing and in extremely good shape!
That’s awesome news and exciting to find that out! Congratulations :)
Are you sure it's a Sears? There is a facebook group with the experts. And they are published. But that's up to you.
@@schnusmith7334 I have a sears home also in Philadelphia. What is the name of the group?
My wife and I had a Sears home that was built in 1910 in S. Minneapolis. We sold in in 2001 or 2002 (while we were divorcing). It was documented in the papers for the house. The original home on the site burned down, and a Sears home was built in its place in 1910. I really miss that house.
If Sears has maintained their catalog for 7 more years, and uploaded it online... well, Amazon might not be what it is today.
It sure makes you wonder!
I have a sears home in Philadelphia lol
These homes will last longer than this new construction homes I almost guarantee.
I definitely agree with that!
Fascinating! Our prairie house is an elongated four square two story house with an east dormer along with a hipped roof. Built in 1912. Home owners could self build these houses in 3 months! Cool. No wonder there are so many built in 1912. We gutted ours completely. The internal structure and clad boards are all strong and awesome here in 2023. Knob and tube electrical wiring throughout covered with lathe and plaster. We foamed ever crack and seam before lathe installed vertically for an air gap covered with 2" and 1" and poly and 1.5" heated 95% electricity with natural gas back up and wood stove teriary back up heat. Thank you for this nice informative video!
It’s amazing that construction from 1912 that someone could build themselves, with a lack of inspections, etc., will outlive a house built last year. Even the Sears mass produced homes and parts were quality and made to last. Glad your house is doing great! Sounds like a nice one and thanks for sharing your story :)
My Sears home is still standing...
Same!
I first learned about the Sears Modern Homes after watching History Detectives on PBS for the first time years ago. It was in the 2000's and I knew back then that Sears had a home improvement section, but I hadn't known that the store sold entire houses through their catalog. Was I in for a surprise! Those houses were beautiful! I loved the ones with Victorian-style designs 🏡🏡🏡🏡🏡🏡
EDIT: Sears stopped selling catalogs in 1993 in the US, but the catalogs were still being published in Canada for until at least the late 1990's until production ceased altogether in that country, too
I lived in one in Georgetown Illinois it was a beautiful house ..
Buying my grandparents house found out its a sears home
That’s awesome! Do you know when it was built?
Sear still does homes but remodeling believe it or not. I do cabinets for them every once in a while. I always wondered how sears got into that market? Their remodeling jobs are extremely over priced like 2.5 times the local market price.
I didn’t realize they did remodeling. Thanks for sharing that! I know about their appliances and installations but never really saw in their stores or paid attention to their vans if it said remodeling. Too bad they’re so overpriced though.
@@RetailRewind yeah I was surprised when I found out as well. there are neighborhood in chicago that are all sears homes.
We have a 1910 one we bought 3 years ago I think its the martha Washington
Bikes are bikes and houses are houses according to Andy
Very Good!!!
Thanks!
Quality, what happened to that? Good old Sears RoeBuck.
Quality is definitely key.
How much is a Sears 1908 catalog worth today
Good question! I was curious too and did a quick ebay check and amongst the many reprodutions, there was one original in rough shape for 200 bucks, buy it now. Be fun to find one in mint condition!
@@RetailRewind I have a 1950's Montgomery Ward catalog
They're planning on archiving them
I Have A SMALL Reprint Of An 1898 Sears Catalogue, That Is About Size Of A Paperback Novel. And It's Really Interesting To See How Much Stuff They Sold Back Then, And All The More It Would Cost.