The Kit House! When houses were made by Sears (and others) and shipped for assembly.
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- Опубликовано: 24 окт 2024
- The Kit house was a unique phenomenon starting in the early 1900s and lasting for a number of decades is profound. Sears, Montgomery Wards and others were involved in selling houses and shipping them by rail car around the country ready for assembly. Maybe we can learn something from this for today. This is a talk from the recent B&B talk on the Arts and Crafts era.
Check out these books for more info on Kit houses on my Amazon associates page:
Mail-Order Houses by Sears and others: amzn.to/3sxRVHm
Kit houses by Sears: amzn.to/3tlFSfr
Unabridged reprint of Sears Home Catalog: amzn.to/3KaHGP0
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Aw, I lived in one of these here in Kansas City, MO! We have a bunch of them. I really enjoyed that house. 😊
So cool! Thx.
I wallpapered a couple Sears kit houses in Cape May, NJ. One of them was the one you had pictured in the beginning of your video
NICE! They were/are nice homes. What did you think?
@@BrentHull The house was average both in quality and construction. But I was, and will always be impressed in that it was a kit home 🏡
One of the most interesting offshoots to the kit house was the use of “rusticated concrete blocks”. Sears (and I assume others) had a “machine” often sold with their kit homes or separately, that allowed a single person to make 125 blocks/day or 2 people 250 per day. These blocks are the ones commonly seen on homes from the 1910s-1930/40s. The blocks have a textured face to look like stone. The machine Sears sold was called the “Wizard”. If you search You Tube you can see people making blocks with one. There are a handful of distributors that still sell these concrete blocks.
Very cool, never heard of this before.
Agreed! those are great. Thanks for sharing.
Yes, starting around 1900.
There are entire houses and buildings made out of these blocks! They have a “castle” vibe to them.
Popular mechanics mag offered plans for kit houses. A friends family built a geodesic dome in the 70's from purchased plans, and is still in great condition! I loved the setup
Nice! Thanks for sharing.
Huf haus!! Thats probably my favorite kit house!
Thanks for sharing, I wasn't aware of this company.
My family in Iowa owns farmhouse bought from Sears.. Its still holding up great.
Thanks for sharing!!!
During the 1970's a subsidiary of Boise Cascade built pre-fabricated homes, Kingsbury Homes. Are they considered Kit Homes?
Good Question. Not technically. Modular homes and the rise of mobile homes became alternatives to kit homes. Remember kit homes needed to be assembled. Modular homes came pre-built.
Why has this concept gone extinct? Do people "prefer" modular? It seems sad and illogical that there is not a "mobile" home nice enough to be allowed in "normal" neighborhoods. Great segment. The "tight" spacing in trailer parks is an underutilized option IMO.
Word.
Great point.
In RE to the comment that so the buyer had to know how to do everything themselves: people would have their neighbors and family all pitch in to construct them.
I'm sure that is true.
There is a prison near me in comstock ny that has about 30 identical Sears houses in a row from when the prison was newer and had guards living there.
Wow, I had no idea.
1926 sears home
Nice.
Some long-lasting houses built by amateur 🎉
Yep. Thx.