Sears Roebuck was the Amazon of the 20th century, their catalog was on the coffee table of almost every American home. Americans browsed it's glossy pages, filled out a form and mailed it with a check and had whatever they purchased delivered to their homes, too bad their corporate leadership couldn't conceive of that business model online.
Yeah, it's a shame they didn't hold onto their mail order business just a little longer, so that they could've done what Amazon is doing today. If I remember correctly, I think they ended their catalogue, just as the internet was starting to become a thing. What a huge mistake that was. Short sighted.
Tiny homes with limited storage, pretty much no actual plumbing, require constant cleaning otherwise you have a mold problem, no air conditioning, get constantly damaged during towing, etc. Mind you.
My first visit to Sears was back in 1980, I remember because we were shopping for my first communion shoes, and I had never seen such a big fancy store, I remember like it was yesterday.
A lot of talk about how people today wouldn’t be able to pull off building their own house from a kit, but let us not forget that even if someone could handle it, you would need a boat load of permits and approvals just to be able to lift a hammer on a self build. State and local government was a tad different back then.
Things are different if you are a company buying the land. The Disney Company bought the land in Florida which houses Disneyworld and made themselves the government that managed the land. They initially did that because they wanted to build a new experimental city from scratch called EPCOT and didn't want to abide by the rules and regulation set by a local government and deal with citizens that lived in EPCOT proposing changes to Walt's vision of what he wanted EPCOT to be. Even now, when EPCOT was not built and Disneyworld took its place, the public services around Disneyworld are the responsibility of the Disney Company. It's just a more famous example of a corporate town, where public services, housing, and jobs are provided for by a private company, who also serves the role as the local government. Standard Oil probably didn't need to follow the rules and regulation of local government because they WERE the local government and therefore didn't need to abide by the same pesky rules and regulations imposed to a regular person. State laws are also different in regards to a company.
@@guyforlogos but then people bought houses that killed them. During a copper shortage in the 70s, they started putting aluminum wiring in homes, but the lack of knowledge is what caused so many fires from the wiring. I'm all for DIY but these regulations, codes, and permits exist for a reason.
My wife’s grandfather and grandmother built their Sears Roebuck kit house themselves. The grandparents built it with their own hands.. built it in Sheridan/a suburb of Pittsburgh PA off of Middletown Road.It has two stories with an attic and a full basement, and a detached two car garage. They raised their son and four daughters in that house.The house is still standing and 12 years ago it sold for $127,000.. when I met my wife in 1974, we visited her grandparents still living in that house. Her grandfather reminded me of Gus, the fireman on leave it to beaver
That's how America now wants u.... dependant so they can charge u for everything without u questioning it....daycare, cooking, cutting ur grass, sewing, etc, etc....$$$$$$$$$$$ America would rather have u rent for the rest of our lives than be able to own a hm....
these homes are build like a tank and well thought out. just look how each roof has atleast 2 feet of overhang to keep water away from the foundation. They were made to last unlike alot of homes that are thrown up today without a care for longevity.
What a great story. Piece of history gone. I really miss Sears. Before the internet we all shopped from the Sears and Roebuck catalog. Everything you need you can find at Sears.
We used to go to a physical Sears anchor store when it was still a part of the Burnsville Mall. It's heartbreaking for me because I remember going there as a kid when Windows 95 was still a thing and Disney was partnering with a few computer companies to make Disney themed computers. Now it's empty and in all reality will never house another store again. The age of the mall is over :(
I love that! Which plan did you build? And, most importantly, how did you modify things to current living styles (more closet space, bathrooms) and building codes?
Only retard liberals would want this in modern times. Don't make enough money cause of the bullshit degree youre not using and the amount of debt you're in because of it. Na, live with it you dummy.
My grandfathers era was completely epic. My pop pop for example was born dirt poor one of four boys they all learned electrical they all learned carpentry sports lots of sports.... no one was gonna go to college.... the. War hit they were all drafted my pop pop played football in the service ... he went over seas earned the gold (or was it bronze ) star for saving people thru his electrical expertise he helped liberate Dachau, came home got a scholarship to Pitt to play football, aced everything played well went to law school set his mind on something he opened his own firm with his frat brothers downtown Pittsburgh, he bought a humongous house for cheap in town, he BUILT THE CABIN on over a hundred acres 2 hours from town in the Laurel highlands he and my grandmaw bought for cheap , bought the beach house on Jekyll island Georgia, like this man is my personal hero they do not make em like they used to!
No you did not. You stayed by the boilers in school and told everyone you were homeless. The parole officer never found you because you wore those old cover-alls that Mr Clements gave you so he thought you worked there. The cafeteria ladies always gave you the leftovers and chipped in for some socks and a jacket. Then you joined the Navy at 15. We found your diary. And that story you wrote about ordering the pet monkey out of the back of the comic book was golden. And you really thought those X-ray vision glasses were gonna let you see the combination lock at the bank so you could get the money. Wow. No wonder they never reported you missing sis. They just always told me I was an only child.
The kits were for most materials but did not include masonry (chimneys, foundations, etc.) and labor costs. Nowadays (maybe depending on where you are in the U.S.), labor is $$$.
I lived in a Sears & Robuck home in Millbury, Ohio back in the 1970s. It was supposed to have been built in the 1920s. It was the most solid built home I ever lived in! I understand it came in by railway which was less than a mile away set on farming property. Beautiful.
We live in a Sears home in Pennsauken NJ. It was built in 1920 along with 50 others I'm the Collins tract area of the township. It is a great home and has been to many families for 100 years.
My barn is a Sears kit barn measuring approximately 30' x 50', with a full mow for hay and origanally it had milking stalls with 3/4 of the floor being concrete over brick. 1/4 of the floor remains dirt until this day and that was so one of the previous owners could use the barn for a horse stall.
100+ year old homes still standing strong. Good on Sears. Wish they would have continued being as strong a company as they were in the past. Unfortunately no one is immune to the online shopping revolution that came along with internet availability.
All you really had to do, though, is KEEP. THE. F. UP. I mean, you COULD see this coming DECADES AGO. But look at horrible websites that lie to you just to get you to go in. Home Depot is the worst for this. You go there, and they don't HAVE IT. But the site says it's HERE. Menard's, also awful that way. THAT'S going to kill them at some point when people get tired of it. Making a nice site ISN'T difficult!
@@windsofmarchjourneyperrytr2823 true. Unfortunately Sear didn't have the foresight to see it. Guess they didn't have the leadership to guide them in the right direction.
I grew up in a darling Sears house up in New Hampshire. It’s a bit rare to see them there so my mom and I were quite pleasantly surprised to see many Sears homes here in central IL where I now currently reside.
And all of these Sears Homes have more character than the new subdivision homes I see built today. Wonder if there are neighbor hoods of Menard homes too. Some look very appealing to me over most homes I see being built today.
We have an 85 home subdivison going in down the street and all the homes are taupe variations with only five different models. Streets are crowded , no yards.
It's because fancy woodwork and shit fell out of style for some reason (probably cost if we're being honest). Homes went from being an art-piece that was an extension of you to being somewhere you live.
I'd like to add that from what little I've read it's rare to see a Sears house in the far western U.S. b/c the freight from Chicago (and over the Rockies) would be too $$. There were many other kit home producers in addition to Sears. The kit houses you see in western Oregon are likely from a different company.
@@laurenlineback3432 Interesting, Lauren. Since many of the designs & finish details are what I expect from Craftsman homes, I may have assumed 'way too much! Will Google.😊 🙏
Having perused many a Sears and Roebuck Catalogue sitting on my grandma's lap, I can only wonder what they charged for shipping:)) They were the Amazon of their day...except for the huge shipping costs!
Makes you wonder how they failed. They COULD have been Amazon. They became a huge success by being mail order. Many Americans did not have access to department stores with such a selection of products in the earlier decades. Instead of trying to figure out how to get customers into their stores, they should have been trying to figure out how to get their products to their customers.
@@UmmYeahOk Yeah, they shot themselves in the foot. They are closed here now (I heard they built the mall in the 60s) and a year before I ordered something for instore pickup and it was like they wanted it to fail. I ended up just going to the department buying it, then having to get a refund. Was really sad.
Everything in our home growing up was from Sears. Everything from the television to the washer, dryer, lawn mower, tools, etc...Back in the day that's where you went for everything except maybe food. I do remember a candy department at one of the local stores! I even bought all of my Boy Scout uniforms and accessories at Sears. Sad to see both of our local stores closed. Memories!
According to some family members, my grandma's house was a Sears home. I believe the original 2 rooms were, but there was a major addition later that I believe was built using scrap lumber.
My parents had a Sears home. We lived there in the 50s. The people who had originally bought it raised turkeys and chickens to sell in order to pay for it.
@Lady Heart it wasn't really a small number. They had eighty acres. The family all worked together. When it came time to ship the turkeys and chickens out for cash, which happened every few months, they would dress the turkeys and chickens, put them in 55 gallon drums, and haul them to the railroad depot 5 miles away. They would go unrefrigerated from here, central Illinois to Chicago. I can't imagine how they would be good but that's how it was done in the early 1900s.
Yes, Menards does, I’m sure the other home stores do too. Point is, with all the regulation, very few people are capable of building it, let alone dealing with the red tape. Or after they have a few visits from the city inspector they just grab a nail gun, put it to their own head and say goodbye cruel world.
Pretty much all older homes were build solid and meant to last as long as they are maintained. My house is from 1901 and came from a time where power tools where unknown, skilled carpenters knew what they were doing and mostly everything was made in USA top to bottom. The brass hardware/door locks from both front and rear outside doors is from 1895. These homes just blow away most of these newly built homes with cheap materials. I would say if you can build your home from scratch with good premium materials then you can have a nice home today but not many homes are built this way (especially in subdivisions). I have been updating the plumbing and electrical which is the main concern in older homes and also adding newer efficient improvements to it such as better insulation, led recessed lighting, built-in A/C units in different floors and storm windows. The steam radiators work great in the winter because you can control the heat in each room very effectively with steam vents and they do not burn the air like a typical furnace does. Even my friend who is a firefighter says the older homes take longer to burn compared to new homes which go up in flames very fast.
The fact that so many of them are still here a century later speaks volumes. The construction of the homes was basically no different than any other home. The big difference was that Sears pre-fabricated and packaged the components. My Grandparents had a farm near Carlinville, and many of the farmhouses in the area, including theirs appeared to be Sears homes.
did you know they had barns as well? our neighbor moved one to his property and restored it a few years back. I went to a few barn dances before he passed away
I worked at Sears was my technically first real job, and I cried when we walked in one morning and told us are store was closing along with another 1,000. Was the best job and family I had 🥲
I own a 1933 Craftsman home in Tyler Texas. The Walls in one bedroom are marked with 'Sears' I have no idea how to determine it is a Sears house or just bought the dry wall from Sears. I do know that thing is SOLID.
If you have a basement and can see an end of a first floor floor joist it will have numbers stamped in blue ink on it. It was a parts mark so you knew what pieces went where.
@@michaelh.1262 It is not a Sears house but almost all the trim and fixtures are Sears. A neighbor that is a plumber checked it out as he has found a few of the Sears homes before. I was hoping it was but still love it anyway.
These are called catalog houses, and these were VERY popular in the 1910s-1930. Lots of families did this because it was an affordable and stylish way of living for the middle class
Unfortuantely aside from pockets here and there pride in ownership has fallen to the wayside. These people aren't privileged...they have invested in their properties and neighborhood.
A series of unfortunate events has let me without a house of my own. I have been paying enough rent in my life to pay for 3 homes. Wish I had the opportunity to buy a sears home now.
Not exactly. Please consider the interest rate and DOUBLE whatever amount the house costs by the end of 30 years. Plus. The thrill of maintaining it! I just spent 6,500 on a roof. Plus about 1,000 on HVAC. Plus leaved, big lots have TONS AND TONS of leaves! Plus snow. The list goes on And if the government or mortgage Co decides they want your house, bye bye you go. Eminent Domain. Not yours til paid off and even then, you STILL have taxes and insurance. You will probably have to move a good 10-20 miles out from your job and house now. Go smaller.
Sear actually impacted the consumer markets in many ways as Walmart does now. However, Sears was a serious one stop shop... The merchandise sold in it's stores covered areas that are separate now, thus lumber, tools, clothing, electronics, ECT.... It can reign again! E-commerce company.... Sears actually had it's own bank and that was it's safe haven.... Well, economics plays a role.... I hope to see Sears eventually re-emerge
Back when things were made to last. Today that's totally counterproductive and doesn't fit in the corporate world of perpetual growth and keeping everyone in constant crushing debt.
Grew up in Los Angeles. In the early 60s I remember studying the Sears catalog before Christmas to develop my list for Santa. I thought there was a connection between Chicago and the North Pole.
MY GRANDPARENTS &THERE NEXT DOOR NEIGHBOR BUILT A SEARS HOME IN FLAGG CENTER, ILLINOIS (JUST WEST OF ROCHELLE,ILLINOIS(HUB CITY WHERE 2 MAIN TRAIN TRACKS CROSSED)LINCOLN HWY.(3,389 MILES)FROM N.Y. TIMES SQUARE TO SAN FRANCISCO. WENT THUR N.J.,PA,OH,IND,ILL,IOWA,NEB,WY,UTAH,NV,CA.
Hi Delilah, thank you for the info! Now can you go do a couple of things for the rest of us? OK? 1st, look up the difference between "their", "there" and "they're". You will find some help if you look up "homonyms" and "homophones". They are words that sound alike but have different meanings, such as "your", "you're" and "yore". Or "brake" and "break". Or "too", "to" and "two". But a word of caution before you do, CHECK YOUR CAP LOCKS BUTTON BECAUSE IT IS STUCK ON SO TURN IT off. 🙄🙄
You'd think Amazon would try doing this again, if not in the United States, then in another country where it might be more feasible. I wonder how the process worked. Like how did they deliver the materials to the actual job site, once they took it off the train? Probably by tractor trailer towards the later period, I imagine? But did they have trucks that were that big in the teens and 20's? Could they deliver stuff that big on horse drawn wagons? I wonder what the logistics of that were and where did they store all the pieces before they were ready to put them together? They can't have had a lot of extra space to store the materials if the house was built on a small lot, which it seems like a lot of them were. I wonder if there are still any full or partial unassembled Sears houses out there, perhaps sitting in an abandoned warehouse somewhere, or something.
You can buy whole house kits now from Menards, they are delivered by the truckload. Sometimes some house's, not including the Menards home's come built already, theyre called prefabs, as in prefabricated. Sort of like a doll house that you crack open and close up again over time you can see the seam down the center of a prefab home in the floor (if there's cheap tile over it for instance). They just lay the entire house on steel beams most of the time so they don't have a foundation.
@@AcousticGString I thought Menards wasn't around anymore. I wonder how many truckloads it takes and where people store the stuff if they don't have a lot of space. I wonder if they send it all at once, or if they break up the deliveries, so that you don't have to be storing a ton of pieces before you're ready to use them, if you don't have enough space.
@@Melissa0774 Menards is definitely alive and going strong. I'm in the midwest, outside of Chicago and Menards is a popular store. The kits are in their flyers and I'm sure they ship them depending on what stage of build you're at, you would also need to have some stuff done on your own like the foundation poured already. Building supplies are stored at the jobsite sometime too so it all depends.
I am a realtor in Silver Spring Maryland. We have a number of Sears homes as well as the odd Montgomery Wards and JC Penny home. You will find them in older communities nationwide-generally near the railroad lines as that is how they were delivered. They are very popular and all that I have seen over my career are well built out of of quality material. They were designed to last. A small home in Silver Spring might sell for $500k, while the larger homes can go for much more-even over a million bucks.
Sears formally stopped listing the houses in 1940, but it took a few more years to clear out remaining inventory. It was a very good business until it wasn’t - there were several kit home manufacturers, but Sears clearly had a promotional advantage. For a while during the kit home boom years from the late teens through the twenties there were some regional materials shortages that kit homes solved. After regional materials shortages ceased, then they faded from popularity - plus the depression eviscerated consumer spending.
Now they are modernity called modular homes and they have high price fancy ones to cheap bare bones click together walls crazy to think how advanced we have gotten!!
THIS would be a GOOD use for tax money! Over stupid, pointless curbs so no delivery people can park or red plastic things on the crosswalks that just come apart, after great expense to install, of course! That don't even WORK to make the sidewalk ANY safer!
Sears stopped offering kit homes in 1940. Maybe your home is from another kit home company? There were many in addition to Sears. Some outlived Sears (e.g. Alladin, Bennett).
I think you can do something like this today. Menards sells and creates house plans, and they also sell pretty much everything you'd need to build a new house.
Just think. 60 years ago you could order and build your own home. Now your not allowed to set a toilet without a permit in your own house Think of how much freedom we have lost
Sears Roebuck was the Amazon of the 20th century, their catalog was on the coffee table of almost every American home. Americans browsed it's glossy pages, filled out a form and mailed it with a check and had whatever they purchased delivered to their homes, too bad their corporate leadership couldn't conceive of that business model online.
Yep, my grandma still has a bunch of them. She even has one where a guy was modeling some underwear in the 80s and his penis is out lol
Yeah, it's a shame they didn't hold onto their mail order business just a little longer, so that they could've done what Amazon is doing today. If I remember correctly, I think they ended their catalogue, just as the internet was starting to become a thing. What a huge mistake that was. Short sighted.
@@AcousticGString oh yeah my grandma had that one too...she would laugh about it, but she was also impressed
Sears and Spiegel's
We got their catalog in Canada too. It was a favorite of mine, looked forward to the Sears Wish Book at Christmas too! I miss it!
And now people are charging 80,000 for a tiny home on a trailer.....
Adjusted for inflation, homes where $6,000 back then, that's about $65,000 these days.
@@SavageBunny1 True, but these homes were not tiny. They are about 1000 sq feet.
They charge that because idiots pay it. Those houses are like cars almost worthless once you buy them.
@@1212goose it's more like idiots taking out huge mortgages that they won't have paid off till their middle aged AT LEAST
Tiny homes with limited storage, pretty much no actual plumbing, require constant cleaning otherwise you have a mold problem, no air conditioning, get constantly damaged during towing, etc. Mind you.
Sears may be gone from Canada and is struggling in the States but what an impact they made!
My first visit to Sears was back in 1980, I remember because we were shopping for my first communion shoes, and I had never seen such a big fancy store, I remember like it was yesterday.
Just like you can buy anything on Amazon you could have done it with Sears catalog.
Take a hint Sears
@Different People and some losers just have to bring their race baiting bullsh!t into everything.
@Different People they never give black people home they burn our neighborhood black wall street look 10000 % better
A lot of talk about how people today wouldn’t be able to pull off building their own house from a kit, but let us not forget that even if someone could handle it, you would need a boat load of permits and approvals just to be able to lift a hammer on a self build. State and local government was a tad different back then.
Yes, your right. Government was better back then and there was much less of it.
Yeah back when it still was America.
Things are different if you are a company buying the land. The Disney Company bought the land in Florida which houses Disneyworld and made themselves the government that managed the land. They initially did that because they wanted to build a new experimental city from scratch called EPCOT and didn't want to abide by the rules and regulation set by a local government and deal with citizens that lived in EPCOT proposing changes to Walt's vision of what he wanted EPCOT to be. Even now, when EPCOT was not built and Disneyworld took its place, the public services around Disneyworld are the responsibility of the Disney Company.
It's just a more famous example of a corporate town, where public services, housing, and jobs are provided for by a private company, who also serves the role as the local government. Standard Oil probably didn't need to follow the rules and regulation of local government because they WERE the local government and therefore didn't need to abide by the same pesky rules and regulations imposed to a regular person. State laws are also different in regards to a company.
If you can handle ikea or Lego, you can build a house, lol.
@@guyforlogos but then people bought houses that killed them.
During a copper shortage in the 70s, they started putting aluminum wiring in homes, but the lack of knowledge is what caused so many fires from the wiring.
I'm all for DIY but these regulations, codes, and permits exist for a reason.
Lily will do what she wants WHEN she wants! 0:37
I noticed that.
They both have One Gear
That’s like my pooch. Never pays me any mind.
My dogs name is Lily and yea she does what she wants lol
I was laughing and then I felt bad because our dogs should listen to us 🤣🤣
My wife’s grandfather and grandmother built their Sears Roebuck kit house themselves. The grandparents built it with their own hands.. built it in Sheridan/a suburb of Pittsburgh PA off of Middletown Road.It has two stories with an attic and a full basement, and a detached two car garage. They raised their son and four daughters in that house.The house is still standing and 12 years ago it sold for $127,000..
when I met my wife in 1974, we visited her grandparents still living in that house. Her grandfather reminded me of Gus, the fireman on leave it to beaver
my grandparents built a Sears home. He was a railroad engineer and the rest of the houses on his block were Sears Homes where railroad workers lived.
I wish there was footage of someone assembling the homes! I'm currently all of a sudden fascinated by Sears homes!
People were building their own homes back then, I can"t even put up a shelf on the wall today.
That's how America now wants u.... dependant so they can charge u for everything without u questioning it....daycare, cooking, cutting ur grass, sewing, etc, etc....$$$$$$$$$$$ America would rather have u rent for the rest of our lives than be able to own a hm....
There are tons of videos on this here RUclips if you ever want to fix that.
@DSC800 Sure you can man I have faith in ya.
My husband and I bought 40 acres and improved it then built a road and our house in 1976. I still live there.
@@237g you didnt catch what they meant nowadays you need a permit or license to do just about anything
these homes are build like a tank and well thought out. just look how each roof has atleast 2 feet of overhang to keep water away from the foundation. They were made to last unlike alot of homes that are thrown up today without a care for longevity.
Imo if houses are made of wood they aren't really made to last. Bricks and cement are where it's at for me.
I grew up in a Sears house. Damned good home!
Our home is a Sears.
What a great story. Piece of history gone. I really miss Sears. Before the internet we all shopped from the Sears and Roebuck catalog. Everything you need you can find at Sears.
Or Ward's
@@Granny73 yes indeed.
Or JC Penneys, to a lesser degree.🚴♀️🛌🚶♀️🧖♀️
Kathrine Kerns, possibly including outhouse kits to hang catalogs in... Buyers provided the extra nail for a hook.
We used to go to a physical Sears anchor store when it was still a part of the Burnsville Mall. It's heartbreaking for me because I remember going there as a kid when Windows 95 was still a thing and Disney was partnering with a few computer companies to make Disney themed computers. Now it's empty and in all reality will never house another store again. The age of the mall is over :(
Lol I built a Sears home for a client off the floor plans that I found a few years back
David Moritz, was the client pleased?
That’s amazing!.
I love that! Which plan did you build? And, most importantly, how did you modify things to current living styles (more closet space, bathrooms) and building codes?
@@laurenlineback3432 seconding this question.
@@laurenlineback3432 we
Maybe it's time this concept was worth exploring again. It might address the ridiculously high cost of homeownership. Just a thought.
I would love that ❤️
There’s kit/pre fab houses everywhere. Neighborhoods with hundreds of the same houses thrown up.
Only retard liberals would want this in modern times. Don't make enough money cause of the bullshit degree youre not using and the amount of debt you're in because of it. Na, live with it you dummy.
@@senorjalapeno3937 you seem angry
@@waminette angry no, laughing all the way to the bank, yes
My grandfathers era was completely epic. My pop pop for example was born dirt poor one of four boys they all learned electrical they all learned carpentry sports lots of sports.... no one was gonna go to college.... the. War hit they were all drafted my pop pop played football in the service ... he went over seas earned the gold (or was it bronze ) star for saving people thru his electrical expertise he helped liberate Dachau, came home got a scholarship to Pitt to play football, aced everything played well went to law school set his mind on something he opened his own firm with his frat brothers downtown Pittsburgh, he bought a humongous house for cheap in town, he BUILT THE CABIN on over a hundred acres 2 hours from town in the Laurel highlands he and my grandmaw bought for cheap , bought the beach house on Jekyll island Georgia, like this man is my personal hero they do not make em like they used to!
Sears homes were well built.. I have remodeled at least three.
A time when the town building and zoning officer would leave you alone
Right?! I wonder how they wired it back then.
You can get away with a whole lot more in the more rural areas where I live but it stop makes things complicated when you try and sell it.
A much more dangerous time. Thank God for regulations.
@@adanactnomew7085 But much more freedom I will take freedom any day
@@adanactnomew7085 What do you think the regulations do?
I used to live in a Sears apartment building from the early 1920s, it had so much character. It was still in the original owners family too
well DAMN! look at how impressive that it's still STANDING TO THIS DAY! that is QUALITY.
My Aunt had a Sears home in Iowa. I grew up in a Better Homes & Gardens home that my parents got the blueprints from! It was built in 1959.
No you did not. You stayed by the boilers in school and told everyone you were homeless. The parole officer never found you because you wore those old cover-alls that Mr Clements gave you so he thought you worked there. The cafeteria ladies always gave you the leftovers and chipped in for some socks and a jacket. Then you joined the Navy at 15. We found your diary. And that story you wrote about ordering the pet monkey out of the back of the comic book was golden. And you really thought those X-ray vision glasses were gonna let you see the combination lock at the bank so you could get the money. Wow. No wonder they never reported you missing sis. They just always told me I was an only child.
My grandma still lives in a sears home that she got on a Christmas special back in the day for 1,050$.
Crazy how check a house used to be.
I'd literally kill to buy a home for $7k
That is like 125,000 to 150,00 today.
Wasn’t those 1’s not 7’s i thought man 1650 for a whole house geez
The kits were for most materials but did not include masonry (chimneys, foundations, etc.) and labor costs. Nowadays (maybe depending on where you are in the U.S.), labor is $$$.
Macon georgia all day long , look on craigslist
@@JeanetteFaith no that’s $55,420 today
I lived in a Sears & Robuck home in Millbury, Ohio back in the 1970s. It was supposed to have been built in the 1920s. It was the most solid built home I ever lived in! I understand it came in by railway which was less than a mile away set on farming property. Beautiful.
We live in a Sears home in Pennsauken NJ. It was built in 1920 along with 50 others I'm the Collins tract area of the township. It is a great home and has been to many families for 100 years.
My barn is a Sears kit barn measuring approximately 30' x 50', with a full mow for hay and origanally it had milking stalls with 3/4 of the floor being concrete over brick. 1/4 of the floor remains dirt until this day and that was so one of the previous owners could use the barn for a horse stall.
I've found 2 Sears kit homes in nearby towns. They still look great.
100+ year old homes still standing strong. Good on Sears. Wish they would have continued being as strong a company as they were in the past. Unfortunately no one is immune to the online shopping revolution that came along with internet availability.
All you really had to do, though, is KEEP. THE. F. UP. I mean, you COULD see this coming DECADES AGO.
But look at horrible websites that lie to you just to get you to go in. Home Depot is the worst for this. You go there, and they don't HAVE IT. But the site says it's HERE.
Menard's, also awful that way.
THAT'S going to kill them at some point when people get tired of it.
Making a nice site ISN'T difficult!
@@windsofmarchjourneyperrytr2823 true. Unfortunately Sear didn't have the foresight to see it. Guess they didn't have the leadership to guide them in the right direction.
These houses have that small town charm. seems like a nice and calm neighborhood
I grew up in a darling Sears house up in New Hampshire. It’s a bit rare to see them there so my mom and I were quite pleasantly surprised to see many Sears homes here in central IL where I now currently reside.
I live in a sears home. And my neighborhood looks alot like that one with many sears homes. Mine was built in 1923.
And all of these Sears Homes have more character than the new subdivision homes I see built today. Wonder if there are neighbor hoods of Menard homes too. Some look very appealing to me over most homes I see being built today.
The reason they look more appealing to you? Well, you said it, in a word ,[Character] Thank you and have a safe and Blessed day
We have an 85 home subdivison going in down the street and all the homes are taupe variations with only five different models. Streets are crowded , no yards.
That’s the exact reason why my mom fell in love with a Sears Home. Grew up in that house for 98% of my childhood.
It's because fancy woodwork and shit fell out of style for some reason (probably cost if we're being honest). Homes went from being an art-piece that was an extension of you to being somewhere you live.
Akron Ohio has a large neighbourhood of Sears homes.
so does Cincinnati, Ohio.
Sears houses are thriving across the lower 48. I see them across western Oregon. Too sad the Great Depression killed a true Craftsman industry.
I'd like to add that from what little I've read it's rare to see a Sears house in the far western U.S. b/c the freight from Chicago (and over the Rockies) would be too $$. There were many other kit home producers in addition to Sears. The kit houses you see in western Oregon are likely from a different company.
@@laurenlineback3432 Interesting, Lauren. Since many of the designs & finish details are what I expect from Craftsman homes, I may have assumed 'way too much! Will Google.😊 🙏
Having perused many a Sears and Roebuck Catalogue sitting on my grandma's lap, I can only wonder what they charged for shipping:)) They were the Amazon of their day...except for the huge shipping costs!
Makes you wonder how they failed. They COULD have been Amazon. They became a huge success by being mail order. Many Americans did not have access to department stores with such a selection of products in the earlier decades. Instead of trying to figure out how to get customers into their stores, they should have been trying to figure out how to get their products to their customers.
@@UmmYeahOk I think the Sears house kit business got chewed up & spit out by the Great Depression (what 'the early 1930s' is code for).
@@UmmYeahOk Yeah, they shot themselves in the foot. They are closed here now (I heard they built the mall in the 60s) and a year before I ordered something for instore pickup and it was like they wanted it to fail. I ended up just going to the department buying it, then having to get a refund. Was really sad.
Everything in our home growing up was from Sears. Everything from the television
to the washer, dryer, lawn mower, tools, etc...Back in the day that's where you
went for everything except maybe food. I do remember a candy department
at one of the local stores! I even bought all of my Boy Scout uniforms and
accessories at Sears. Sad to see both of our local stores closed. Memories!
Crazy to end a brand like that. They could have been Amazon's worst nightmare.
Kenmore used to be considered a quality brand, as was “Craftsman”.
According to some family members, my grandma's house was a Sears home. I believe the original 2 rooms were, but there was a major addition later that I believe was built using scrap lumber.
My parents had a Sears home.
We lived there in the 50s.
The people who had originally bought it raised turkeys and chickens to sell in order to pay for it.
@Lady Heart it wasn't really a small number. They had eighty acres. The family all worked together. When it came time to ship the turkeys and chickens out for cash, which happened every few months, they would dress the turkeys and chickens, put them in 55 gallon drums, and haul them to the railroad depot 5 miles away. They would go unrefrigerated from here, central Illinois to Chicago. I can't imagine how they would be good but that's how it was done in the early 1900s.
You can get home kits today if you know where to look.
Boxable?
@@TheBooban Lincoln Logs
Yes, Menards does, I’m sure the other home stores do too. Point is, with all the regulation, very few people are capable of building it, let alone dealing with the red tape. Or after they have a few visits from the city inspector they just grab a nail gun, put it to their own head and say goodbye cruel world.
@@guyforlogos isn't it so nice that the government cares about us? Remember, all the regulation is to 'keep us safe' 🙄
I believe there’s a concentration of Sears homes in Webster and Kirkwood, MO. From what I’ve seen they were built quite well.
Ours is an old Sears home.
Pretty cool, story! I wonder how these compare to modern homes in terms of quality. It’s amazing to think people used to build there own homes.
Pretty much all older homes were build solid and meant to last as long as they are maintained. My house is from 1901 and came from a time where power tools where unknown, skilled carpenters knew what they were doing and mostly everything was made in USA top to bottom. The brass hardware/door locks from both front and rear outside doors is from 1895. These homes just blow away most of these newly built homes with cheap materials. I would say if you can build your home from scratch with good premium materials then you can have a nice home today but not many homes are built this way (especially in subdivisions). I have been updating the plumbing and electrical which is the main concern in older homes and also adding newer efficient improvements to it such as better insulation, led recessed lighting, built-in A/C units in different floors and storm windows. The steam radiators work great in the winter because you can control the heat in each room very effectively with steam vents and they do not burn the air like a typical furnace does. Even my friend who is a firefighter says the older homes take longer to burn compared to new homes which go up in flames very fast.
The fact that so many of them are still here a century later speaks volumes. The construction of the homes was basically no different than any other home. The big difference was that Sears pre-fabricated and packaged the components. My Grandparents had a farm near Carlinville, and many of the farmhouses in the area, including theirs appeared to be Sears homes.
They are very well built homes. I had several friends that were raised in a Carlinville sears home.
They are generally quite superior to modern homes.
Can confirm houses in the late 1800s early 1900s were built to last. I live in a house built in 1890 and it’s still holding up a century later
Our old home is also a Sears home.
I live in Michigan and we have many of these wonderful homes 🏡 😊
did you know they had barns as well? our neighbor moved one to his property and restored it a few years back. I went to a few barn dances before he passed away
This makes me proud to be from Illinois
Same! Taylorville is my hometown.
Rockford here
These house line the streets in Decatur Il too! I was a child there! 1711 N. Church st.
I worked at Sears was my technically first real job, and I cried when we walked in one morning and told us are store was closing along with another 1,000. Was the best job and family I had 🥲
I own a 1933 Craftsman home in Tyler Texas. The Walls in one bedroom are marked with 'Sears' I have no idea how to determine it is a Sears house or just bought the dry wall from Sears. I do know that thing is SOLID.
If you have a basement and can see an end of a first floor floor joist it will have numbers stamped in blue ink on it. It was a parts mark so you knew what pieces went where.
@@TheNortheastAl ~ Oh excellent info! Thank you so much, I will check that out!
@@damesaphira9790 update?
@@michaelh.1262 It is not a Sears house but almost all the trim and fixtures are Sears. A neighbor that is a plumber checked it out as he has found a few of the Sears homes before. I was hoping it was but still love it anyway.
Fascinating and such beautiful homes.
I think this is awesome.. A store that sold homes☺! How amazing..
Sears wasn't the only company selling kit houses. Alladin is another.
When I lived in Lancaster Ohio my husband and I lived in a sears kit house. It didn't have any insulation so it made for a mighty cold winter.
Great story; and that dog’s listening skills crack me up.
These are called catalog houses, and these were VERY popular in the 1910s-1930.
Lots of families did this because it was an affordable and stylish way of living for the middle class
Some of the larger ones woukd be an expensive joy to keep heated/cooled.
Built a Sears home in Red Dead Redemption 2
Jeez I literally just moved into one of these houses In Carlinville and this shit pops up on my page. Crazy
lovely looking neighborhood. we should all be housed so well.
plant trees and keep trash picked up. curb appeal.........
Unfortuantely aside from pockets here and there pride in ownership has fallen to the wayside. These people aren't privileged...they have invested in their properties and neighborhood.
My grandma Alexander lives at 1134 University it is one of the houses I stay there once a year.
A series of unfortunate events has let me without a house of my own. I have been paying enough rent in my life to pay for 3 homes. Wish I had the opportunity to buy a sears home now.
I have the same last name! Where are u from?
Not exactly. Please consider the interest rate and DOUBLE whatever amount the house costs by the end of 30 years.
Plus. The thrill of maintaining it! I just spent 6,500 on a roof. Plus about 1,000 on HVAC. Plus leaved, big lots have TONS AND TONS of leaves! Plus snow. The list goes on
And if the government or mortgage Co decides they want your house, bye bye you go. Eminent Domain. Not yours til paid off and even then, you STILL have taxes and insurance.
You will probably have to move a good 10-20 miles out from your job and house now. Go smaller.
They’re all over E C Illinois. We lived in one for over 25 years.
Very cool! Those homes are beautiful!
My grandparents lived in a Sears kit house in Dallas. It was very small but their family of eleven made due for decades. It’s long gone though.
Sear actually impacted the consumer markets in many ways as Walmart does now. However, Sears was a serious one stop shop... The merchandise sold in it's stores covered areas that are separate now, thus lumber, tools, clothing, electronics, ECT....
It can reign again! E-commerce company....
Sears actually had it's own bank and that was it's safe haven.... Well, economics plays a role....
I hope to see Sears eventually re-emerge
It's just a name now. They use whatever seller is online.
I grew up in a sears and roebuck crafton house outside of Detroit. I believe it was a 1911 mode. And it's still there today.
My family grew up with Sears. It's sad to see where it is today.
The ultimate dad project to build a house from a kit.
Sears has a online outlet and a store here or there , but I am pretty sure they are on their way out . Sad to see changes like this .
Back when things were made to last. Today that's totally counterproductive and doesn't fit in the corporate world of perpetual growth and keeping everyone in constant crushing debt.
Grew up in Los Angeles. In the early 60s I remember studying the Sears catalog before Christmas to develop my list for Santa. I thought there was a connection between Chicago and the North Pole.
Man. Id rather have sears houses and thier catalog, and way of service, then damn amazon:/
MY GRANDPARENTS &THERE NEXT DOOR NEIGHBOR BUILT A SEARS HOME IN FLAGG CENTER, ILLINOIS (JUST WEST OF ROCHELLE,ILLINOIS(HUB CITY WHERE 2 MAIN TRAIN TRACKS CROSSED)LINCOLN HWY.(3,389 MILES)FROM N.Y. TIMES SQUARE TO SAN FRANCISCO. WENT THUR N.J.,PA,OH,IND,ILL,IOWA,NEB,WY,UTAH,NV,CA.
Hi Delilah, thank you for the info! Now can you go do a couple of things for the rest of us? OK? 1st, look up the difference between "their", "there" and "they're". You will find some help if you look up "homonyms" and "homophones". They are words that sound alike but have different meanings, such as "your", "you're" and "yore". Or "brake" and "break". Or "too", "to" and "two". But a word of caution before you do, CHECK YOUR CAP LOCKS BUTTON BECAUSE IT IS STUCK ON SO TURN IT off. 🙄🙄
Colorado Strong seriously?
@@bakerinthehouse5346 THANK YOU
I lived in a Sears home in West Frankfort Illinois. 707 Midway St.
My great grandfather lived in west Frankfort IL and was a coal miner 🤠
My familt went to Sears a lot, i miss the old Sears
The houses in Paxton, IL (also on the railroad), have houses that look like these. There’s a confirmed Sears house on Main Street.
I used to live in a sears house in Mitchell south Dakota
I believe some of these Sears homes exist in Rockford, IL in the Rolling Green area.
Dean Christensen --I had one at 1675 E. Oaks Rd. just outside of Urbanna Illinois
Quite a lot in Elgin, IL also. As long as you weren't too far from the RR you could order a house. The parts for the house took up one to two boxcars.
My grandfather built his home like this in Danbury CT
You'd think Amazon would try doing this again, if not in the United States, then in another country where it might be more feasible. I wonder how the process worked. Like how did they deliver the materials to the actual job site, once they took it off the train? Probably by tractor trailer towards the later period, I imagine? But did they have trucks that were that big in the teens and 20's? Could they deliver stuff that big on horse drawn wagons? I wonder what the logistics of that were and where did they store all the pieces before they were ready to put them together? They can't have had a lot of extra space to store the materials if the house was built on a small lot, which it seems like a lot of them were. I wonder if there are still any full or partial unassembled Sears houses out there, perhaps sitting in an abandoned warehouse somewhere, or something.
You can buy whole house kits now from Menards, they are delivered by the truckload. Sometimes some house's, not including the Menards home's come built already, theyre called prefabs, as in prefabricated. Sort of like a doll house that you crack open and close up again over time you can see the seam down the center of a prefab home in the floor (if there's cheap tile over it for instance). They just lay the entire house on steel beams most of the time so they don't have a foundation.
@@AcousticGString I thought Menards wasn't around anymore. I wonder how many truckloads it takes and where people store the stuff if they don't have a lot of space. I wonder if they send it all at once, or if they break up the deliveries, so that you don't have to be storing a ton of pieces before you're ready to use them, if you don't have enough space.
@@Melissa0774 Menards is definitely alive and going strong. I'm in the midwest, outside of Chicago and Menards is a popular store. The kits are in their flyers and I'm sure they ship them depending on what stage of build you're at, you would also need to have some stuff done on your own like the foundation poured already. Building supplies are stored at the jobsite sometime too so it all depends.
I wish they still did this I would order one tomorrow. Yes, I would put it together with the 75 page instruction manual
I am a realtor in Silver Spring Maryland. We have a number of Sears homes as well as the odd Montgomery Wards and JC Penny home. You will find them in older communities nationwide-generally near the railroad lines as that is how they were delivered. They are very popular and all that I have seen over my career are well built out of of quality material. They were designed to last. A small home in Silver Spring might sell for $500k, while the larger homes can go for much more-even over a million bucks.
I love Sears as I'm still buying from Sears today
"Lilly come er", fantastic
I am a proud owner of a Sears home :)
Bought their home for $6,500
It’s probably worth $350,000 today
Yea, with the non-existent insulation in the walls, ceilings, attic and under the floor. And they did not have plywood then only slat boards.
@@coloradostrong Slat boards are better too.
Sears formally stopped listing the houses in 1940, but it took a few more years to clear out remaining inventory. It was a very good business until it wasn’t - there were several kit home manufacturers, but Sears clearly had a promotional advantage. For a while during the kit home boom years from the late teens through the twenties there were some regional materials shortages that kit homes solved. After regional materials shortages ceased, then they faded from popularity - plus the depression eviscerated consumer spending.
Kit houses back then, where built better than modern houses today.
Now they are modernity called modular homes and they have high price fancy ones to cheap bare bones click together walls crazy to think how advanced we have gotten!!
Today Americans only affordable option is a lousy tiny house....sad....
I had trouble putting together a desk I bought on amazon. It was like 12 pieces.
this is how couples should be. my great grandparents have been married for 70 years. to be in their generation
What a nice neighborhood
If they could replicate this it would bring jobs and Sears back. I think it’s interesting.
THIS would be a GOOD use for tax money! Over stupid, pointless curbs so no delivery people can park or red plastic things on the crosswalks that just come apart, after great expense to install, of course! That don't even WORK to make the sidewalk ANY safer!
I grew up in one of those.
I live in a small sears house built in 1957
Sears stopped offering kit homes in 1940. Maybe your home is from another kit home company? There were many in addition to Sears. Some outlived Sears (e.g. Alladin, Bennett).
I think you can do something like this today. Menards sells and creates house plans, and they also sell pretty much everything you'd need to build a new house.
It’s pure brilliance
Just think. 60 years ago you could order and build your own home. Now your not allowed to set a toilet without a permit in your own house
Think of how much freedom we have lost
These Sears homes are still around because they were built with pride, even more so than union built homes today.
Hilarious how 100 yr old kit homes from Sears are built better than Toll Brothers million dollar homes today
I heard it was free shipping with a purchase of $35.
There's alot of the kit houses in Kalamazoo. Most of them have thin walls with 2x2 studs
The homes are beautiful.