In the 1880s, Richard W. Sears and Alvah C. Roebuck formed Sears, Roebuck and Co. Sears became a behemoth mail-order company and department store. They sold everything from toys to tools. But did you know that in the first part of the 20th century, you could buy a new home from a Sears catalog? A Sears Modern Home came in a kit and contained everything from blueprints to bathtubs. Sears also loaned money to homebuyers. That meant a new home could be built, financed, and furnished – all from Sears. We’ve scoured our archives to learn more about Sears Modern Homes.
In 1908, Sears took the mail-order business to a new level by offering ready-to-assemble home kits. All the pieces were precut, numbered, and fitted. The average home kit contained about 30,000 pieces, including everything down to the nails and paint. The kits came with detailed instructions and blueprints, and homeowners hired someone to assemble the pieces like a giant erector set.
To purchase a Sears home, customers needed only a small downpayment. Sears would lend $3 for every $1 a customer invested in the house. There were hundreds of styles of homes, from small bungalows to larger homes, which could be customized inside and out. The home kits came in three price points: Honor Bilt (the most expensive), Standard Bilt, and Simplex Sectional.
To provide the material for the home kits, Sears built a lumber mill in Louisiana, a millwork plant in Ohio, and a lumber yard on a rail line in Illinois. One of the largest concentrations of Sears homes can be found in Carlinville, Ill. In 1918, Standard Oil of Indiana ordered nearly 200 homes to house an influx of miners. Nine blocks are filled with nothing but Sears Modern Homes.
The high point for Sears Modern Homes came in 1929 when sales topped $12 million. When the Great Depression hit, however, many working-class Americans defaulted on their Sears mortgages. Sales rebounded from 1936 to 1938, but the Modern Homes Department never fully recovered. In 1940, Sears got out of the home kit business.
Sears sold some 75,000 homes through its Modern Homes program between 1908 and 1940. Many are still standing today. Fans of Sears mail-order homes have searched neighborhoods nationwide, hoping to find existing examples. There are several clues to help homeowners determine if their home is from Sears. Sears homes have distinct markings on the lumber and often contain old Sears packing labels and stickers. Homeowners can also search through old mortgage records and building permits and even search for information in our newspaper archives. No official records exist from Sears as they were destroyed when the home sales division closed.
Do you have a Sears Modern Home in your neighborhood? Tell us about it in the comments below. To learn more about Sears catalog homes, search Newspapers.com™ today.
A 2-story, 1911 model, Sears home is still occupied by a family in northeastern Kansas.
The walls and ceilings are made of horsehair and lathe.
The 2 large windows at the front of the house are original. The glass is very thick has a wavy look to it.
It has a beautiful wrap-around porch on 2 sides.
It is located near the extinct rural town of Capioma.
It is possible that a small garage near the home was the original town post office.
There was an identical Sears home across the road… but that home has fallen into ruin, collapsed into the basement, and big trees now hide it from view.
I see you have a small run of the Halifax newspapers but never seemed to have added more dates. https://www.newspapers.com/papers/?country=ca&publication-ids=32797%2C32796%2C5887%2C32250%2C31782%2C31783%2C12357%2C32184%2C31781%2C31780%2C5888%2C11702%2C33367%2C5893%2C33374%2C33370%2C33369%2C27393%2C33371%2C33372®ion=ca-ns
My Grandfather built a Sears home in Wayne county, NY. It’s on the corner of Rt. 31 and Gannet Rd.
My neighbor has an oversized bungalow that was a Sears home on Village St in Millis, MA. You can see the numbers on the boards in the house.
Live in a Sear’s home in Pembroke, VA. Two story with an addition on back. Full with front porch and basement.
According to this article, Sears built a sawmill in Louisiana in the early 20th century. That would have been at the height of the clear cutting of the massive cypress forest along the Louisianna coast. These cypress trees were ancient and huge. It is an educated guess that the cypress went into the Sears house program which may explain the longevity of these structures. Cypress is known to be rot and vermin resistant which is why a lot of the old cabins in Cajun country are still standing.
My father built a Sears house for our summer residence in Sag Harbor NY in 1940. I am still living in this house in the summer and I still have a lot of the paperwork pertaining to the building of this house; order blank, correspondence, construction estimate and bill of materials right down to the nails.
Yes, I know about Sears mail order houses. There is one in the next city over from where I live. It is still occupied and in good shape. Probably better than what they make nowadays. It’s well over 100 yrs. old!
I was sorry I learned too late that a family home was a Sears home. So, it was inherited by another individual.
As a Sears kit house owner and a Sears kit house researcher, I’m pleased to see “Sears Modern Homes” highlighted for your readers. Along with my fellow kit house researchers, I’ve used Newspapers.com extensively to research the history of the “Modern Homes” program as well as discover and authenticate examples of Sears houses across the country.
From those 100+ years of digitized newspapers, we’ve learned that some of the commonly repeated “facts” about the “Modern Homes” program are in fact, not accurate. For example, the blog post repeats a common myth that the “Modern Homes” program never recovered from the effects of the Great Depression and that Sears Roebuck stopped selling homes in 1940. What we know today from numerous contemporaneous articles and advertisements found in Newspapers.com is that not only did Sears continue to sell homes into 1942, the company expanded its “Modern Homes” program into developing entire subdivisions of pre-cut kit homes through its “Home Club” developments. It’s through resources like Newspapers.com that we’ve been able to develop a more accurate timeline of the “Modern Homes” program and the ways that Sears marketed and sold their homes.
For those interested in diving deeper in the history of Sears Roebuck’s “Modern Homes” program, I’ve clipped almost 3,500 articles, many of them related to “Sears Modern Homes” and their competitors in the kit house industry. Together, those companies sold hundreds of thousands of kit houses across the United States (and other countries around the world). You can view those clippings through my profile name of “kithousehunter”.
I spent my high school years growing up in a Sears Mail order home in The Dalles, Oregon. It still had the old knob and tube electrical wiring, push button light switches and a working dumbwaiter. Best memories of my life
Yes, we have a Sears home here in SW Nebraska. The house was built in 1908, so was one of the early ones. Our town has another one that I know about. The main floor still has the lathe and plaster walls with the original heavily textured finish. It’s a 4 bedrooms. Still have some of the original lighting fixtures. When we purchased it, the house still had the knob and tube wiring that was installed after being built (I’m think somewhere around 1915). The kitchen was expanded around 1986. She’s a lovely old dame.
My grandparents ordered and had built a beautiful two story Sears home on their farm Northeast of Redfield, a small town in eastern South Dakota, probably around 1936 . It is still owned and beautifully maintained by a member of the family. Truly a beautiful home, and solidly built.
We purchased a Sears catalogue home on 1 1/2 acres in the city of Ann Arbor, MI in 1983 to rehab and split the parcel into 3 so we could build our current home on .8 of the land. The owner was an elderly woman who ultimately passed away in the home. When we purchased it, racoons were living in the upper level with broken windows, nothing appeared to have been updated at all (i.e., kitchen sink with no cabinets). Fortunately, the architect of our home was very talented and redesigned the home in a comfortable manner. The home is in beautiful condition with it’s 4th owner…quietly sitting in the woods.
That is great you could rehab the home!
Is it still possible to purchase Sears homes?
If you are lucky you can find Sears homes for sale in many parts of the country, but you can not get the “kits” to build one anymore. I think they should still be available to the people who want to do-it-yourself. Plans are still out there, so it might be possible, with the right architect and construction crew to build modern replica.
I live next door to a Sears catalogue home brought by train to the Jersey shore in Avalon NJ. Still standing and beautiful.
My grandfather bought and built 2 Sears homes, one for him and his family and one for his sister and her family. My mom and all her siblings were born in my grandparents house. Both of these are still standing and occupied in El Dorado, Kansas.
My grandparents built a Sears house in 1920, in Maple Park IL, & we owned it until 1968. It was a darling, comfortable home. Full basement, big old coal burner furnace converted to fuel oil, large kitchen & bathroom, clawfoot bathtub, 2 big round wooden pillars between the living room & dining room, big old front porch & small porch off the kitchen leading to the basement & back yard. A lovely home.
My paternal Grandparents owned a Sears home in Indiana. It still stands. It was the six room version with a front porch. Is it possible today to buy a Sears home?
You can’t order a new home but it may be possible to purchase one that was built years ago.
There’s one in West Dummerston, Vermont
I grew up in a 1910 Sears catalog home in colo, Iowa. Even had etched glass in a few of the windows and wood spindle archway in the foyer.
I’m part of a research group that has compiled nationwide list of Sears, Wardway, Aladdin, Gordon -Van Tine, Lewis Homes, and Bennett Homes. It’s fun researching them.
There were many, many companies selling home plans across the country. I have collect both original catalogs and replicas. They are fascinating.
Here in Monrovia, California we list and honor all the older homes. Dozens of Sears homes have been documented, but that was late in our building boom. The city was founded in 1887 and over 100 of the first homes have been recognized as being built in that year. Only two home survived from before 1887 that I know of. In connection to this subject, I hear that almost all of the 1887 homes were built from catalog parts. There are consistencies in all the 1887 homes in staircase designs, including the details carvings. The fireplaces also have familiar carvings throughout. I think most of these items were ordered from Cincinnati, Ohio catalogs, and I’d love to see some of those if any are scanned online. Windows, doors, hardware and details all start to look familiar, whether 4,000 square feet or 1500.
My grandmother lived in one of those beautiful old homes in old Monrovia in the early 70s. I loved that house and remember fondly, going to visit her there.
We feel so fortunate to live in the “Glen Falls” home that we purchased in 2012 from the family that had lived there for 45 years. This home is full of character and charm and includes Dutch doors, iron & brass hardware, an under-the-stairs arched doorway, original lights—to name just a few of its wonderful features. We found a board signed by the contractor which also gives names of some of the crew that built it along with the date they started-October 10, 1925. What a treasure!
Here in Griffith Indiana there are several streets filled with sears homes–and most of them are in the same style as when they were built—-we are consdidered a railroad town—-so since they came by rail that is probably why there are so many.==I always think they are so neat.
South Bend, Indiana, has many Sears homes all over the older sections of town.
My wife and I lived in one of those during 2008-2020,
and we un-modernized it and restored it to its original style and personality.
We reverted to the era-appropriate light fixtures and push-button light switches,
albeit with safe UL-approved devices.
Ours is a 1927 Fullerton, a two-story foursquare with a full basement,
which we remodeled to provide my “cave” and a large utility room with a shower and a toilet.
That was my seventh (and last) renovation of an old house.
At age 84 I now live with my wife in Florida in my last home (with one floor).
Doc-
Here’s hoping your “renovation” tasks are manageable after Hurricane Helene gets through Florida this week! Fingers crossed for good outcomes down there… stay safe!
Roger; thanks much.
Thanks for caring — and thanks for writing.
Whatever you do, do it safely!
My Grandfather and Grandmother bought their first Sears home kit from Aurora, Il. And it was shipped by rail road to Oshkosh, Wi uptown railway station and the horse and trailer pulled the materials about 8 miles to the 13 acres lot. My Grandfather put it all together. My mom was born in this house and my parents raised me and my 5 siblings in our Sears Home. We all were very proud of this family home history. Later my parents sold the land and the home was sold for $1.00 and the new owners picked it up on a trailer and moved further into the countryside by semi. They cut the tip of the roof off to be able to move under electric lines during the move. Tarped the roof and a rainstorm came through and the wood floors buckled. They did a good job repairing it. They showed us the shipping label on the back of the trim board still white and clear with my Grandfathers name and address of the railroad station on the label. The home is still solid and beautiful and raised another family who enjoyed its history!
My husband and I lived in a cute little Sears home the first few years we were married. It was built in 1903 or 1905 and owned by his grandparents in Covina, CA. The family owned it until 2011. As far as I know, it’s still there. I loved that house.
My great-grandfather built a Montgomery Wards home in 1929 on a foundation of a home that burnt. The land was owned by another great-grandfather, in-law to the home builder. The package was put together by the Gordon Van-Tine company in Davenport, Iowa and shipped by railcar. My great-aunt inherited the home from her grandfathers. My cousin owns it now and she is leaving it to me in her estate. My daughter lived in it for a while. Maybe my granddaughter can live in it someday. She would be the 7th generation of the family.
In the 1970s there were several Sears mail order homes in the valley portion of Peoria, Illinois North of downtown. This area was formerly known as Averyville. Hopefully some of them are still standing.
My Great-grandparents built a single story 5 room Sears Kit house on Carnegie Drive in Pittsburgh, PA in 1921. They raised six of their children in the two bedroom house. I’ve never been in the home as it was sold prior to my birth. But a current view through Google Earth shows that the exterior of the house has remained unchanged for last 100 years; right down to the trellis on the front of the house.
That’s a Sears “Uriel” model. Sears later renamed it the “Conway” and made a few small changes to the design. But the two models look almost identical.
https://www.northstarmonthly.com/features/sears-delivered/article_1a76af8c-1dcf-5b2c-87ec-d096a5b9cf44.html
My grandparents owned a Sears home in Weaverville, CA. They did not build it, but Grandma purchased it because she was tired of living for many years in gold mining camps. She paid for it boarding high school students who stayed in town because their homes were too far away to commute. They had 7 children, 14 grandchildren and lots of great grandchildren. We celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary there. The house was large and aways filled with laughter. Sadly, the house burned in the 1960’s. It looked very much like the second one down in the above article.
That one is a Gladstone.
Mine (in South Bend, Indiana) is a Fullerton, which is much like the Gladstone.
The layout is very practical and sensible.
I don’t know if it was Sears, but it was definitely a catalog home. I lived in a 1935 home in Greeley, Colorado and, the cool thing was, it matched almost *identically* to a home that a friend I made lived in. Same layout, front door, fixtures, etc. She lives in the midwest. The 1935 home was so solid!
There is a Sears house on Main St. in Halifax, North Carolina. I understand it was shipped by railroad, carried about a block from the station, and assembled where it stands inhabited today.
As a Realtor, in the 1979-1983 period, I sold homes in Susanville, Lassen County, California. One home in particular was reputed to be a “Sears Kit House” circa 1910. It was then I reconciled clients’ wishes to have “large rooms and BIG closets”; as children, they had visited or lived in Kit-like houses that, from a child’s perspective had “large rooms and BIG closets.” NOT!
We live in a home purchased from Montgomery Wards and constructed in 1930. The original owners actually defaulted on the mortgage in 1940 and Wards foreclosed. The original owner was a carpenter and added a garage that was not part of the floor plan.
My mother grew up in a Sears Catalog House in Canton, Ohio. Her grandfather purchased it around 1910-11, and according to city directories the family was living there by 1913. The closets were not deep enough to put hangers in, they had a row of hooks. The home stayed in the family until 1988. It is still occupied today.
My husband grew up in Sears Catalog House in Scotia, New York. I don’t know when it was built, but it was similar to my mother’s house in floor plan and features such as newel post and door handles. The closets, however, were more functional. His parents bought it about 1949, and it stayed in the family until the 1990s. It is still occupied today.
I spent my early childhood in a Sears house in Lebanon, PA. It was the small 2 bedroom model and I can still see the columns dividing the living and dining rooms. I loved the front porch and have many family photos taken there. My parents were the second owners, purchasing it after WWII.
Several Sears homes are located in Searcy (White Co), Arkansas. All are still used and in good condition. The Arkansas State Historic Commission (headquartered in Little Rock) spent several years documenting Sears Homes in the state. Visual Presentations were made around the state to various communities. Very interesting information.