My maternal grandparents built a 1920 Sears home in Windsor Ontario. They went to Detroit Michigan to order and choose everything they wanted. It crossed the Detroit River by train tunnel, then was delivered to the 5 acre lot by truck. It was sold in 1988. It remains, after several updates….as I check it out every so many years. It is a solid home.
That is cool! I bet you the several updates have masked the house's true character though. Unless the latest update restored it back to its former glory like most people (including I) would prefer to do anyway.
I lived in a Sears kit house for several years (a four-bedroom bungalow), and loved it. It was beautifully detailed, using high-quality materials, and was simply a lovely house.
My first home in 1973 was a beautiful Sears home!!! Still standing proudly in Gleside Gardens,Pennsylvania! We were given all the order information and paperwork and proudly passed it on to the next family!!
Hawaii Planing Mill offered simple home kits up into the late 20th century (Maybe still?). It was a good way for people with limited means get a start in Hawaii. Most home construction has become too complicated and regionally controlled today. Labor and local costs have wiped out some the advantage of such a system. The contemporary “kit” homes mentioned are expensive alternatives and the businesses do not seem to last or are always restructuring to find the sweet spot in the competition.
I don't believe that Sears Kit Homes actually "failed." They succeeded brilliantly during their time on the market during a very DIY era and were later replaced by more modern DIY options, as the video shows. Additionally, look at all the people in the comments that own or owned one of these houses. They are all proud of the fact. That's a great success considering its 100 since Sears started selling kit homes. About ten years ago, when finishing my history degree I went on a Sears Kit Home search in my home town. There were well over a dozen that I was able to find, so I'm sure there were many more, temporarily lost to history until the day someone starts a renovation, finds a number burned into a large beam and calls their local history museum to ask "what is this?" Their eyes will open to a vast world of discovery. Definitely not a failure!
When Sears stopped selling the homes in 1942 I am willing to bet that World War II, the shortage of labour, and the redirection of factories into making was materiel had a great deal to do with it. Post war, subdivisions were being built rather than individual building lots.
He didn't touch on the biggest reason that kit homes went away- cheap power tools. In 1912 it was economical to cut everything to length in a factory, number it, and ship it to the build site. If you had the plans but had to buy your own lumber, you'd be cutting it to length with a handsaw. once power tools got cheap enough for the average contractor to afford it was cheaper to cut lumber on site. manufactured homes could still be made efficiently, but with more and more being finished in the factory essentially becoming modular. Stores like Menards sell home plans and all materials to build them, but you are going to have to interpret the drawings and cut your lumber yourself.
I owned and lived in a "Sears house" for 22 years. It was actually from a company called Aladdin that was just like the Sears catalogue. Ours was the Plaza model. We couldn't find out for certain the year it was built, but we think about 1912. Sadly, we no longer live there. It is a gorgeous, California bungalow style with stone foundation and pillars. Deep eaves and wide front porch. I love that house deeply and miss it terribly. It is in State College, Pennsylvania.
Austin Motor Company had a bunch of Aladin houses shipped from Bay City, MI to Birmingham, UK, during WWI and most of them are still standing and visible on Google street-view. The name of the place is Austin Village and there are various web sites with information on it.
I have a liberty aka Aladin pre cut home, a little cape built in 1950 It has been a good home. Standard size windows and doors have been a benefit. Oddly my biggest complaint is the layout of the electric circuits (too manay rooms share one breaker), and the original owner was the electrician at a local factory🤦♂️. A neighbor told me no way the original owners built it, they definitely hired contractors for assembly.
In 1953, my grandfather bought and built an Aladdin kit house. Lived in it till the day he died. My grandmother remained there until she no longer could. Thankfully, the house is still in the family.
Years ago Jean Sheppard , "A Christmas Story", had a weekly show on PBS radio. One week he told the story of a family in a small midwestern town he lived in that had ordered a Sears Kit Home. The entire town turned out. It's a very funny story but I haven't been able to find it on the internet. Thank you for including this.
the town he grew up in , Hammond, Indiana, has a plethora of sears mail order homes, they also have a half dozen of the bolt together enameled kit homes that were offered immediately post war by another firm
Glad you took the time and effort to present this the way you did, Ken. Many of the Sears kits as you mentioned really have stood the test of time. The newest pre-fab homes are truly sturdy and outstanding. I still may consider one. They are tanks compared to the earlier single and double wide manufactured home.
I have yet to find any of the prefabs that were not much more expensive than stick built. I wish I could remember the video about the prefab company that switched to being an on-site builder who brought the fabrication equipment to the site and found he saved time and money.
I own a 1939 Sears Starlight. (Rental property) It is a very well designed home for both space and strength. I was an electrician and worked in a lot of attics, and I'm a big guy. The floor of the attic in my Sears house doesn't move when I'm up there.
I owned a Sears home in Poughkeepsie, New York from 1983 to 1995. Built in 1930, it was a simple, boxy structure with 2 bedrooms on a long narrow lot. There were others on my street and quite a few around town.
There are several UA-cam Channels of people moving off grid and building homes from scratch. I understand the appeal of, if you could, to build your own home on these remote lots. I, however, even if I had the skill, I would instead build a prefab A Frame. This gives me surface area for solar panels that can be cleaned and maintained. Then, once completed, if needed I would build extensions, etc. but at least I would have a place to live that is not a tent.
For me it varies where the location is at and if it makes sense. In the more wilderness area where there’s lots of snow, A frames are an excellent plus. In a more quaint town or in a valley, the cute homes will be best able to blend in. One of the things I have a hard time with is architecture that detracts from the setting. Most architecture is developed based on region depending on the source of the material and the techniques to help adapt to the environment (pueblos work best in the deserts, courtyards give heated areas benefits of breathable spaces without relying on electricity like New Orleans, etc.)
WHY WOULD YOU SAY THEY FAILED ? EVERYTHING UNDER THE SUN EVOLVES OR HAS THEIR SEASONS. TODAY THESE HOMES ARE SOUGHT AFTER FOR THEIR HISTORY. THAT IS CALLED SUCCESS.
Friends of mine used to live in a stunning Victorian-style home in Pasadena, CA, complete with a tower and stained glass windows. You'd never guess it had been made from a Sears kit over 100 years ago. Probably worth millions today.
@pamelachristie5570 I owned a bungalow at 622 Charter Oak St. in South Pasadena, built in 1922. The neighbors speculated that it was a kit home. It was drafty but super cute.
I’m sitting in a sears home. It’s over 100 years old. How did they fail? The program changed mostly due to government regulations not due to kit homes. I wish we could buy sears home style kits and not just “build packs” from a big box store.
What killed the Sears mail order homes? World War II and the strict wartime rationing. Almost all construction projects had to be approved by various government agencies as essential to the war effort. On a side note; I live in a prefab and am quite happy.
I inherited a "Kit Home" from my Paternal Grandparents in a small town Central Illinois in 1998. When I financed the remodel I obtained the original handwritten Abstract. The house was one of several built by a contractor who used "Kit Homes" shipped by rail. The house was built in 1890 as a 4 room "Saltbox" style. The houses on either side of me were the same floorplan only reversed. Later add-ons in the 1920's may well have come from Sears as a "kitchen" and pantry and small bedroom went on the back as well as a "modern" outhouse was set back in the backyard by the alley. I used that outhouse as a kid on visits up until the mid 60's when sewage and water came to that small town and grandpa added a bathroom in the house in place of the pantry. He also built a one car garage at that time. It was one of many shipped in and built by the local coal mine to house workers. Over the years the locals came to calling the homes "Sears Homes" though they pre-dated Sears massive program. Before Sears, many small companies sprang up to create these kits for people beginning with President Lincoln's "Land Deal" for settlers going west. When I inherited it I remodeled it by adding 2 bedrooms (one with a Master bath) and enclosed the back porch. I tore down the old garage and put a 2 and a half in it's place as well as a pool. I remember cutting through wood from the 1800's that burned up sawblades by the dozens. I'm talking about the 4x4's and larger. All the original lumber was true 2x4 and up. What began as a 4 room house without electric or plumbing eventually became a 3 bed 2 full bath ranch. They don't build 'em like they used to.
When I lived in Arlington, Va. I went on a Sears home tour. There were a lot of homes Sears built there due to the railroads. Easy to ship. I still have the pamphlet with all the addresses of the homes that we visited. There was even a Montgomery Wards home on the list. It was a book store but was torn down just a couple of years later to make way for a little retail strip.
I grew up in a Sears catalog home, I believe it was built in 1929. Solid home, plaster walls, oak trim. 2:14 when I was a kid, our kitchen sink looked like what you see on top right. It was a big bathtub sink.
We owned a kit home in a kit home neighborhood in Annapolis. The kits were derived via the Baltimore and Annapolis RR and the kits were constructed on both sides of the rail spur. While small it was well built and a great starter home for our expanding family. Thank you for highlighting this part of our history. Manufactured housing as these homes were the beginning were and are a more efficient building method with less waste and potentially more energy efficient.
I love the Sears kit houses. My brother got a reproduction of the Sears House Catalog for Christmas years ago and I became fascinated with it. The range of styles and the integrity of the designs is amazing. I like the current interest in tiny houses but I wish that the companies producing fabricated tiny houses would offer better, more interesting designs that don't look so boxy and modern.
I own and have lived in a sears kit home for the past 24 years. It was built in 1929 according to the date and initials inscribed in the basement floor. I have found many interesting labeling stamped in different materials throughout the home during updates and renovations, seems very well built with quality materials .
A very good friend of our family had a ranch up north of here near Paso Robles. The main house on the place was a Sears house and it was pretty nice looking. We usually stayed in what would be considered the ranchhand quarters which was this little funny house that wasn’t even on a foundation, the floor is and everything were very uneven and you could practically go through the place on rollerskates. But it’s a part of my childhood memories. The original Sears house is still there, although the property has been sold. It has been pretty extensively remodeled and is now part of a winery.
Sears homes are dope. My grandma lives in one and my mom bought one across the street from her when it went up for sale. Remodeling them is also pretty easy. I would definitely live in a Sears home and would buy one myself in the future if one went up for sale in my grandmother's neighborhood.
Have you ever done videos by home type and covered different types all over the country? Seeing this Sears home video made me wonder, since there are so many type, all over. I live in a Spanish style home in central Florida. There are several in the town I live in and I've seen floor plans online that are similar to my 1925 home. It would be cool to see more older Spanish style homes. Also, what are the modern/contemporary cement block homes that are one story, very flat, and typically surrounded by a block wall or a wall in front. There's one (vacant!) on my street and it's so neat looking. I wonder if there are more like it out there. 😊
There were several companies that offered kit homes. In my community there are neighborhoods full of houses that match the decriptions of kit homes. A dream of mine is to take reference images and try to identify the more obvious candidates. 😂
I live by a railroad line, and the town across the tracks from my neighborhood has a number of Sears homes. They’re quite solid, and attractive. The kits were often hauled by train, so towns near a railroad often have Sears homes.
I grew up in a Sears home built in 1936. I loved that house. Still my favorite house ever. All my friends lived in cinderblock shoeboxes aka "brick ranches."
I love Sears homes, we have many in Seattle my hometown. I’m looking at prefab homes for a second home option for a heavily wooded lot. There are many of good choices on the market. I really enjoyed your segment on the Sears homes because every time I look at new ones I think of Sears being the grandfather of pre fab homes.
Given the choice, and if I did not already live in my forever home, I would consider a kit home. In my community there a neighborhoods full of homes that look as if they may have begun life as kits. My family is blessed to live in a vernacular home that was built over 100 years ago. I love the idea of kit homes, however, modern day building and/or employment regulations along with the cost of quality materials might make building one impractical today. 😊
In the early 1960s I worked for National Homes Corp. at their plant in Horseheads, N.Y. Houses were prepared in sections and moved from the warehouse by truck to a particular customer. Great job.
In our area which is near an old train depot there’re many of these homes. The larger ones are very nice and full of character and the smaller ones are very nice as well.
You can still buy house kits online. Elon Musk has a small home manufacturing company that delivers small homes and constructs them. They're modular too, so if it's too small you can buy another and stack it horizontally and vertically.
When I was growing up in San Jose, CA most of the suburbs had been built since the 1950s. But prior to this the area used to be orchard farmland. But as time went on it was interesting to see some very old bungalow style houses here and there among the modern houses that were around before the sprawl! I can imagine by the styles of them that several can actually be kit style from that era.
I live in a small town in TN, and didn’t realize until just a few years ago that there are quite a few Sears homes in our town. And they’re all in pretty good condition and in the better neighborhoods of our town!
My parents bought their prefab home in 1973. It was the last house from Boise Cascade to travel down I-84. The one thing about our house is that it is a 1 piece "modular", I guess home. It is 28 ft wide by 66 ft long. My sister now has that house. I almost got a modular home 1996 & am still kicking myself about not getting it. My last home will be a modular house from Stratford Mfg. Homes in Post Falls, ID. Modulars are wonderful!
Our first home bought in 77 built in 39 was a sears kit home,we only realized it after recieving a letter from the origional owner/builder stating so, managed to find a old catalog and sure enough there was our home.A few years back my son went back to the old neighborhood and our sears home was gone, just a empty 40x120 lot, sad.
My parents owned a beautiful Sears home. I inherited it. It's beautiful. It sits on 20 acres The 2 story 3 bedroom home is cherished by my family. The 20 acres is used for boarding horse's. Milford Michigan
There is a larger Sears home in very rural Baker FL still on a good piece of land was for sale about a decade ago, saw a recent article about it. One person commented their grandmothers entire family and other folks in town took a trip to the train station to watch it get delivered and then built.
i've had this question in my mind since my parents got the 1908 catalog in the '70's. I've seen quite a few stone ones here in MA, no doubt it's a sears from that era. The people who wrote for the three stooges got a kick out of this too, lol
Growing up, my very elderly neighbors, who lived catty-corned from us, had a Sears Roebuck home. It was later expanded to accommodate the new family who would end up moving in. But the original portion always remained intact.
I live in a house that was a kit house, but I have no information on it. The township i live in didn't start keeping records until 1950. There are a number of boards in the attic with part numbers on them. It's a very plain bungalow, and quite cozy. Wish I knew more about it!
I lived in one from 1970 to 1976 as a young boy. I can still remember the inside of that house very well. The fireplace room was amazing. It's still standing and I drive by it almost daily. We didn't know it was a Sears home until my dad was working in the attic and found a shipping manifest stapled to a rafter. It stated the model number, that it was a Sears home and that it arrived in our town by train. I wish I could recall what model it was. I'd love to see the blue prints and a Sears catalog picture of it.
My first house was a 1910 Sears kit home in TN identical to the one at 0:49. Bought it for $64k in 2007 and sold it in 2016, then the next owner sold it in 2022 for $223k. That’s crazy money for a 1300 sq ft, 2 bed 1 bath bungalow (in good condition but hadn’t been changed at all since I owned it).
They're all over St.louis MO. My best friend's grandfather built one. They chained all the materials together and legitimately floated it down the Mississippi River to get it to him. He said he stood by the bank for days waiting for it. Wild.
I live a prefab house. A Wausau home. We bought it when it was 6 years old. The parts build in the factory and put together on site were well done. It was change orders on location done by builder supervising the assembly that things were F 'ed up. The subs they used for HVAC, painting window tirm, landscaping not so much. The landscaping looked nice but done on the cheap. Very little topsoil with sod placed on sand from footings etc. The people we bought the house from had no practical knowledge. Wausau homes and good subs did a great job others not so much. Getting to good shape after 30 years and 2 remodels in different areas of the house.
Atlanta has a ton of these Sears homes still in Existence around the city. In fact there’s a large building now called Ponce City Market that was once a large Sears & Roebuck distribution hub which sold many of these Sears homes that were ultimately built all around the city.
There is a neighborhood in Hopewell, Virginia that has 44 Sears houses in it, concentrated on 3 streets and the avenue that they all intersect. The local tourist welcome center has a brochure on them. It says they were all built circa 1926-37. I have photographed maybe 20 of them. The brochure also says the next neighborhood over has "a handful" of them, with no details. They are beautiful houses.
My cousins home was a kit home built near the end of the 1800’s that came from Seattle, WA. It was a 3 story Victorian with a wraparound porch with large round wooden columns and beveled lead crystal windows at the front entrance. It was built on a hill and the stone retaining walls were made by skilled stone masons from the Santa Fe railroad. It was one of the first homes in Prescott, AZ. to have electricity installed. It is listed in the National Registry of Historic Homes.
I live in a catalog home. Picked from a book, "Pre-Cut", shipped in a box car on the North Western line, and assembled 100 years ago. Only wish I had a photo of it's construction.
Intriguing subject; I've enjoyed leafing though a reprint of the Gordon/VanTyne catalog, a company offering similar "ready-to-assemble" homes during this period.
I grew up in The Crescent in McLean, Va. In 1959 my parents paid $14-grand for the 1924-built home. It sold for $750,000 in 2017. The new owners tore it down to build a McMansion because now days who cares about tradition. In McLean, they only build mansions. It was nice at age 66 to learn the name of my home's kit. We knew it was Sears but this was the first time I ever saw it in media. Thanks.
I owned one. A California bungalow . 2 bdr /1 bath + a 2 bdr/ 1 bath apt over 4 car garage. In Belmont Heights, Long Beach Calif It was a real nice house. Hardwood floors, full dimension lumber, lath and plaster . My house pmt was $128/Mo in 1975.🎉
I think the sears houses stand the test of time better than anything built since. They just have a nice appeal. I would think they shipped the materials in stages framing, sheathing, roofing etc. & then the interior finishes. Transfer from the rail siding to the building site would have to be arranged. Thanks for sharing.
You can see dozens of these homes in most of the small towns of California. Particularly those which were close to a Railroad. The town of Redding Ca, about twenty-five miles from the ranch I live on, has dozens of these houses. Whole neighborhoods are full of Sears houses. In Southern California it was much the same.
As a child, I lived in a Sear Kit Home. Later, as a teenager, we had a neighbor who lived in a Sears Kit Home. They were both fantastic, beautiful, well-constructed homes.
My Grand Uncle built a Sears Kit House to live in. Maybe late 1930s or early 1940s? He was a finish carpenter and a lifelong bachelor. It was a small house; one story, living room, kitchen, and two bedrooms. He built it over a basement.
My maternal grandparents built a 1920 Sears home in Windsor Ontario. They went to Detroit Michigan to order and choose everything they wanted. It crossed the Detroit River by train tunnel, then was delivered to the 5 acre lot by truck. It was sold in 1988. It remains, after several updates….as I check it out every so many years. It is a solid home.
wow isn’t that awesome, that’s so cool they got to tell you about it too
That is cool! I bet you the several updates have masked the house's true character though. Unless the latest update restored it back to its former glory like most people (including I) would prefer to do anyway.
I lived in a Sears kit house for several years (a four-bedroom bungalow), and loved it. It was beautifully detailed, using high-quality materials, and was simply a lovely house.
My first home in 1973 was a beautiful Sears home!!! Still standing proudly in Gleside Gardens,Pennsylvania! We were given all the order information and paperwork and proudly passed it on to the next family!!
We need a modern day program like this.
Oh it's available it's called trailers.....then you rent land in a "park"......not sure about your neighbors though
@pavelow235 or manufactured homes that you put onto a on-site foundation
“Program”?
Hawaii Planing Mill offered simple home kits up into the late 20th century (Maybe still?). It was a good way for people with limited means get a start in Hawaii. Most home construction has become too complicated and regionally controlled today. Labor and local costs have wiped out some the advantage of such a system. The contemporary “kit” homes mentioned are expensive alternatives and the businesses do not seem to last or are always restructuring to find the sweet spot in the competition.
@@pavelow235But as noted in the video, trailers are less desirable, often depreciating quickly, whereas these old Sears houses still have their value.
I don't believe that Sears Kit Homes actually "failed." They succeeded brilliantly during their time on the market during a very DIY era and were later replaced by more modern DIY options, as the video shows. Additionally, look at all the people in the comments that own or owned one of these houses. They are all proud of the fact. That's a great success considering its 100 since Sears started selling kit homes. About ten years ago, when finishing my history degree I went on a Sears Kit Home search in my home town. There were well over a dozen that I was able to find, so I'm sure there were many more, temporarily lost to history until the day someone starts a renovation, finds a number burned into a large beam and calls their local history museum to ask "what is this?" Their eyes will open to a vast world of discovery. Definitely not a failure!
When Sears stopped selling the homes in 1942 I am willing to bet that World War II, the shortage of labour, and the redirection of factories into making was materiel had a great deal to do with it. Post war, subdivisions were being built rather than individual building lots.
He didn't touch on the biggest reason that kit homes went away- cheap power tools. In 1912 it was economical to cut everything to length in a factory, number it, and ship it to the build site. If you had the plans but had to buy your own lumber, you'd be cutting it to length with a handsaw. once power tools got cheap enough for the average contractor to afford it was cheaper to cut lumber on site. manufactured homes could still be made efficiently, but with more and more being finished in the factory essentially becoming modular. Stores like Menards sell home plans and all materials to build them, but you are going to have to interpret the drawings and cut your lumber yourself.
They failed in the business sense that they ceased operations.
From the images I've seen in movies and TV shows those houses are so cute/pretty when well painted.
Sears even had it's own unique styles know as 'Craftsman'. The Craftsman style was so popular it was copied by other builders.
@@MrSloika Of course they also used that name for their tools! Makes sense!
@@jamesslick4790So that's where Sears got the idea for the name of their tools! Hahaha.
I owned and lived in a "Sears house" for 22 years. It was actually from a company called Aladdin that was just like the Sears catalogue. Ours was the Plaza model. We couldn't find out for certain the year it was built, but we think about 1912. Sadly, we no longer live there. It is a gorgeous, California bungalow style with stone foundation and pillars. Deep eaves and wide front porch. I love that house deeply and miss it terribly. It is in State College, Pennsylvania.
Sorry you had to leave.
Just looked it up and boy that is a cute home design! I can see the appeal, especially with that front porch.
Austin Motor Company had a bunch of Aladin houses shipped from Bay City, MI to Birmingham, UK, during WWI and most of them are still standing and visible on Google street-view. The name of the place is Austin Village and there are various web sites with information on it.
I have a liberty aka Aladin pre cut home, a little cape built in 1950
It has been a good home. Standard size windows and doors have been a benefit. Oddly my biggest complaint is the layout of the electric circuits (too manay rooms share one breaker), and the original owner was the electrician at a local factory🤦♂️. A neighbor told me no way the original owners built it, they definitely hired contractors for assembly.
In 1953, my grandfather bought and built an Aladdin kit house. Lived in it till the day he died. My grandmother remained there until she no longer could. Thankfully, the house is still in the family.
My wife's first home purchase was a Craftsman home from Sears. It was solidly constructed.
I came across the term "Craftsman home" in a book. No idea that it was a kit home.
I'd take a Sears Roebuck & Co house right now over these sawdust particleboard McMansions that cost over $480K
same!
My goddaughter and her husband lived in one of these houses. It was beautiful. 👍👍
Years ago Jean Sheppard , "A Christmas Story", had a weekly show on PBS radio. One week he told the story of a family in a small midwestern town he lived in that had ordered a Sears Kit Home. The entire town turned out. It's a very funny story but I haven't been able to find it on the internet. Thank you for including this.
the town he grew up in , Hammond, Indiana, has a plethora of sears mail order homes, they also have a half dozen of the bolt together enameled kit homes that were offered immediately post war by another firm
I’ll never forget that episode. Heard it when I was 10, in 1968.
Kinda like an Amish barn raising event. The entire Amish community shows up to help in anyway they can.
Glad you took the time and effort to present this the way you did, Ken. Many of the Sears kits as you mentioned really have stood the test of time. The newest pre-fab homes are truly sturdy and outstanding. I still may consider one. They are tanks compared to the earlier single and double wide manufactured home.
I have yet to find any of the prefabs that were not much more expensive than stick built. I wish I could remember the video about the prefab company that switched to being an on-site builder who brought the fabrication equipment to the site and found he saved time and money.
I own a 1939 Sears Starlight. (Rental property) It is a very well designed home for both space and strength. I was an electrician and worked in a lot of attics, and I'm a big guy. The floor of the attic in my Sears house doesn't move when I'm up there.
My father grew up in a Sears kit home in Yonkers, New York, one of the first ones built (his parents bought it when it was less than ten years old).
I owned a Sears home in Poughkeepsie, New York from 1983 to 1995. Built in 1930, it was a simple, boxy structure with 2 bedrooms on a long narrow lot. There were others on my street and quite a few around town.
Knowing Poughkeepsie, it's not cluttered with junk, run down, and dilapidated.
There are several UA-cam Channels of people moving off grid and building homes from scratch. I understand the appeal of, if you could, to build your own home on these remote lots. I, however, even if I had the skill, I would instead build a prefab A Frame. This gives me surface area for solar panels that can be cleaned and maintained. Then, once completed, if needed I would build extensions, etc. but at least I would have a place to live that is not a tent.
For me it varies where the location is at and if it makes sense. In the more wilderness area where there’s lots of snow, A frames are an excellent plus. In a more quaint town or in a valley, the cute homes will be best able to blend in. One of the things I have a hard time with is architecture that detracts from the setting. Most architecture is developed based on region depending on the source of the material and the techniques to help adapt to the environment (pueblos work best in the deserts, courtyards give heated areas benefits of breathable spaces without relying on electricity like New Orleans, etc.)
Wish we had these kits still available today. I would buy one and enjoy building it.
WHY WOULD YOU SAY THEY FAILED ? EVERYTHING UNDER THE SUN EVOLVES OR HAS THEIR SEASONS. TODAY THESE HOMES ARE SOUGHT AFTER FOR THEIR HISTORY. THAT IS CALLED SUCCESS.
AGREE WITH YOUR ASSESSMENT!
I agree the kit homes were a success and unlike today's home they provided solid value.
Yes, the houses didn't fail, Sears did, the internet making catalog shopping obsolete
There’s one standing, lived in and looking great in Grand River Ohio…..
It’s a nice home!
Absolutely! The Sears kit homes were a very wide smashing success for Sears & the American family consumers.
Friends of mine used to live in a stunning Victorian-style home in Pasadena, CA, complete with a tower and stained glass windows. You'd never guess it had been made from a Sears kit over 100 years ago. Probably worth millions today.
@pamelachristie5570 I owned a bungalow at 622 Charter Oak St. in South Pasadena, built in 1922. The neighbors speculated that it was a kit home. It was drafty but super cute.
Bring that program BACK,it's a great idea that we need right now!
My grandparents home was a Sears kit home. They lived there for over 60 years, so many great memories.
I’m sitting in a sears home. It’s over 100 years old. How did they fail? The program changed mostly due to government regulations not due to kit homes. I wish we could buy sears home style kits and not just “build packs” from a big box store.
I have one! A Craftsman.
Awesome - where you at?
I have one also,1928, the Starlighter,absolouteley love it , the interior is mostly intact,waterford mi
@@Porsche996driver Dude, don't ask that
@@timfremstad3434 Why not? You think he will get in his Porsche and drive over there and bother them lol?
Good for you all.
What killed the Sears mail order homes? World War II and the strict wartime rationing. Almost all construction projects had to be approved by various government agencies as essential to the war effort. On a side note; I live in a prefab and am quite happy.
I would guess the Stock market crash of 29 put a serious dent in kit home sales just like it did for almost all non essentials during the depression
I inherited a "Kit Home" from my Paternal Grandparents in a small town Central Illinois in 1998. When I financed the remodel I obtained the original handwritten Abstract. The house was one of several built by a contractor who used "Kit Homes" shipped by rail. The house was built in 1890 as a 4 room "Saltbox" style. The houses on either side of me were the same floorplan only reversed. Later add-ons in the 1920's may well have come from Sears as a "kitchen" and pantry and small bedroom went on the back as well as a "modern" outhouse was set back in the backyard by the alley. I used that outhouse as a kid on visits up until the mid 60's when sewage and water came to that small town and grandpa added a bathroom in the house in place of the pantry. He also built a one car garage at that time.
It was one of many shipped in and built by the local coal mine to house workers. Over the years the locals came to calling the homes "Sears Homes" though they pre-dated Sears massive program. Before Sears, many small companies sprang up to create these kits for people beginning with President Lincoln's "Land Deal" for settlers going west.
When I inherited it I remodeled it by adding 2 bedrooms (one with a Master bath) and enclosed the back porch. I tore down the old garage and put a 2 and a half in it's place as well as a pool. I remember cutting through wood from the 1800's that burned up sawblades by the dozens. I'm talking about the 4x4's and larger. All the original lumber was true 2x4 and up. What began as a 4 room house without electric or plumbing eventually became a 3 bed 2 full bath ranch. They don't build 'em like they used to.
Our family still has a four-square Sears home. It's built like a tank. Great building.
When I lived in Arlington, Va. I went on a Sears home tour. There were a lot of homes Sears built there due to the railroads. Easy to ship. I still have the pamphlet with all the addresses of the homes that we visited. There was even a Montgomery Wards home on the list. It was a book store but was torn down just a couple of years later to make way for a little retail strip.
I owned one and lived it as a country getaway. Enjoyed it fully!
JIM 🎉
I had heard of the Sears homes, but never realized the extent of the offerings. Thanks Ken for doing this.
Emagine finding one of these in storage. That would be awesome.
History does repeat it self.
Thanks for all You do, Much Love.
I work next to one of these, my boss grew up in the house. It's built better than any double wide or pre-fab today.
Our account has an office in an old Sears house. She discovered it’s origins when some modifications were made to make the interior an office..
I grew up in a Sears catalog home, I believe it was built in 1929. Solid home, plaster walls, oak trim. 2:14 when I was a kid, our kitchen sink looked like what you see on top right. It was a big bathtub sink.
Would love to see a full episode by you on local Sears homes~it’s fun to try & pick them out in the Chicago area!
I live in a Sears Catalog home built in 1937. Has seen up grades over the years. Well built and sturdy all these years later as are most I have seen.
I would love to have one of those old Sears homes. Unfortunately, that's not possible anymore.
Ken... as always, your videos are FASCINATING and EXCELLENT.
I’d buy one today! I lived in one for a couple years, and that’s how I learned about sears homes. I’m a huge fan of them now
I've been in some old Sears houses over the years and I liked them! I also think "cement," houses have a very bright future.
I saw a few Sears homes in LaGrange, IL. They were beautiful outside. I wish I could have seen them from the inside. Thank you so much for sharing.
We owned a kit home in a kit home neighborhood in Annapolis. The kits were derived via the Baltimore and Annapolis RR and the kits were constructed on both sides of the rail spur. While small it was well built and a great starter home for our expanding family. Thank you for highlighting this part of our history. Manufactured housing as these homes were the beginning were and are a more efficient building method with less waste and potentially more energy efficient.
I love the Sears kit houses. My brother got a reproduction of the Sears House Catalog for Christmas years ago and I became fascinated with it. The range of styles and the integrity of the designs is amazing. I like the current interest in tiny houses but I wish that the companies producing fabricated tiny houses would offer better, more interesting designs that don't look so boxy and modern.
An example of "The Crescent" model was my grandmother's house in Durham, NC. Still standing and recently sold for over $400,000.
I own and have lived in a sears kit home for the past 24 years. It was built in 1929 according to the date and initials inscribed in the basement floor. I have found many interesting labeling stamped in different materials throughout the home during updates and renovations, seems very well built with quality materials .
A very good friend of our family had a ranch up north of here near Paso Robles. The main house on the place was a Sears house and it was pretty nice looking. We usually stayed in what would be considered the ranchhand quarters which was this little funny house that wasn’t even on a foundation, the floor is and everything were very uneven and you could practically go through the place on rollerskates. But it’s a part of my childhood memories.
The original Sears house is still there, although the property has been sold. It has been pretty extensively remodeled and is now part of a winery.
Sears homes are dope. My grandma lives in one and my mom bought one across the street from her when it went up for sale. Remodeling them is also pretty easy. I would definitely live in a Sears home and would buy one myself in the future if one went up for sale in my grandmother's neighborhood.
Have you ever done videos by home type and covered different types all over the country? Seeing this Sears home video made me wonder, since there are so many type, all over. I live in a Spanish style home in central Florida. There are several in the town I live in and I've seen floor plans online that are similar to my 1925 home. It would be cool to see more older Spanish style homes.
Also, what are the modern/contemporary cement block homes that are one story, very flat, and typically surrounded by a block wall or a wall in front. There's one (vacant!) on my street and it's so neat looking. I wonder if there are more like it out there. 😊
There were several companies that offered kit homes. In my community there are neighborhoods full of houses that match the decriptions of kit homes. A dream of mine is to take reference images and try to identify the more obvious candidates. 😂
I live by a railroad line, and the town across the tracks from my neighborhood has a number of Sears homes. They’re quite solid, and attractive. The kits were often hauled by train, so towns near a railroad often have Sears homes.
I grew up in a 1911 Sears kit home. My parents bought it in 1953 for $13,000.
That was an expensive home in 1953.
Marshall Michigan has a few of these houses still. Absolutely beautiful ❤
most numbers sold were in California,second is Michigan,,,there are several in my neighborhood,includind my 1928 bungalow
I live in one. Excellent cottage style sears kit home. In fact my home is one of many Sears kit homes in my city.
I grew up in a Sears home built in 1936. I loved that house. Still my favorite house ever. All my friends lived in cinderblock shoeboxes aka "brick ranches."
This was a wonderful piece of history, Ken. Glendale, CA is still full of beautiful kit homes, although, sadly, they're disappearing.
I love Sears homes, we have many in Seattle my hometown. I’m looking at prefab homes for a second home option for a heavily wooded lot. There are many of good choices on the market. I really enjoyed your segment on the Sears homes because every time I look at new ones I think of Sears being the grandfather of pre fab homes.
Given the choice, and if I did not already live in my forever home, I would consider a kit home. In my community there a neighborhoods full of homes that look as if they may have begun life as kits. My family is blessed to live in a vernacular home that was built over 100 years ago. I love the idea of kit homes, however, modern day building and/or employment regulations along with the cost of quality materials might make building one impractical today. 😊
In the early 1960s I worked for National Homes Corp. at their plant in Horseheads, N.Y. Houses were prepared in sections and moved from the warehouse by truck to a particular customer. Great job.
319 12th St Henderson, KY is a Sears home. Tudor style, two story. A man from our church used to live there.
It is beautiful.
I looked it up on Zillow. $285,900.00. Wonder what the original kit cost.
In our area which is near an old train depot there’re many of these homes. The larger ones are very nice and full of character and the smaller ones are very nice as well.
Ken... as always your videos are EXCELLENT
My uncle bought the Sears bungalow and it’s still standing and it’s now attached to a house built in the 80s, it was jacked up and moved
You can still buy house kits online. Elon Musk has a small home manufacturing company that delivers small homes and constructs them. They're modular too, so if it's too small you can buy another and stack it horizontally and vertically.
When I was growing up in San Jose, CA most of the suburbs had been built since the 1950s. But prior to this the area used to be orchard farmland. But as time went on it was interesting to see some very old bungalow style houses here and there among the modern houses that were around before the sprawl! I can imagine by the styles of them that several can actually be kit style from that era.
There’s a few in the small city I live in presently also the suburbs of Chicago are loaded with these houses.
I live in a small town in TN, and didn’t realize until just a few years ago that there are quite a few Sears homes in our town. And they’re all in pretty good condition and in the better neighborhoods of our town!
My parents bought their prefab home in 1973. It was the last house from Boise Cascade to travel down I-84. The one thing about our house is that it is a 1 piece "modular", I guess home. It is 28 ft wide by 66 ft long. My sister now has that house.
I almost got a modular home 1996 & am still kicking myself about not getting it. My last home will be a modular house from Stratford Mfg. Homes in Post Falls, ID. Modulars are wonderful!
Our first home bought in 77 built in 39 was a sears kit home,we only realized it after recieving a letter from the origional owner/builder stating so, managed to find a old catalog and sure enough there was our home.A few years back my son went back to the old neighborhood and our sears home was gone, just a empty 40x120 lot, sad.
Mine is a 100 year old craftsman bungalow ❤
My parents owned a beautiful Sears home. I inherited it. It's beautiful. It sits on 20 acres The 2 story 3 bedroom home is cherished by my family. The 20 acres is used for boarding horse's. Milford Michigan
There is a larger Sears home in very rural Baker FL still on a good piece of land was for sale about a decade ago, saw a recent article about it. One person commented their grandmothers entire family and other folks in town took a trip to the train station to watch it get delivered and then built.
i've had this question in my mind since my parents got the 1908 catalog in the '70's. I've seen quite a few stone ones here in MA, no doubt it's a sears from that era. The people who wrote for the three stooges got a kick out of this too, lol
Growing up, my very elderly neighbors, who lived catty-corned from us, had a Sears Roebuck home. It was later expanded to accommodate the new family who would end up moving in. But the original portion always remained intact.
I have seen several of these homes. They’re still beautiful today. It was solid craftsmanship. You don’t see much of that these days.
For as small as my town is, we have quite a few sears homes. They are all as solid as when they were built.
I live in a house that was a kit house, but I have no information on it. The township i live in didn't start keeping records until 1950. There are a number of boards in the attic with part numbers on them. It's a very plain bungalow, and quite cozy. Wish I knew more about it!
I have friends in N. Florida who had a “Kit Cabin” home , it’s perfect for them!
I lived in one from 1970 to 1976 as a young boy. I can still remember the inside of that house very well. The fireplace room was amazing. It's still standing and I drive by it almost daily. We didn't know it was a Sears home until my dad was working in the attic and found a shipping manifest stapled to a rafter. It stated the model number, that it was a Sears home and that it arrived in our town by train. I wish I could recall what model it was. I'd love to see the blue prints and a Sears catalog picture of it.
My first house was a 1910 Sears kit home in TN identical to the one at 0:49. Bought it for $64k in 2007 and sold it in 2016, then the next owner sold it in 2022 for $223k. That’s crazy money for a 1300 sq ft, 2 bed 1 bath bungalow (in good condition but hadn’t been changed at all since I owned it).
This was awesome. I just love this guys’ This House videos. Thanks dude.
I grew up in Como, MS and several of these homes are in our little town. Including the Magnolia
They're all over St.louis MO. My best friend's grandfather built one. They chained all the materials together and legitimately floated it down the Mississippi River to get it to him. He said he stood by the bank for days waiting for it. Wild.
I live a prefab house. A Wausau home. We bought it when it was 6 years old. The parts build in the factory and put together on site were well done. It was change orders on location done by builder supervising the assembly that things were F 'ed up. The subs they used for HVAC, painting window tirm, landscaping not so much. The landscaping looked nice but done on the cheap. Very little topsoil with sod placed on sand from footings etc. The people we bought the house from had no practical knowledge. Wausau homes and good subs did a great job others not so much. Getting to good shape after 30 years and 2 remodels in different areas of the house.
Atlanta has a ton of these Sears homes still in Existence around the city. In fact there’s a large building now called Ponce City Market that was once a large Sears & Roebuck distribution hub which sold many of these Sears homes that were ultimately built all around the city.
There’s one of those space age metal panel homes up the road from me. I forget the name of them. They were prefab metal panels. It’s so unique.
There is a neighborhood in Hopewell, Virginia that has 44 Sears houses in it, concentrated on 3 streets and the avenue that they all intersect. The local tourist welcome center has a brochure on them. It says they were all built circa 1926-37. I have photographed maybe 20 of them. The brochure also says the next neighborhood over has "a handful" of them, with no details.
They are beautiful houses.
grew up in a Sears home ... one of the nicer homes on the block ... Pops built it along with Mom and a friend
My cousins home was a kit home built near the end of the 1800’s that came from Seattle, WA.
It was a 3 story Victorian with a wraparound porch with large round wooden columns and beveled lead crystal windows at the front entrance.
It was built on a hill and the stone retaining walls were made by skilled stone masons from the Santa Fe railroad.
It was one of the first homes in Prescott, AZ. to have electricity installed.
It is listed in the National Registry of Historic Homes.
I live in a catalog home. Picked from a book, "Pre-Cut", shipped in a box car on the North Western line, and assembled 100 years ago. Only wish I had a photo of it's construction.
I grew up in a Sears house (1920 model)... as did my friend next door and my friend up the street. Good memories.
You showed a picture of my mom's Sears kit home. She has the Arts and Craft Super Bungalow. It's a very nice home.
I live in a 99-year-old Montgomery Ward kit house. It is a lovely home, and even had a major addition before I owned it.
My grandparents house was a sears home, two story four bedroom built in 1929.
Intriguing subject; I've enjoyed leafing though a reprint of the Gordon/VanTyne catalog, a company offering similar "ready-to-assemble" homes during this period.
I grew up in The Crescent in McLean, Va. In 1959 my parents paid $14-grand for the 1924-built home. It sold for $750,000 in 2017. The new owners tore it down to build a McMansion because now days who cares about tradition. In McLean, they only build mansions. It was nice at age 66 to learn the name of my home's kit. We knew it was Sears but this was the first time I ever saw it in media. Thanks.
I owned one.
A California bungalow . 2 bdr /1 bath + a 2 bdr/ 1 bath apt over 4 car garage. In Belmont Heights, Long Beach Calif
It was a real nice house. Hardwood floors, full dimension lumber, lath and plaster . My house pmt was $128/Mo in 1975.🎉
I grew up in one and it's still one of the nicest in town!
I think the sears houses stand the test of time better than anything built since. They just have a nice appeal. I would think they shipped the materials in stages framing, sheathing, roofing etc. & then the interior finishes. Transfer from the rail siding to the building site would have to be arranged. Thanks for sharing.
You can see dozens of these homes in most of the small towns of California. Particularly those which were close to a Railroad. The town of Redding Ca, about twenty-five miles from the ranch I live on, has dozens of these houses. Whole neighborhoods are full of Sears houses. In Southern California it was much the same.
As a child, I lived in a Sear Kit Home. Later, as a teenager, we had a neighbor who lived in a Sears Kit Home. They were both fantastic, beautiful, well-constructed homes.
My Grand Uncle built a Sears Kit House to live in. Maybe late 1930s or early 1940s? He was a finish carpenter and a lifelong bachelor. It was a small house; one story, living room, kitchen, and two bedrooms. He built it over a basement.