What Happened to Sears Catalog Houses?



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Sears Catalog Homes, sold between 1908 and 1940, were revolutionary in American homebuilding. These kit homes were ordered from the Sears, Roebuck & Co. catalog and shipped by train to buyers across the U.S., complete with pre-cut materials and instructions. Offering over 400 designs at affordable prices, they allowed middle-class families to achieve homeownership during a time of rapid urbanization and economic growth. However, the Great Depression and World War II eventually led to their decline, as Sears exited the home-building business. Today, these homes are nostalgic symbols of early 20th-century innovation, though many have deteriorated or disappeared over time.

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34 thoughts on “What Happened to Sears Catalog Houses?”

  1. Sad really that Sears has turned into what it turned into. Alan Lacy trashed the company and then Eddie Lampert got what was left of it and really ruined any legacy that could have been left.

    The houses were really great and they're awesome to see here and there.

    Reply
  2. I live in a suburb of KC and our small town has a historic district, where I live. My house was built in 1910 and it is one of the smaller and simpler ones. A house down the street was built in 1868 and a couple blocks away one is from 1856. One thing I notice about the Sears homes vs the ones in my neighborhood is the lack of anything round. I'm sure that would be difficult for Joe Schmo who just bought his home in a catalog but many houses (including mine) have bay windows and circular or semi- circular rooms. I didn't see much of that from the homes I looked up. I was trying to see if my house was one of the houses in the catalog but after that revelation I don't think it was. A couple in my area look like ones I saw when searching, though

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  3. I have seen a few Sears catalog homes in person. One was still absolutely gorgeous and you could tell it was well made and built right. One was falling apart from years of neglect, but it was still standing tall because, it was well built. And I have seen a few that were either horribly put together and/or modified horribly. I know folks that absolutely loved their Sears home, and a few that hated them. Like houses made today, from trailer to multi-million dollar houses, its going to be a hit-or-miss crap shoot on materials being undamaged in transit, and someone building it correctly with proper, undamaged materials to begin with.

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  4. What is it with this current trend of narrators thinking that we want to see their face talking every few minutes? Note to contact creators; this is annoying, and distracting. Please put your vanity aside, we don't need to see face!

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  5. I live near st. Augustine Florida and they have many on display . I also suspect my aunts home in Missouri was a sears home . As a kid it looked like a mansion to me . I was raised buying all my school clothes and Christmas toys via sears – that catalog was a staple in our homes. ❤

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  6. Sears made a very stupid business decision at the dawn of the internet. They divested the catalog sales stating that the cost of catalog printing was too high. Had they stayed in business and moved to an online catalog, Amazon would probably not exist.

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