old house plans from sears

Today, buyers are still snapping up vintage Sears houses just as eagerly as they did 80 years … Sears began offering house plans, and later kit houses, to the American market in the first two decades of the 20th century and continued until 1940. You can search the house listings by clicking on a group of years ( 1908–1914 , 1915–1920 , 1921–1926 , 1927–1932 and 1933–1940 ).

Sears Modern Home, “The Winston” by Sears Homes | Jan 31, 2016 | Uncategorized | 6 commentsIt’s been 17 years since I wrote my first article on Sears kit homes, and I’ve learned a lot in those years.

Sears has opened the doors to its vast archival collection and invited the public to peek inside. Many of these homes were built in Sears planned "Home Club Plan" developments in New Jersey, New York and Ohio.Over the 32 years that Sears offered homes by catalog, Sears offered 370 different models. What seems likely here is that the original structure might have been modified after 1908 with heavily modified plans from a Sears Modern. In some cases, homeowners used plans from original Sears homes to recreate a modern version of a Sears home. The models listed below are some of the most popular models.The largest and one of the most expensive Sears models was the Magnolia.In addition to houses, the 1908 Sears catalog offered a kit schoolhouse with the model name "Schoolhouse No. Bungalows come in many shapes and styles. Precut framing timbers, an innovation pioneered by Aladdin, was first offered by Sears in 1916. In 2006, I moved backFor years and years, I lived in the St. Louis area and that's where I wrote my books on Sears Homes (and where I did all the research).

Sales through local sales offices continued into 1942. While the vast majority of models were for single-family house designs, Sears did offer a smaller number of duplex house designs and even a few larger multiple-family buildings. Because the various kit home companies often copied plan elements or designs from each other, there are a number of catalog and kit models from different manufacturers that look similar or identical to models offered by Sears. 319 Sycamore Road, Lexington, Kentucky Asking: $484,500 In other cases, the home followed the general design of a Sears house without being an exact duplicate.One well-known replica of a Sears house is at the "Farm at Prophetstown" museum in There was speculation that the kit homes were going to lead the housing industry well into the future.

Learn to recognize the various types, see pictures, and learn the history that spans from 1905-1930.Rosemary Thornton, one of the most notable authorities on Sears kit homes has written a short article on getting started finding out if your home was one of the many kit homes sold during the first half of the 20th century.In 1912, Albert Brown of Mechanicsburg, Ohio sent a lovely letter to Gordon Van Tine (a kit home company), praising House #126, which he'd recently purchased ofHistoric City on the Monongahela River Romanesque store front in Fairmont... ...and a mural of a historic street scene in the Middleto...In the last 30 days, I've received more than 100 emails asking for information on Sears Homes. Sears houses could also be ordered with reversed floor plans. KIT HOMES 1908- 1940" on Pinterest. Also Sears Robuck home catalogs, packed with historic house plans. In the early years, the models were identified with numbers. These pre-1916 houses are not generally considered to be "kit houses" but do fall under the definition of a "catalog house". After several years, Sears also began assigning names to the various models, a convention that carried through to the end of the program. In fact, many of the famous designs were commandeered from other sources and/or purchased from architects but given just enough change to be advertised as their own.Sears Homes have become increasingly popular among history enthusiasts because of their sturdy structure, the do-it-yourself nature of construction and the popular architectural design concepts. Sears Modern Homes offered the latest technology available to house buyers in the early part of the twentieth century. Click on the associated link for a collection of images and photographs of almost all 447 house designs sold through the Sears Modern Homes program. Because these homes were constructed using pre-cut lumber and plans provided by Sears, these homes can be considered to be "Sears Modern Homes". However, many houses described as Sears Homes are not true Sears Homes, being either the product of another kit home manufacturer or not a kit home at all.Cities that have records of building permits may list Sears Roebuck as the original architect. In 2006, I moved backFor years and years, I lived in the St. Louis area and that's where I wrote my books on Sears Homes (and where I did all the research). In 1908, Sears issued its first specialty catalog for houses, Book of Modern Homes and Building Plans, featuring 44 house styles ranging in price from US $360–$2,890.

Some models were offered with variations, the most common of those being expanded floor plans and additional finished living spaces. More than 100 years of stories, product and brand histories, photographs, catalog images and more are now available online. Many of these post 1940 homes were based on models from the 1940 and earlier Sears catalogs but not all were, leading to debate over whether these homes qualify as "Sears Modern Homes".