In the midst of my various, wandering research forays I discovered a large collection of houses that Sears, Roebuck & Company sold via mail-order to folks around the country. Over their sales history they sold some 75,000 homes to people, many of whom could never have afforded a home via any other means.
Sears began marketing complete home kits, called the "Honor-Bilt" line of homes, in 1908, and continued, with only a couple of brief interruptions, until 1940, when they finally closed down the division. At the height of the operation, in 1929, sears had 48 remote sales offices devoted to these houses. Black Friday and the Great Depression that ensued spelled the end of this amazing (though not particularly profitable) venture.
The kit homes came delivered with the pieces pre-measured and pre-cut (not pre-fabricated, though they sold other house kits that were pre-fabricated), and with complete assembly instructions. Homeowners built the houses themselves, with help from friends and family, and with professional carpentry and masonry labor. Many saved 50% of the cost of a "conventional" home.
Sears even offered mortgages with simple, straightforward, honest terms, betting that the homeowners who had actually built their own homes would go through "hell and high water" to keep them. What no one knew was that hell and high water was on its way in the form of the Great Depression.*
I won't relate the whole, exhaustive history, here. If you are interested in learning more, buy the Thornton book (see the link, below) and read all about these houses, yourself.
* I have paraphrased a quote (page 74) from Rosemary Thornton's " The Houses That Sears Built". Amazon.com lists it out of stock right now (May 28, 2005), but you may find it other places (try contacting the author). I highly recommend it as the authority on the history of Sears houses.
Here are three that I have modeled and completed, so far. The second one
is much more detailed and complete than the first. It is also more
"accurate" and "authentic", if such a thing is possible. I
have at least 2 others in progress, in varying degrees of completion.
I saw this house design on a small, fuzzy reproduction of a page from the Sears Modern Home catalog of 1911. I liked it so much I decided to model it, even though I could barely read some of the dimensions. Subsequently I discovered I was "off" somewhat, but I still like how it came out.
This house design was on page 4 of a Sears catalog reprint book I bought (called Homes In A Box). It also included an image showing the living and dining rooms, and a detail of the buffet in the dining room. So, I thought it would look really cool if I modeled it.
It does look really cool. Check it out.
This house design is another from my Sears catalog reprint book. It's also known as the "Princeville" in some editions. I like the funky landing and hall seat detail in this house (visible left center, covered in white siding). Altogether, a small, yet nice, compact design.
The only time-consuming aspect of modeling this house were the many, many exposed rafters that had to be modeled one-at-a-time.
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