Sears Modern Home
Sears | Sears Modern Home | Modern Home Gallery
When Sears first became a mass merchant king in 1895, they began selling building supplies. However, due to the non profitability, Sears seriously considered to close the department in 1906. At that time, Frank Kushel was chosen- to figure out a way to liquidate the inventory and eliminate the department. While working out a plan, he noticed that the department was not working due to the high costs in maintaining an inventory. Sears should just have this merchandise be shipped directly to the customer along with building plans. This idea paved the way for a new industry that resulted in the construction of almost 100,000 Sears Homes in a thirty year span. The first catalog was printed in 1908 (pictured), had 68 pages and listed about 44 home styles and one brick schoolhouse.
Between 1908 and 1940 Sears offered as many as 400 unique designs, although several can be hybrids of one another. It was common for owners/builders to improvise on the original design and even Sears renamed the same style if it was a frame or brick construction.
This special section of Chicagology will feature actual photos from a 1912 promotional booklet that contained hundreds of testimonials of satisfied owners (and builders) of the Sears kit home. Several of the letters included actual addresses as well as photos. Chicagology.com was able to obtain an almost complete copy – pages 9 through 94. Since the book was arranged alphabetically by state, only states Colorado through Pennsylvania are available and only the letters that included photos are part of the Gallery. The Index lists all the homes with photos. It is known that there are only a few copies that still exist of this booklet.
