"Here, at last is the ideal way to build that home you have been planning, build it where you want; how you want; pay for it like low-cost rent. And, when you buy a Sears Modern Home you deal with one organization, Sears. That organization guarantees that you get the quality materials you select. Sears brings to you not only an organization of national renown and integrity and the benefits and savings due to its tremendous buying power, but the practical experience of furnishing materials for over 112,000 Sears Homes. Architects are at your service. Investigate. You'll find a Sears Modern Home to fit your needs and budget. Hundreds of plans from which to choose. Plan to build your Sears Modern Home today."
(Newspaper advertisement from July 19, 1940 edition of The Courier News, Bridgewater, Connecticut)
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| Front cover of the Sears Modern Home catalog for 1922 (public domain image via Wikipedia) |
Between the years of 1908 and 1942, Sears, Roebuck and Co. sold an innovative product which came from an innovative idea. The Modern Home, a complete, modern, prefabricated residential home, was, in essence, a kit which customers could order directly from the Sears, Roebuck and Co. mail order catalog. The Modern Home was available in a total of 370 designs and a variety of styles, and customers could customize many features within the homes to suit their specific needs and interests. The entire home, everything from wood beams and framing, to the plumbing, light fixtures and doorknobs, would be shipped directly to the customer, all packed within a railway boxcar.
The idea of selling an entire home via a catalog might seem a bit far-fetched. However, a better understanding of Sears, Roebuck and Co. and their mail order catalog, may help to explain just why this plan actually succeeded as long as it did.
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| Richard Warren Sears (public domain photo via Wikipedia) |
Sears, Roebuck and Co.
What most people now know as Sears, a chain of retail stores which, at one point in time, could be found all across the United States, started out as a simple mail order business.
Founded in 1893 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck, Sears, Roebuck and Co. was the continuation of a business relationship which had begun in 1886, when the two men first met. Sears, who had been selling watches and jewelry by mail order in Minneapolis, Minnesota, under the business name R.W. Sears Watch Co., had, in 1887, decided to relocate the business to Chicago, Illinois. Roebuck, a watch repairman by trade, went to Chicago with Sears, where they published the company's first mail order catalog, selling watches, diamonds and jewelry. After selling the business in 1889 in order to become an Iowa banker, Richard Sears eventually returned to the mail order business, in 1892, this time partnering with Roebuck, to form the A.C. Roebuck Co., selling watches, diamonds and jewelry. In 1893, the decision was made to begin to diversify the product line which the company sold and to change the name of the company to Sears, Roebuck and Co.
Sears Goes Rural
One of the markets which the company successfully sold into was rural areas of the country. Traditionally, residents in these locations purchased their products from general stores, local business establishments where credit and prices were negotiable, based on the storekeepers understanding of a customers ability to pay. Sears and Roebuck saw an opportunity to sell to these people, with a promise of greater product selection and more price stability.
With a large, diversified inventory of items, all showcased in an attractive, easy to read catalog, and a tactic of charging a set price for each item, Sears, Roebuck and Co. was able to offer more choices, at prices which didn't change based solely on someone's arbitrary decision. This strategy led to rapid growth and by 1895, the company was publishing a 532 page catalog with total sales for the year of $750,000.
Over the coming years, business grew and the company continued to increase its' offerings, along with the size of its' catalog.
The Catalog
Alternatively known as "the Consumers Bible" or the "Big Book", during the years of its' publication, the Sears, Roebuck and Co. catalog became a commonplace sight in almost every home in the country. Within it's hundreds of pages could be found almost anything anyone would ever need or want - including a place to call home.
The Beginnings of The Sears Modern Home
In 1906, Frank W. Kushel, a manager for the company, was given the opportunity to revitalize sales within it's building materials department. The company had an excess of inventory and sales were low. Kushel came up with an idea to take selected pieces of the inventory and bundle them together, along with construction plans, that could be sold and then be reassembled, on location, as an entire, finished house (not includong the foundation). Richard Sears liked the idea, and by 1908, the first catalog, Book of Modern Homes and Building Plans, was being mailed out to potential customers.
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| Catalog floorplan and image of the Magnolia model Sears Modern Home (public domain via Wikipedia) |
A Unique Advantage
While the concept of shipping pre-built homes was not a new one, Sears, Roebuck and Co. had a big leg up on the competition - the catalog. By this time, the Sears, Roebuck and Co. catalog was in millions of homes across the nation, where it was a valued resource for the average Joe and Jane consumer, who used it to purchase everything from socks to baby strollers to sailboats. Now these same customers could purchase moderately priced, prefabricated homes which they could then assemble on site themselves, or which could be put together by local contractors.
At the inception of the program, forty-four different styles of home were offered, ranging in price from $360 - $2890. As time went by, more styles of homes were added,
As the Modern Home program expanded, Sears, Roebuck and Co. invested in factories which could produce more of the items that went into the kits. They opened a lumber mill in Cairo, Illinois and later another one in Port Newark, New Jersey. They purchased the Norwood Door and Sash Co. They also increased the number of sales offices around the country to handle the increased level of interest from potential home owners.
Sears Becomes a Mortgage Lender
In 1912, Sears, Roebuck and Co. began offering financing programs, to help would-be homeowners pay for the new home kits and for the land they were built on. For many years, this was another success for the company. However, this changed with the Great Depression. Many people who had taken out loans with Sears, Roebuck and Co. were now unemployed and unable to make their monthly payments. Sears was in the unenviable position of having to foreclose on a large number of their own customers. This caused a huge public relations crisis, as many people who had been loyal customers would no longer do business with Sears. Sears got out of the money lending business is 1933.
While the last Modern Home catalog was printed in 1940, Sears, Roebuck and Co. continued to sell the Modern Home until 1942, when the program was finally shut down.
Sears, Roebuck and Co. Modern Home Archaeology
By the end of the program, Sears, Roebuck and Co. had sold more than seventy thousand of the Modern Home kits. Due to the high quality of the materials used in the kits, many of these homes still exist to this day and are still being lived in by current generations of homeowners.
Not surprisingly, there is a great amount of interest in these homes from professional and amateur historians alike. They represent an interesting piece of United Stayes history that can be viewed from many different angles.
Identifying a Sears, Roebuck and Co. Modern Home might seem like a fairly easy thing to do. However, many of the records of the people who purchased the kits and the final destination of the homes no longer exist, as they were destroyed by the company in a move to clean house. In addition, Sears, Roebuck and Co. was not the only company in the kit home business. Companies such as Montgomery Ward were also selling these kits, as were other less nationally known names.
There are however, a number of different pieces of information which can be used to aid in the search for a true Sears, Roebuck and Co. Modern Home. These include shipping labels, lumber stamped with specific numbering from the company and cast iron bathtubs, bathroom and kitchen sinks with the circled letters "SR" stamped in specific locations.
Stamped lumber beam from a Sears Modern Home (public domain image via Wikipedia)
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| Example of a Shipping Label for a Sears Modern Home |
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