Hello Blue.
Sears has released this site. I have not had a chance to view it all, but what I have read is of interest to historians and modelers as well
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Charlie

Thats an amazing resource. Great find!

Very interesting to see the evolution of the plans, and how even some of the earliest models have design features that you find 50 years later.

I wonder how Sears Roebuck fared in Canada. It would be great to see an equivalent Eatons site, but alas they went under in 1999 after 130 years in business. Many of the homes built in the Canadian Prairies were Eaton homes shipped by rail to the west.

If anyone is interested, I have a couple of similar books - one on Victorian era homes and cottages, and one about houses and trim in the 1920s. I also have an Eatons 1927 Spring and Summer catalogue (reproduction). Unfortunately, the latter does not have anything about houses.

Andrew

I am somewhat surprised with the rate of inflation over the first 50 years. It really wasn't bad at all.
I wish there were actual blueprints available, but the floor plans give you a good idea what they would have been like.
Charlie

It's been an age since I last heard anything about the "Sears Homes". :o Yes, I do remember them.
I also remember "Levittown, Long Island".......endless rows of small single family homes, that were purchased mostly by military personnel, returning from WWII. There were many "copies" of the Levittown concept throughout the country, and even today there are mass produced homes in "developments" nationwide. >{{ Search, Levittown }}<

It's a decent enough day, think I might head out to the Illinois Railway Museum, in Union, Il., to see what's new out there.

I think it was in Jean Shepherd's "Phantom of the Open Hearth" that has a sequence where they were unloading a Sears home from boxcars which was one of the disasters that befell them. I think this is posted to youtube now. <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVCfWbSs6O0">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVCfWbSs6O0</a><!-- m -->
Charlie

There's a Buster Keaton film in which he orders a Sears-type house kit, but his rival for the affections of his lady sabotages the plans, with the expected results. Like many of Keaton's films, trains are featured, too.

Wayne

Charlie B Wrote:I think it was in Jean Shepherd's "Phantom of the Open Hearth" that has a sequence where they were unloading a Sears home from boxcars which was one of the disasters that befell them. Charlie

I can still hear Jean Shepherd's voice, on WOR radio, Saturday night, late.....talking about houses made of "Ticky-Tac". My Brother and I got a lot of laughs from his "Saturday night programs"........ especially the "Invectives".

Sumpter250 Wrote:I can still hear Jean Shepherd's voice, on WOR radio, Saturday night, late.....talking about houses made of "Ticky-Tac". My Brother and I got a lot of laughs from his "Saturday night programs"........ especially the "Invectives".

I was years trying to find the 4 plays from Americas Playhouse on PBS, even wrote them and begged to have them sell them as money makers, but I had to settle for bootlegged copies, and I don't feel bad about doing it in this case. My copies however have lost the ability to be played. burnt dvd's don't last forever.
Most of his stuff is on line to enjoy once again.
Charlie

Thanks for the post Charlie . it is exactly what I needed. I will be starting to build # 115, the Greenview.

ak-milw Wrote:Thanks for the post Charlie . it is exactly what I needed. I will be starting to build # 115, the Greenview.

Don't forget pictures and instructions, I think there are a lot of fun builds there.
Charlie

My Father's Family lived in a Sears home in Edmonton when they came to Canada from the Netherlands in the Mid-fifties. It was one of the larger ones since he was the oldest of seven kids.

I'm not sure, but I think the term "Craftsman Home" came from Sears. As their premier line of tools has always been the "Craftsman" brand, the house kits were sold under the "Craftsman" brand by Sears.

Actually, the Craftsman style of house was part of the Arts & Crafts movement of the late-19th and early 20th century.
There are some pictures of such houses HERE, and, as you can see, they're quite a bit different from the Sears houses.

Wayne

This thread gives me a clue as to how old my house actually is.Our property deeds / tax records used to list a construction date but that bit of information seems to have been deemed not important anymore. Anyway the house seems to date from the early 1900's.

At one time I had a link to a site that had actually blue prints of the Sears (and other companies kit homes) but I lost it years and computers ago.

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Images...ALWAYS images>

This is a visual hobby.