By Barbara Andersen · 1 November 2019
Aren’t you amazed by how quickly and what a variety of things can come to your front door? It used to be in days, but now sometimes it’s in hours. I think it all started with Amazon and books. Instead of running around all over town to find that book a friend recommended, you just went to your computer and ordered it. That book would be on your doorstep in a matter of days. Of course, now it’s not just books but almost anything your heart can desire and find on the internet. Now it is also food, whether from a grocery store or your favorite restaurant.
Not that long ago you could actually get your house delivered to your front door, or more accurately to your lot. In the early 1900s you could look in a catalog, pick out the house you liked and could afford, and the railroad would deliver it to you. What was delivered were all the components to build your house on your own land. Sears was one of the main companies offering this miracle but there were several others. Called “kit houses” because everything you needed to construct it came together in a boxcar on the train. Sometimes it was two boxcars, and could weigh a few tons. Sears sold more than 70,000 of these homes in North America from 1908 to 1940.
Sears Catalog Homes came in more than 370 different designs and architectural styles and sizes. The houses weren’t simple, bare bones buildings. They contained carved woodwork, built in cabinets, and stained glass windows in some cases. Central heating, indoor plumbing and electricity were new features in homes when these houses were first introduced, so you could get these amenities added to your “kit” for an additional price. The prices of these homes ranged from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand dollars. Even translating that into today’s dollars, they were a bargain and within the reach of a middle class income.
It is estimated that about 70% of these houses are still standing today, although there is no accurate list of where to find them. Because of a corporate house cleaning at Sears in the late 1940s, all the sales records were destroyed. Unless records were left with the house, it would take a real house detective to figure out where they are. Most of the houses were built in the east and Midwest, but there were some built in Arizona. When I searched online for Sears kit houses in Phoenix, I found a smattering of articles. Some were protests because one of these houses was being torn down. As a realtor I can be glad buyers no longer can order their house delivered to their front door. But as a lover of history, I am sad they are lost or missing.
First published in The Bodeen Team’s quarterly client newsletter, Fourth Quarter 2019.