MAIL-ORDER MANSIONS - KIT HOMES CONTINUED

by Pam North

The term "modern home" in the early 1900s was a descriptive term indicating 
that a house had such amenities as a centralized (though primitive by today's 
standards) heating system, electricity and indoor plumbing.  The homes in some 
instances were more modern than the communities in which they were built; many 
localities where the Sears homes were sold could not offer electricity and 
municipal water systems yet. Aware of this problem, Sears marketed homes
without bathrooms well into the 1920s, offering an accompanying outhouse 
that could be purchased for $23.  Heating, plumbing and electrical components
also were sold separately from the kit.  Kit houses had the advantage of 
being cheaper overall than traditional building methods.

Over the years Sears offered approximately 370 different models, all designed 
by architects working for the company. Three quality levels were developed:
The best and most expensive were the Honor Bilt; the Standard Bilt (also known
at one time as the Lighter Bilt) were appropriate for warmer climates; and the 
Simplex, or Econo Bilt, were modest two-room dwellings meant for use as 
summer cottages or hunting cabins.  The common bungalow was the best-selling 
model; it was a compact, affordable vacation-style home initially in the 1880s 
but it gradually evolved to become a major housing type in cities and suburbs 
in the years before World War I.  Buyers of any of the homes could customize 
the various designs by choosing different rooflines, adding or subtracting the 
number of windows and doors, or raising the roofs to include two more rooms 
upstairs.  Essentially any design could be changed to fit into the parameters 
of the buyer's budget and tastes.

In 1911 Sears began offering mortgages for its houses; easy payment plans and 
lax loan qualifications made home-buying more easily affordable to the masses. 
A 1920s Sears mortgage application asked a few simple questions about the 
house and lot, but asked only one financial question, "What is your vocation?" 
Simply filling in that blank allowed the applicant to obtain the necessary
mortgage.  Many single women, new immigrants and people of ethnic minorities, 
who would perhaps have had problems qualifying for today's mortgage, were able 
to build homes of their own because of Sears.  Records of testimonials received
from Sears homeowners bore the names of a wide variety of nationalities, 
indicating that immigrants constituted a fair percentage of their customers.

Sales of Sears homes peaked in 1929 with a volume of more than $12 million. 
The Depression brought economic woes, and sales dropped, sliding to $10.7 
million in 1930, and $8.4 million in 1931.  The American housing market as 
a whole was in trouble, with housing starts down 53% in 1931.  During the 
early days of the Depression, Sears continued to sell houses, but mainly
more modest ones.  In 1932, Sears Modern Homes department began operating at 
a loss for the first time since 1912, marking the beginning of the end.  
Compounding the problem was the necessity of foreclosing on hundreds of Sears'
mortgage customers; liquidation of over $11 million occurred in 1934, impacting
the company's image and its public relations, and necessitating the end of 
easy-qualifying mortgages in 1933 and the Modern Homes department in 1934.

In 1935, the Modern Homes department reopened, but the company no longer 
actively pushed its catalog homes, continuing to quietly sell houses only 
when customers sent in their order forms.  Sears sold no more than another 
15,000 to 20,000 homes, and when the last Modern Homes catalog was issued in 
1940, Americans had purchased an estimated 75,000 Sears homes since 1908.

After kit homes ceased to be offered in Sears catalogs, these houses were 
slowly forgotten. They have endured over the years, however, and renewed 
interest in them is beginning to emerge, leading to efforts to locate, 
identify and preserve them.  The 1940 closure of Sears' Modern Homes department
unfortunately resulted in the destruction of all their sales records, 
increasing the difficulty of tracing the destinations of the home kits.  
Identifying the houses is also tricky because of the customizing aspects 
granted to customers.  Stamped lumber, identifying marks and labels on trim 
moldings and hardware, or a lucky find of a set of blueprints tucked away in 
a home's attic can help identify one of these homes, and books are now 
available which provide other clues to aid in determining if a home is of 
Sears origin.  Sears homes were often built in groups, so neighbors are often 
aware of their existence.  Shipping records of materials unloaded at a 
railroad station sometimes may be accessed to find the Sears load 
containing a house.  Since Sears also carried mortgages on houses, a search
of deed records may also reveal such a mortgage.

In Carlinville, Illinois an entire tourism Christmas event showcases a major 
group of 152 Sears homes in a 12-block area.  Illinois seems to have the 
largest collection of Sears homes, but these homes traveled to all 48 
contiguous states, a few even making it over the Canadian border. 

Despite their modest origin and the unskillled labor that often built them,
mail-order homes have become a fascinating part of American history.



Illustration for article is at:
http://64.66.180.31/archive/sears/page66.html
Caption:  A Sears Honor Bilt home, circa 1919.