The House that Sears Built
Anything could be bought from a Sears catalog. Kitchen tables, lamps, clothes, dishes, stoves, mantels – everything you could ever need. You could even buy your house from Sears.
Imagine paging through the Sears Modern Home catalog and deciding on a home. You decide on all the options and place your order. Soon your home arrives, box by box. The needed lumber is cut and ready to create your home. The doors, windows, trim and everything you need to build your home has arrived – all 12,000 pieces in one box car. Now the work begins to put the house together.
It is reported that more than 100,000 houses were sold between 1908 and 1940 through Sears’s Modern Homes program. The Wisconsin State Historical Society has identified 8 Sears homes in the City of Manitowoc.
One of the Sears built homes is located on North 4th Street. The home is the Starlight model home, which was featured in the Sears catalog from 1913 to 1933. It was built in Manitowoc in 1923 with the kit costing $1,533 in 1921. The ad for the home states “At the price quoted we will furnish all the material to build this five-room bungalow, consisting of mill work, medicine case, lumber, lath, shingles, porch ceiling, siding, flooring, finishing lumber, building paper, eaves through, downspout, sash weights, hardware, and painting material. We guarantee enough material to build this house. Price does not include cement, brick, or plaster.”
Located on Clark Street, another Sears home features the Westly model. The home was built in Manitowoc in 1914. An ad from 1916 describes the Westly model’s layout with a library and 3 chamber rooms, or bedrooms, a corner fireplace in the dining room, kitchen, living room, bathroom, and trunk room. The kit could be purchased for a price of $1,063.00.
While Sears wasn’t the only company making kit homes, they were by far the most popular choice. Aladdin Homes, based out of Michigan, and Montgomery Wards, based out of Chicago (Sears was also Chicago-based) were leading competitors of the Sears kit homes.
In 1923, Sears developed two new catalogs, Modern Farm Buildings and Barn. The barn catalog advertised "a big variety of scientifically planned farm buildings, from corncribs to tool sheds.”
Is your house a Sears kit home? Here are some suggestions from the Wisconsin Historical Society to help you find out: Research your home’s construction date. If your home was not built between 1908 and 1940, your home cannot be a Sears kit home. Look for stamped lumber on the exposed beams/joists/rafters in the basement, crawl space or attic. Inspect the back of millwork (moldings and trim) for shipping labels. Inspect plumbing fixtures for marks, such as "R" or "SR".