Sears & Roebuck Kit Home

[Charlotte Dixon]

Nancy,
I've determined mine is a Sears Kit home, the Fullerton, only 4 bedrooms instead of 3. I've wasted away the whole morning checking for notes, numbers, or the like under stair treads and up in the attic. My door hardware is very similar to that noted in the web site I mentioned above, and I know my home was built in 1908. The floor plan is identical to that pictured. Interesting, isn't it? The first week we lived here (20 yrs. ago) a little girl from next door came over and introduced herself. When I answered the door, she proudly exclaimed....."An old man died a couple of years ago right where you're standing"..........aaahhhh, er.....
Well, stigma is another subject!
Charlotte

 

[Nancy in Friday Harbor]

Charlotte,
You know, it's kinda funny how we look at the processes of life now.... that it bothers us that someone died on the front porch or......
I was pleased as punch a number of years ago when my mother gave me her grandmother's bed -- a gorgeous cherry bed with carved head and footboard. Then I learned that my grandmother and her 10 brothers had all been born in that bed...... even though it wasn't the original mattress, I went out & bought a new one!!! Silly me. I'm sure that my great grandmother, great grandfather & probably others, died in that bed....... at some point, it stopped bothering me and became a part of a continuum. Birth and death only became "hospital" events relatively recently....... I guess all old houses have a "haint" or two. Hopefully, they were happy there and are relatively contented spirits!

Cheers,
Nancy

 

[Charlotte Dixon]

Oh, I know Nancy! When we bought this house my mother told me to count the little holes along the exterior door trim. She said I would know how many black crepes were tacked outside, therefore I would know how many people died here. Somehow I never got around to counting and just painted all the trim over!!! :roll:

 

[Charlotte Dixon]

AND.....My mother said in HER day, my house would sell quickly (she's now 93 yrs. old). She said my house has a wide front door, a big foyer, and french doors to the back sitting room.....all important amenities, so they could get the casket in! Whoooooaaaaa

Quite different from the amenities we look for today!

 

[Anonymous]

That's why you have the term 'living room' instead of parlour. Gosh, I'm not that old >50..<55 and remember crepes on the front door and relatives laid out in the house, the funeral industry changed all that. You can still lay out in your own home in Pa, but its difficult.

Whoa, off topic!!! Actually this was a rich post, and I am not calling it mfd, but stick built. The sticks came in a truck

THANKS again to all the good history and comments!!!

 

[Don Clark]

8)

For those who might be interested, the birth place of former President Nixon, and now part of his Presidential Library complex, is most likely a Sears Kit Home. Kudos to the person who said they are "stick built" and who said that "manufactured" refers to a HUD Code home. The 4 basic types are:

1. Manufactured"HUD Code".
2. Modular
3. Panelized(such as thoss built in WW!!. I helped put one together for a parsonage as a kid)
4. Kit homes

Only the first two are considered factory built for appraisal purposes. The other 2 are same as stick built.

PS One of our local eateries in a rural area is built around a Sear Kit home.

Don

 

[jtrotta]

will have to find that old book on early housing during the great depression, but I think they used to sell for around $900 - $1200 for the smaller 600-900 SF; and went up to a larger 1800SF for $1800 to $2200 - this was mid 20' to late 30's. In Chicago some early pioners of the "Barter" housing, started a small Real Estate company and were the most successful Realtors in the country. Dam, hope I can find it, was the best book and found it at a flee market/swap back in the mid 70's. 8)

 

[Charlotte Dixon]

JT....
Here's one for $2,072. This is a great site for Sears homes:

http://www.oldhouseweb.net/stories/Detailed/707.shtml

Charlotte

 

[Austin]

About 20 years ago, I was in the real estate auction business. I had a sale on an 75 year old two story victorian mansion. It was typical quality of construction of the period with all of the brick work, moldings, hardwood floors, mantels, etc. Just before the auction started an elderly lady approached me and told me the story of this mansion. In 1910, her father purchased it as a kit home. She remembered her father hauling the kit on a mule drawn wagon from the rail road station a few miles away. We use to have some wall paper in one of our bathrooms that was a reprint of old Sears catalogs. I use to read the old adds and some were for kit homes.

 

[Jeff Horton]

If you want to see all (I think all??) the Sears Kit Homes go to this site.

http://64.66.180.31/archive/sears/index.shtml

My wife and I are planning on building a 20's to 30's Craftsman Style home. I have spent many hours studying this site and specifically the drawings from the Sears Catalog trying to pick up the details and "style" of this homes.