“Is it true that you could once buy a house from a catalogue?”
“Do I have a kit house?”
“How can I identify which house I have?”
During my years as a historic preservation advocate, at event after event, I think that these are the questions I have been asked the most frequently.
Though last year, nearly 81% of the American population shopped online, the novelty of a whole house arriving on a train intrigues. I find the picture of a family waiting at the station in excited anticipation of hearing the toot of the train signalling the arrival of their first home, to be most endearing. Who would not wish to be a part of this story?
Sadly, Sears, the primary outlet for these homes, destroyed their sales records during a routine corporate house cleaning, so finding information on individual houses today can entail quite a bit of patient research. Adding to the mystery, the various companies that offered these homes often copied plan elements or even complete designs with only small changes from one to other. As a result, there are a number of models from different manufacturers that look similar or identical to other models. Determining which company manufactured your home may well require extensive searching.
So much has been written on kit houses that I have chosen to just be a reference librarian here & point you in the direction of the wealth of information that already exists on the subject. Whether you are merely curious, or have the burning desire to uncover whether you have a kit house or not, these references should provide you with what you need.
BOOKS ANSWERING THE QUESTION, DO I HAVE A KIT HOUSE
The Houses That Sears Built; Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Sears Catalog Homes
by Rosemary Thornton
From the author:
“When you have finished reading The Houses That Sears Built, you will be your community’s expert on Sears homes. You’ll learn how to identify Sears homes from the inside, outside and from courthouse documents. You’ll learn the interesting details of Sears homes’ construction.”
Also by Rosemary Thornton Finding the Houses that Sears Built; A Guide to the 60 Most Popular Designs
Thornton explains, “If you learn how to identify these 60 designs, [of the almost 400 designs offered] you’ll discover about 90% of the Sears homes in your community.”
And perhaps one of these is yours!
And,
introduced by Rosemary Thornton & Dale Patrick Wolicki, California’s Kit Homes: A reprint of the 1915 Pacific Ready Homes Catalog
And,
Houses by Mail: A Guide To Houses from Sears, Roebuck & Company
by Katherine Cole Stevenson & H. Ward Jandl.
This definitive field guide for identifying Sears homes tells their curious story & provides meticulously researched material to aid in identifying Sears houses across the U.S.
The book features nearly 450 house models with more than 800 illustrations, including drawings of many houses & floor plans & gives advice on how to return them to their original charm.
These books are available from several book sellers. I recommend searching the titles to find out who might have them currently in stock. The prices are all over the place, so my advice is to keep looking until you find one that is most affordable.
ONLINE SOURCES OF INFORMATION ON KIT HOUSES
Sears Houses in the U.S.
Historic homes that were sold as kits, and shipped to homeowners by rail.
These researchers maintain the National Database of Sears Houses, authenticating each entry through public records or other primary sources data. They have a page with a list of blogs that provide information about houses in specific areas of the country.
Wikipedia has an extensive article on kit houses, including information about:
Design
Delivery & construction
Customization
Advertising
Kit house companies
with an authoritative bibliography & excellent linked references.
And,
If all the above fails, there is a group page, The Original Sears Kit Homes Group on Facebook- Since 2009, that you can join. Should you discover that your house is a kit house, but it was not made by Sears, I invite you to start a group that covers the other manufacturers. I think that people would flock to it!
And finally, visit my playlist of curated videos on YouTube. They contain huge amounts of information & some cool images. My favorite one is presented by the state architectural historian at the Vermont Division for Historic Preservation, Devin Colman. His in-depth, scholarly talk is very thorough but easy to comprehend, & he shows many illustrations. This is a man who clearly has a strong background in historic architecture & presents the kit house phenomenon against the culture & the technology of the times.
And,
to see a boatload more images of kit houses, visit my Pinterest page.
My fingers are crossed for you that you can discover the source of your house. Please keep me posted & let me know of any helpful resources that I have omitted.
I would love to feature your house & your story on the blog.
And,
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Historic kit houses hold an intense interest for old house lovers. The very idea introduces the possibility of getting so many questions about the origins of our homes answered. We all burn with curiosity to know: Who built it? Who designed it? When?
The fact that there were many companies manufacturing & shipping houses, & they stepped on one another’s designs all too frequently, makes this puzzle even more intriguing.
My article, DO I HAVE A KIT HOUSE? provides many references that are chock full of the most authoritative answers. I invite you to read it but I also offer you a tip-back-&-eat-popcorn experience in the form of videos that will impart some more cool knowledge.
The first couple videos are entertaining but the last one is highly illuminating, answering questions for me that I never knew I had about historic kit houses. The speaker, Devin Colman, state architectural historian at the Vermont Division for Historic Preservation, has obviously researched this topic well & he fleshes out the subject, enriching our understanding of the origin, success & decline of historic kit houses.
HISTORIC KIT HOUSES VIDEOS
Build your own Sears Kit Home – Life in America (8:01)
Recollection Road
Some good information & wonderful images.
Sears Houses– Kit Houses Sold by Sears, Roebuck, 1908-1940. From Two on Two, WBBM-TV Chicago. (6:58)
Beth Potter
Blueprints found in the attic! Neat! See inside some houses as they are now.
The Kit House! When houses were made by Sears (and others) and shipped for assembly. (8:12)
Brent Hull
I always love to hear Brent’s take on all things old house. He doesn’t dissappoint us here!
Bungalow in a Box: Kit Houses of the Early Twentieth Century (41:19)
Historic New England
Now you’ve hit the motherlode!
Devin Colman, state architectural historian at the Vermont Division for Historic Preservation speaks on historic kit houses. He explains the houses from various aspects giving you a full & fascinating education on the subject.
Few things are more at home in a bungalow than American art pottery. Its bright colors & luster bring cheer & light to a dark interior & add details that complement the simple lines of the more rustic Arts & Crafts furniture & Craftsman architectural details.
Anyone can collect art pottery. Mine was representative of the finest from the period, chipped & mended into affordability. There are plenty of imperfect pieces on the market & artfully arranged, you can emulate the most prestigious collection of any museum. (I won’t tell.)
Pottery can serve as an inspiration piece when you are starting from ground zero in decorating your home. Using the colors, the images, the shape, you can use them as a basis for choosing your furniture & your textiles.
LEARN HOW POTTERY CAN BE BEAUTIFUL IN YOUR BUNGALOW
American Art Pottery Secrets – Paul J. Katrich – 1 of 6(9:08)
Paul Katrich
Paul, himself a master potter, is passionate about historic pottery. This is the first of 6 videos in which he explains the origin & inspiration of Arts & Crafts pottery. He tells us about the aesthetic & technological developments that culminated in American A&C, then shows & tells us about the icons of the period.
I am not going to list every video in the full series. The parts are best viewed in order & when the first video is over, the second & those after will magically appear. You will experience some lovely examples of the American Movement!
THE IMPORTANCE OF WOMEN IN AMERICAN ART POTTERY
Women artists have been overlooked for centuries. By the end of the 19th Century, we began coming into our own. In addition to demanding to work, we were also clamoring for a place in the world. Recognition would come much later, but what we wanted was the opportunity to use our wits & talents to contribute to the human cause. For many women, gaining artistic skills meant that they had greater earning power & could feed their families.These videos tell of how the crafts, especially pottery allowed us to do this.
Overbeck Sisters’ Arts and Craft Pottery in Indiana – Fulfilling their creative potential (9:15)
Hoosier Woodcraft
Four sisters who believed that “borrowed art is bad art” & took inspiration from their own backyard.
This video is wonderful but plays so fast that the captions are difficult to read. I think they must have thought that it was too long & sped it up. I played it at 50% & enjoyed it very much!
Women, Art, and Social Change: The Newcomb Pottery Enterprise (1:32)
Gardiner Museum
An overview of the Smithsonian exhibition of ceramics. metalwork, textiles & images of the women at work.
Roger Ogden on Newcomb Pottery (2:31)
Craft in America
Roger Ogden, collector explains the femininity of New Orleans, the home of H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College (Tulane University’s former women’s college.)
Earth into Art — The Flowering of American Art Pottery (2:00)
Morse Museum
Lead by woman, America’s first success on the World’s art stage.
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Character is defined as all the qualities & features that make a person, groups of people, & places different from all others. In architecture, a character defining feature is any element, including the overall shape of the building, its materials, craftsmanship, decorative details, the interior space & any feature of it, as well as the individual aspects of its site & environment.
These videos focus on the character defining features that are typical inside a historic bungalow. They are the visual clues that the house is a bungalow & they differentiate it from other types of houses. They are the elements of the interior, that make a bungalow, a bungalow.
WHAT THE HECK IS A BUNGALOW, ANYWAY? focuses on exteriors, but in these videos, we are stepping through the door. You will notice that all the features, in & out are are in harmony.
LET’S GO INSIDE A HISTORIC BUNGALOW- OR THREE!
Moldings for an Arts and Crafts Home- Authentic details you need to understand. (12:00)
Brent Hull
Brent Hull, master craftsman, shows us the millwork that gives the bungalow its charm.
It is made from flax. My favorite fabric, made from the same plant, Linum usitatissimun, is linen, cool & elegant. And expensive. I’m always a fan of expensive.
Another ingredient of lino, pine resin takes me back to my six year old self, a tiny desert cowgirl, visiting Northern Arizona for the first time. After a life of looking at nothing but sand & cactus, the miles of tall pine forest I saw out of the windows of our car, were so, so green & so beautiful. The smell of the pine trees was enchanting. We pulled over at a rest stop & amidst all this towering wonder appeared a speckled fawn. Little girl heaven!
I grew up walking on linoleum, its smooth, clean coolness a welcome relief to my tender feet after running barefoot outside in the blazing sun. But it was Jane Powell’s book, LINOLEUM, that tipped me over the edge!
Lino can be passed over because, being made of natural materials, it costs more than vinyl, but the 2 products in no way compare as far as quality. For wet, high traffic areas, it cannot be surpassed in utility, healthfullness or charm. If you should be unfamiliar with the material, you’ll enjoy learning about it from these videos. If you’re a fan of old linoleum, you’ll find them entertaining & you might even learn a little bit.
Linoleum flooring is cool, actually (6:34)
Vox
Well, yeah!
Forbo Flooring Systems – Making linoleum is like cooking with natural ingredients (4:23)
Forbo Flooring Systems
The art of making Marmoleum. A fun & informative video!
Preserving 100-Year-Old Linoleum! (0:45)
Tenement Museum
Watch conservators cleaning & moving a 9’x12’ linoleum carpet.
See my other great collections of bungalow videos here!
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“Is it true that you could once buy a house from a catalogue?”
The Houses That Sears Built; Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Sears Catalog Homes
Houses by Mail: A Guide To Houses from Sears, Roebuck & Company
If all the above fails, there is a group page, The Original Sears Kit Homes Group on Facebook- Since 2009, that you can join. Should you discover that your house is a kit house, but it was not made by Sears, I invite you to start a group that covers the other manufacturers. I think that people would flock to it!
Few things are more at home in a bungalow than American art pottery. Its bright colors & luster bring cheer & light to a dark interior & add details that complement the simple lines of the more rustic Arts & Crafts furniture & Craftsman architectural details.
Character is defined as all the qualities & features that make a person, groups of people, & places different from all others. In architecture, a character defining feature is any element, including the overall shape of the building, its materials, craftsmanship, decorative details, the interior space & any feature of it, as well as the individual aspects of its site & environment.
What’s not to love about historic linoleum?