Before Amazon and Walmart and online shopping, companies like Sears Roebuck and Montgomery Ward brought retail shopping options to a mass consumer market, including, for some, a home of their dreams.

Beginning in 1908 and through the next 34 years, the company sought to meet the demand for affordable housing as a rising middle class moved from cities to suburban areas, including the Moriches.  Buyers could select from 447 kits with floorplans and exterior designs from catalogues of Honor Bilt Modern Homes.

They were shipped by rail the kits arrived complete with plans the owner could use to construct the home in a few days, or have it built by a local contractor. 

Everything was identified for easy assembly and featured up-to-date conveniences like indoor plumbing, heat, and electricity and with design features recognized today as being safer, or better, for the environment.

The “Carlin,” a two-story model, had a first-floor plan with a dining room, kitchen, living room and front porch and two bedrooms and a bath on the second floor, for $1,172. 

Standard Oil purchased 192 Carlin kits for $1 million to attract workers to Carlinville, its company’s site in Illinois named for Thomas Carlin, the seventh governor of the state.

Of the more than 70,000 home kits Sears sold between 1908 and 1942, around 70 percent of these are still standing today.  And they are desirable properties. 

Most models cost between $1,000 and $5,000.  In 2018, a renovated Craftsman-style 1935 “Lewiston” model kit home sold for $710,000 in Westhampton, according to Out East Magazine.

Think you may have a Sears house? For those interested in finding out more about them, SearsHouses.com maintains a national database of Sears houses in the United States and is always seeking more to add to that list.

The site includes education and information blogs, catalogues, and resources for homeowners who want to check to see if theirs is a Sears home or to include it on the database.

SearsHomes.com accepts only primary-source evidence for authentication.  These include, but are not limited to, a mortgage or deed signed by a Sears trustee, a building permit or blueprints with the Sears model number, a shipping label, stamped lumber on the framing materials that corresponds to a model number, paperwork from the purchase, newspaper advertisements that the home is a Sears purchase, or a news story about its construction or financing.

The organization relies on public support to identify and update its database. Unfortunately, Sears got rid of its records of Honor Bilt Modern Homes sales, so no official list exists. 

Its efforts help make resources available for those interested in learning more about this highly successful effort to provide affordable housing to middle-class families during the first half of the 20th century when everything, including the paint and varnish and the kitchen sink, could come from a catalogue.

Direct specific inquiries to SearsHouses@gmail.com.