Years Ago, You Could Order a House in the Mail
Nostalgia for Sears catalog mail-order homes as the last Sears department store leaves Illinois, the state where it all began
Sears, the former retail giant that got its start in Chicago, Illinois, recently vacated its last department store in the state.
Sears, Roebuck and Co. was founded in Chicago as a mail-order catalog in 1893 and eventually became the largest retailer in the nation.
The store grew to sell almost anything and everything you could think of, including clothing, watches, jewelry, washing machines, toasters, exercise equipment, and toys.
If you live in America and you’re around a certain age, you surely must remember the thrill of that beautiful and thick Sears Toy Catalog showing up in your house, where you happily circled your wishes at Christmas time.
But the former retail giant has fallen a long way from its former heyday. In 2018, Sears Holdings, also the owner of Kmart, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
And now, the very last Sears store has closed in Illinois. Sears held one of the anchor stores when the Woodfield Mall in the Chicago suburb of Schaumburg first opened 50 years ago. But today, it’s closed, with no Sears department stores left in the state.
Sears sold ready-to-assemble home kits
For a little over 30 years, from 1908 to 1940, Sears even offered ready-to-assemble kit homes from its catalog.
For only $5,000 or less, if you had a plot of land and some DIY skills, you could have your own cozy home.
The kits were an affordable option that was popular among immigrants and minority workers who could get a mortgage from Sears without having to put down their ethnicity, race, or gender in the application.
The buyer would choose a model and have everything they needed to be shipped to them to assemble their home, including windows and flooring.
These were not shabby kits. These do-it-yourself houses turned out to be sturdy, long-lasting homes, many of which are still standing in the Chicago area today and sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The houses have stood the test of time. You can find many of them around neighborhoods in the Chicago suburbs such as Downers Grove, Geneva, and Lombard.
These are not the tiny prefab houses you can buy today, but small to mid-sized homes big enough for a family. There were 447 different models to choose from, giving neighborhoods of the past much more character than the suburban sea of sameness we have these days.
How can you recognize a Sears home?
If you’re interested in learning more about Sears homes, you could start with this blog. If you live in an older home in the Midwest, it’s possible you’re living in a Sears home. Here are nine ways to tell if a house is a Sears home.
Or if you’re in the Chicago area and you’d like to see the homes in person, the suburb of Downers Grove has published a driving/walking tour map where you can view the 21 Sears homes that have been identified in the village.
It was a simpler time when you could order a well-built, long-lasting house filled with character from a mail-order catalog. If only we could bring back the Sears homes today.
Note: a previous version of this story was originally published on News Break.
