11 Facts About Sears Catalog Home

In some cases, Sears provided construction services to assemble the homes.

Some builders and companies purchased houses directly from Sears to build as model homes, speculative homes, or homes for customers or employees.

In 1906, Frank W Kushel, a Sears manager, was given responsibility for the catalog company's unwieldy, unprofitable building-materials department.

Later, Sears Catalog Home constructed a second mill in Port Newark, New Jersey and purchased the Norwood Sash and Door Company in Norwood, Ohio.

The ability to mass-produce the materials used in Sears homes reduced manufacturing costs, which allowed Sears to pass along the savings in lower prices for customers.

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Sears Catalog Home offered a plasterboard product similar to modern drywall as an alternative to the plaster and lath wall-building techniques which required skilled carpenters and plasterers.

Sears Catalog Home was forced to liquidate $11 million in defaulted debt.

Many of these homes were built in Sears planned "Home Club Plan" developments in New Jersey, New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

Later on in the Modern Homes timeline, Sears had in-office designers but titled them as "experts" rather than actual architects.

However, many houses described as Sears Homes are not true Sears Homes, being either the product of another kit home manufacturer or not a kit home at all.

One well-known replica of a Sears Catalog Home house is at the "Farm at Prophetstown" museum in Battle Ground, Indiana, which features a replica of a Hillrose model.