Many people have fond memories of the Sears catalog. However, did you know that in nineteen hundred and six you could order a house from a catalog? In the early nineteen-twenties, Sears offered many houses in various styles.
HGTV has found several happy homeowners who still live in a Sears catalog home. The Birk House was built in nineteen twenty-eight and is still in excellent condition. Matt and Mary Birk love their fancy house.
Mary said that it was the house of “Martha Washington”, the second most expensive in the catalog for three thousand seven hundred dollars.
Matt noticed that a lot of windows were needed, because in nineteen twenty-eight there was no air conditioning in any house. The Tags love the charming atmosphere of their Sears home, and there are ten more Sears catalog houses in their neighborhood.
Since nineteen hundred and six, Sears has been selling houses in the form of model kits, and when ordering, they could be assembled right on your site. They wanted to sell more than just home furniture, so they started selling household goods.
After a customer ordered their home, it would be shipped by train. Every piece was numbered and cut to order for easy construction. The kits contained everything needed, including heating, wiring, and even plumbing.