I was reading some back issues of Mother Earth News and saw a reprint of a ad from the 1930's for a SEARS: House in a Box. 7 room two story for only $1080.00 delivered. I want one. :o)

Anyone remember these? Ever see one? Just curious....

-- Kenneth in N.C. (wizardsplace13@hotmail.com), April 28, 2002

Answers

Ken, yes they do exist. I've enjoyed a number of brunches in one of them the past several years in expensive lakeside area of Monona, WI. (Suburb of Madison.) Windows, windows, and more windows! A nightmare to heat. Owned by one of my classmates and we had many meetings there while planning for the Class of '56 reunion. $1,080 delivered? This one is registered with some historical society and nothing about it can be changed from the original. It's possibly one of few that remains 100% as "out of the box". If you want that one, I think that the assessed value is right around $200,000. But then, that's with a view of Lake Monona and the Wisconsin capitol building. Friend is not on line or I'd have her get in touch with you in case you wanted to know more about the interior design, etc. Now can hardly wait for our next meeting to tell her how much the house originally cost.

-- Martin Longseth (paquebot@merr.com), April 28, 2002.

Richard Nixon's father put together the one he grew up in--which recently sold for 230,000.00. Talk about home equity !

-- Joel Rosen (JoelnBecky@webtv.net), April 28, 2002.

I believe these were called "Craftsmen's Homes" and could be ordered out of Sear's cagalogues at the time. They came essentially pre-cut with instructions for assembly. As I recall, you had your choice between about a dozen designs. There is one of these at Malabar Farm State Park near Mansfield, Ohio. Louis Bromfield use to call it, "The House No One Loved". Basically he hated it. It is now a youth hostel at the park.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), April 28, 2002.

Sears was not the only one to offer this type of set up, others had better quality, as the ones sold in Canada.

-- BC (desertdweller44@yahoo.com), April 28, 2002.

Can anyone tell us how many hours a stock clerk of that era would have to work to earn enough money to buy that house ? If a Sears stock clerk of today had to pay for its equivalent, could he / she afford a similar size and quality ?

-- Deborah Hardy (virgil@igs.net), April 28, 2002.

To see a bunch of them visit the Cumberland General Store in Crossville, Tennessee. There are so many there because in the late 1930s, the Cumberland Homesteads Project was begun by President Franklin D. Roosevelt's recovery program following the Great Depression. Farms of five to fifty acres were carved from a 29,000-acre tract of land, and distributed to 256 homesteaders, with a home and barn built on each farm. Sears was discounting the houses to the homesteading project. The Cumberland General Store still sells the actual plans for the houses.

If you have never visited Crossville/Cumberland County, it is a wonderful place! Crossville is a nice little town with a Main Street and the Chamber of Commerace there is very nice and helpful to visitors. They will give you a bunch of information about the area.

Of course to homesteaders, the Cumberland General Store is place to go. We have ordered from their catalog and from Lehman's catalog for years. We have been several times to Lehman's in Ohio and couldn't wait to go to Cumberland General Store! We were shocked! Maybe because we were use to the mammoth size of Lehmans, but Cumberland is a tiny place! They are loaded to the hilt though and is worth the visit. It is still just like it was when in years gone by and looks exactly like the cover of thier catalog! Anyway, the area is very pretty there and and there are several things to do and also a winery near by. Makes a nice calm stopping off point on a vacation!

-- Karen (mountains_mama2@hotmail.com), April 28, 2002.

My father built the house I live in from a kit from Bennett Homes. This was in 1963-64, and the cost of the kit was only $14,000. Nice three bedroom ranch with garage. Do any kit homes still exist? I still remember the huge piles of precut lumber on the lawn all covered in plastic . . . The three of us kids had a ball during the whole process! :)

-- Jennifer L. (Northern NYS) (jlance@nospammail.com), April 28, 2002.

hi, new to this computer stuff so not sure if i did this right but.................i have a reproduction of a 1908 ( i think) sears catalog.....it has the the pics and info on those houses and a lot of other really cool stuff and the prices are unbelievable. we're packin and headin' back to northern az in 2 weeks, so right now it is packed....when we get re-settled if anyone is interested i could scann in some of the stuff out of it for ya to look at............jenny

-- jenny (jsuzuki222@aol.com), April 28, 2002.

This has nothing to do with the Sears home as I've never knowingly seen one. I just had to comment on Karen's visit to the Cumberland General Store. We were there several years ago--they weren't open when we got to town, so we went out to breakfast and waited until they did open. We too were surprised at how small it was. It was a fun time though. Neat place. Lehman's is much much bigger though as you said. We had the pleasure of going there last June. Now you all have got me curious about the Sears prepackaged homes...wonder if they came shrinkwrapped :^).

-- Sharon (cheesyemailaddy@notreal.com), April 28, 2002.

I've been to the Cumberland General Store and to the Cumberland homestead museum. I don't remember anything about Sears houses mentioned there. All of the houses were built out of tongue and groove planks and craborchard stone. The stone was from a quarry nearby. The houses, just like the museum were all wood on the inside.

-- Emil in TN (eprisco@usit.net), April 28, 2002.

Sears had a lot of different home designs. Everything from simple cape cod style to very fancy victorian designs with round torrets and all.

Kit homes are available today. There are a number of stick frame kits on the market still. If you have the skills you can save LOTS of money on a home.

-- Gary (gws@columbus.rr.com), April 28, 2002.

To provide some information about wages, as asked above, during the 1930's. My parents lived in on a small, about 100 acre, dry land farm in North Dakota during the mid 30's. Grew just about everything we ate, but did not have any surplus to sell for cash. Dad talked about his job driving a fuel truck (gas, oil, ect.) for about nine months a year. (In those days the countryside in the state closed during the bad weather due to no reliable transportation.) He stated his was one of the better paying jobs and they had money for lots of extras, like new cloths and a truck, all on a grand total of $50 per month.

-- Joe (CactusJoe001@AOL.com), April 28, 2002.

I've got a Sears house I remodeled on my ranch. You can see it at www.niobrarariver.net

-- bruce (niobrara55@hotmail.com), April 28, 2002.

There are a couple of the Sears kit homes in the city where I live. The newspaper did a feature on them a couple of years ago.

Does anyone remember the all metal homes that came out in the ?? 40s, 50s, or very early 60s. Think it was late 40s or early 50s. The homes had porcelain over steel panels covering the exterior. Would guess the panels were 18 inches to 24 inches square.

Now as to whether there are any modern day kits, the answer is yes. Sutherland Lumber sells kits. Here is a url for a kit offered by them. Sutherlands doesn't have a main web site other than to take you to individual stores. Here is the url for a Wichita, KS store, and directly to the kits link. http://www.sutherlandswichita.com/houses.asp?time=1403

I used to have one of their sales flyers, and I seem to recall that they had several models of homes below $20,000.

Miles Homes have been selling kits for many years, if not decades. Here is a url for them. http://www.mileshomes.com/

I think there are quite a few other "kit homes" available, but just don't remember the names of the companies.

-- Notforprint (Not@thekeyboard.com), April 28, 2002.

My grandparents lived in a sears home all through my childhood (40 now), they sold it when I was a teenager. About 12 years ago my cousin, who's parents farm was about a mile from it bought it back in a foreclosure auction for $500 with 2.5 acres. It needed quite a bit of work but they have it looking great now. I love to visit, it brings back lots of memories, oh yea the $500 also included a big old red barn that is still standing. It is in Oklahoma and in the middle of no-where. The house is a two story and to my understanding it was ordered from the Sears and Roebuck catalogue. Just glad family was able to get it.

-- flip-flop (nospam@nospam.com), April 28, 2002.

The all-metal homes were made by Lustron. They never got into mass production. Circa late 40s as something to expand into after war work.

Vern M. www.runningriver.com/modeland

-- Vern M. (modeland@runningriver.com), April 28, 2002.

There is a new book out on kit houses. Don't recall the title, but I bet you'd find it if you searched Amazon.

-- Shannon at Grateful Acres Animal Sanctuary (gratacres@aol.com), April 28, 2002.

Those Sears & Robuck kit homes are all over the place around here. There was one just behind our place that had fallen into dis-repair that burned in a pasture fire only a couple years ago.

-- Okie-Dokie (tjcamp6338@aol.com), April 28, 2002.

You probably drove right past several Sears homes when visiting the Cumberland General Store and did not realize it. They are mixed among the other homes there now. There are several right on the same road from town to the Cumberland General Store. Once you know what they look like (you can see photos of some in the Cumberland General Store Catalog) you can pick them right out since they are very distintive. There is also a two story Sears house that is an antique store/bed and breakfast in Brooksville, FL.

Another thing about Cumberland General Store - they have more books on homesteading, homesteading skills, livestock, and homemaking than any place I have ever been - including Lehmans!

-- Karen (mountains_mama2@hotmail.com), April 28, 2002.

I also remember when you could order a automobile engine through Sears catalog too !! I can just see our little UPS lady deliver that to my door now a days !! How times have changed. I know of a couple other homes that were pre-built and delivered in parts to be assembled at your homesite too. Don't know if they are still around...might just look into it though.

-- Helena (windyacs@npacc.net), April 28, 2002.

I grew up in Kansas City, MO, north of the river. My elderly neighbors lived in a Sears Kit home. It was the nicest home in the neighborhood, on a large treed lot. The Culivers bought the kit in 1937 for around $3800. They built it over a walkout basement, build with local granite block. I enjoyed visiting and walking through the place as a youngster. I went back to visit last year and drove past the place again. It wasn't nearly as large as I remembered from my childhood. And it had fallen into disrepair, unfortunately.

-- Dwight (summit1762@aol.com), April 28, 2002.

There are many of them hereabouts (Portland, Maine area). I am a home improvement contractor, and have worked on a goodly number of them. They are solid, well built houses, but not ostentatious. You have seen them, believe me! Once you understand a few of the styles, you'll find you recognize them more than you could possobly imagine. GL!

-- Brad (Homefixer@SacoRiver.net), April 28, 2002.

I don't know about a clerk at Sears, but my husband's grandparents married in 1929, and his grandmother has often told me how she would work for 75 cents a day in the early 30's, and her husband for $1.00/day. He as a carpenter or field hand, she picking and packing strawberries and tomatoes. She sold eggs from her hens for 7 cents per dozen. Canned beans cost a nickel/can. She said you could get a whole bag of groceries for 75 cents.

-- Elizabeth in E TX (kimprice@peoplescom.net), April 28, 2002.

Sears had a kit for a barn and a chicken coop also.

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), April 28, 2002.

The Luston homes were featured in a magazine article recently. The kit included built in metal cabinets. The ones shown still look good.

-- Darren (df1@inf.net), April 28, 2002.

We live in a Sears house. There are actually a lot of them in this part oF Wisconsin. It was the second house on this farm built around 1900. The original settler's log cabin is about 40 ft away and it was built in 1850.

The Sears' houses are nice. Everything was matched and the kit even came with enough nails to build the house. Somewhere in the house there's supposed to be a metal plate noting the model number, ect. but we haven't found it.

-- dash (forthechix@yahoo.com), April 28, 2002.

My great grandfatyher, Francis Marion Agnew, raised his family in a Sears mail order house in Granite City, Ill. The last owner deeded it to the state as an historical site and my dad and his brother Allen took a vacation to walk over the property and locate the spring and the old garden and the old barn sites for the state caretaker. Well, times got tough, the state's budget for historical parks got cut, the caretaker position was eliminated, and an unnamed fraternity holding a covert beer bash there managed to burn it down.

I remember the built in drawers in the walls upstairs, the push button electric switches, and the speaking tubes to various areas of the house, which all culminated in the kitchen. It was a really neat place to visit as a child. By the way, Frances Marion's oldest son Theodore Lee Agnew was my grandfather, and he had children with his second wife starting around 1914 - 15, so I really believe the house (Happy Home) was built in the 1880's or so.

-- Mitzi Giles (Egiles2@prodigy.net), April 28, 2002.

I live in one! I love it!!! The people I bought it from did some really stupid things to it and I would love to find the original floor plans. The library has several copies of the old catalogues, I have seen houses that look like mine but mine is much bigger than the ones in the books. There are others around here but mine is much larger then those too and the roof line is a little different too! It is a really solid house.

-- Susan in MN (nanaboo@paulbunyan.net), April 28, 2002.

Susan, you might try the Cumberland General Store catalog. They don't have the plans online, but they do in the catalog. They have copies of the "original" plans.

-- Karen (mountains_mama2@hotmail.com), April 28, 2002.

Lustron houses are really great. I worked with a lady who had one and the inside was wonderful all rounded edges and builtins. There are quite a few of them here in Champaign Illinois...9 or 10 that I can think of off hand....but they are all gray. Does anyone know if they came in other colors?

Mark

-- mark chenail (chenail@uiuc.edu), April 29, 2002.

Let's time travel and buy one at $1080. then come back and live in it.

:o)

-- Kenneth in N.C. (wizardsplace13@hotmail.com), May 01, 2002.