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Sears Sold 70,000 Homes From Their Catalog. Are You Living in One?
popularmechanics ^ | May 16, 2016 | Timothy Dahl

Posted on 05/17/2016 12:12:08 PM PDT by PROCON


Not long ago, the Sears, Roebuck and Co. mail-order catalog was the ultimate marketplace, much like Amazon is today. You could even buy a house straight from the catalog. Just pick out the home you like, and voila, Sears would deliver it just for you. (The best Amazon can do is either a DVD box set or houses that, uh, would have some size and space issues for most people.)

These Sears homes weren't cheap low-end houses. Many of them were built using the finest quality building materials available during that time. It's not uncommon to find Sears homes today with oak floors, cypress siding, and cedar shingles. As with most old homes, the tough part is finding one that has been well maintained, and with the youngest of Sears homes going now eight decades old, they all require a significant amount of care. From 1908 to 1940, Sears sold between 70,000 to 75,000 homes, so there are plenty out there, you just need to know where to look.

(Excerpt) Read more at popularmechanics.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Chit/Chat
KEYWORDS: houses; sears; searscatalog
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To: PROCON

Actually, it was automation that took the esprit out of the post office.

Once the computers and machines took over the process became robotic and mundane.


81 posted on 05/17/2016 2:26:45 PM PDT by Vermont Lt (Ask Bernie supporters two questions: Who is rich. Who decides. In the past, that meant who dies)
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To: exit82

Thanks for the great website.

What I get a kick out of is the homes that I looked at had just one bathroom.

We are all so spoiled now.

.


82 posted on 05/17/2016 2:31:14 PM PDT by Mears
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To: PROCON

Go to Sears Robuck American Foursquare

https://www.google.com/search?q=sears+roebuck+american+foursquare+home&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwixyu_1iOLMAhUH8GMKHXivBq4QsAQIHw&biw=939&bih=533

and check out The Hamilton.
LOVE my HOME...2 other owners before us... we have been here for almost 50 years.

Fireplace replaced after the Sylmar earthquake. A minor kitchen remodel and bathroom upgraded but all else is the same.


83 posted on 05/17/2016 2:40:18 PM PDT by pollywog (I " O thou who changest not....ABIDE with me")
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To: dainbramaged

I remember the ‘52-’53 Kaiser Henry J, badged Allstate, from 1959 (I was 10). A neighbor had a Nash Metropolitan and Henry J, but left them tarped in a garage, while he drove his Caddy Convertible Series 62.


84 posted on 05/17/2016 2:49:44 PM PDT by Carriage Hill ( A society grows great when old men plant trees, in whose shade they know they will never sit.)
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To: PROCON

president Nixion’s childhood home was one of those homes. you can tour it at the Nixion library.


85 posted on 05/17/2016 3:21:37 PM PDT by PCPOET7
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To: PROCON

Snowmobiles, too!

http://192.185.93.157/~wishbook/1966_Sears_Wishbook/images/1966_SearsChristmas_Page426.jpg


86 posted on 05/17/2016 3:25:22 PM PDT by polymuser (Enough is enough!)
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To: polymuser
Sears sold most anything!


87 posted on 05/17/2016 3:27:26 PM PDT by PROCON
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To: PROCON

Those were good days. I got a cap gun on my sixth birthday and a BB gun when I was 10.

By 12 I had .22 rifle and a shotgun.


88 posted on 05/17/2016 3:30:14 PM PDT by SamAdams76 (Delegates So Far: Trump (1,135); Cruz (564); Rubio (166); Kasich (153)
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To: PROCON

I bought one across the street from me to rehab and tinker with. Early twenties model called The Martha Washington, neat little 3br house.


89 posted on 05/17/2016 4:03:31 PM PDT by bleach (If I agreed with you, we would both be wrong.)
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To: Attention Surplus Disorder
#20 Sears Die Hard Suit.
Just $30 total for the jacket and slacks....the turtleneck is extra.
Blnk
90 posted on 05/17/2016 5:33:28 PM PDT by minnesota_bound
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To: minnesota_bound

Thank you!! LMAO!


91 posted on 05/17/2016 5:42:30 PM PDT by Attention Surplus Disorder (I apologize for not apologizing.)
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To: Tammy8

Interesting! I didn’t know that the post office contracted out that function to the railroad. But it makes sense when you think about it. The focus was on providing superior service, not public employee union jobs.


92 posted on 05/17/2016 6:53:12 PM PDT by Vigilanteman (ObaMao: Fake America, Fake Messiah, Fake Black man. How many fakes can you fit into one Zer0?)
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To: Vermont Lt
I didn't know about the mail sorting busses until I toured the postal museum near Union Station in DC some years ago. They connected both towns not served by railroad lines as well as some of the lower traffic railroad lines.

Partly, but not totally a measure to address the decline of regular railroad service caused by union featherbedding.

93 posted on 05/17/2016 7:02:44 PM PDT by Vigilanteman (ObaMao: Fake America, Fake Messiah, Fake Black man. How many fakes can you fit into one Zer0?)
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To: wardaddy

My grandparents den had cypress paneling.


94 posted on 05/17/2016 7:53:34 PM PDT by Black Agnes
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To: PROCON

One of my rental properties is a Sears Mail Order house my parents bought to build on their lot for my Dad’s mother when she moved to California in 1953. They added a single car garage to the two bedroom one bath house, but the majority of it arrived on a flatbed truck. My Mom and Dad built it on a foundation they poured them selves over the next several months and did all the plumbing and wiring themselves. . . and the city building inspector said it was all done perfectly.

I just finished remodeling that house to bring it up to 2015 building and electrical codes. . . completely rewiring and upgrading the plumbing. The materials and construction standards offered by Sears and Roebuck houses were excellent and the plans for building them were very good, so good that anyone could do it if they had basic carpentry skills.


95 posted on 05/18/2016 12:44:24 AM PDT by Swordmaker (This tag line is a Microsoft insult free zone... but if the insults to Mac users continue..)
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To: RegulatorCountry

The expert who wrote the book says:

“Between 1908-1940, Sears sold 110,000 homes in about 370 different styles. (See note on styles.) Their sales records, promotional information, catalogs and other ephemera associated with the modern homes department was unceremoniously destroyed.”


96 posted on 05/18/2016 6:19:25 AM PDT by rhoda_penmark
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To: PROCON
The example house looks like a reversed 1932 Lynnhaven model, but with brick façade! The brick would not have come with the Sears house kit, I don't think. Maybe it was added by a later owner.
97 posted on 05/18/2016 6:27:43 AM PDT by rhoda_penmark
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To: PROCON

Mine is a Sears bungalow, 1921, the first in the neighborhood. A slew followed.


98 posted on 05/18/2016 6:55:56 AM PDT by ViLaLuz (2 Chronicles 7:14)
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To: Graybeard58; Lera
K-Mart bought Sears

ESL investments bought K-Mart and then bought Sears. The new company is Sears Holdings. The principal at ESL (Eddie Lampert) runs the company now, very poorly I might add. Sears Holdings is a dead man walking. Lampert has been busy the last several year spinning off everything of value to protect them from creditors when it eventually collapses.

99 posted on 05/18/2016 12:47:27 PM PDT by BlueMondaySkipper (Involuntarily subsidizing the parasite class since 1981)
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