Two Sears "Modern Homes" in downtown
Recently, I stood 103 floors above the city of Chicago, pointing out various points of interest to our son - Wrigley Field, Navy Pier, Grant Park and more. We watched the el train move through the famous Loop downtown and read the history of Chicago and the building we were in on plaques scattered around the observation floor of the Sears Tower, the world's third tallest building. Built by Sears, Roebuck and Company, the building is one of the most recognizable structures on the city's skyline.
Between the years of 1908 and 1940, the Sears, Roebuck and Company sold about 70,000 to 75,000 homes by mail order. Over its 32 year history the Sears Company had 447 different housing styles, from the multistory "Ivanhoe" with French doors and art glass windows to the "Goldenrod," a quaint three room with a bath cottage for summer vacationers. Sears called this mail order program "Modern Homes." A buyer could have a home delivered to a local train depot where shipment of materials could be picked up and hauled to the new home site. Friends and family would have a "house raising" party like the traditional barn raisings that farming families had been doing for hundreds of years. The Modern Homes program encouraged custom designing of a house down to the color of the cabinetry hardware. This has made it difficult for the historians today to identify a Sears home because each home was a reflection of the unique design and tastes of the original buyer.
Beginning in 1908 the first specialty catalog for houses entitled "Book of Modern Homes and Building Plans" was issued. According to the Sears website, this catalog featured 22 styles of houses ranging in price from $650 to $2500. The site states that $650-$2,500 in 1908 was comparable to $12,200 to $47,100 in modern dollars.
Shipped in a boxcar and then trucked (pulled by horse and wagon) to the home site, the average Sears Modern Home kit had on average 25 tons of materials, with over 30,000 parts. These kits included gaslight fixtures with early models. Plumbing and electrical fixtures and heating systems were not included in the original kits but could be purchased as an option. Many new Sears home had indoor plumbing and central heating long before it became standard in the local communities.
Sears did three very unique things that enabled their homes to be assembled by the local family that bought the home. One was "Balloon-style" framing. This framing system did not require a team of skilled carpenters, like other methods. Balloon frames were built faster and generally only required the work of one carpenter. This system worked because of the use of precut timber of mostly standard 2x4 and 2x8 lumbers for framing. Precut timber, fitted pieces, and the convenience of having everything including the nails, shipped by railroad directly to the customer added greatly to the popularity of this framing style.
Another exclusive was the use of drywall. Before drywall, plaster and lathe wall was the building technique used and these required skilled carpenters. Sears took advantage of the new homebuilding material of drywall by shipping large quantities of this inexpensively manufactured product with the rest of the housing materials. Again Sears was offering a new material that had lower price, ease of installation, and the added bonus of fire-safety protection.The Sears Modern Homes program would stay abreast of any technology that could ease the lives of its homebuyers and gave them the option to design their home with the latest modern conveniences of the early part of the 1900. As a result, Sears helped popularize many of the newly developed technologies of the twenty-first century including central heating, indoor plumbing and electricity. Indoor plumbing and homes wired for electricity were the first steps to our kitchens and bathrooms of today.
Two Sears Modern Homes are located in the Madison Station Historic District, one on Church Street and the other on Arnett Street, both from the first five years of the Modern Homes catalog. About every five years or so, the Modern Homes catalog would be updated with new offerings. The catalogs were updated five times during the life of the Sears Modern Homes 1908-1914, 1915-1920, 1921-1926, 1927-1932 and 1933-1940.
Sears discontinued the Modern Homes after 1940 but the remaining 152 can still be found in 48 states. These homes are popular with restorers of older homes and are sought after for having craftsmanship better that that of the average non-Sears house built at the same time. There is a culture of Sears Modern Home seekers emerging in the recent years as individual buildings are being identified.
Arlington, Virginia has 100 of these homes and Hopewell Virginia has 42 in the Crescent Hills neighborhood. In Illinois, Downers Grove has 27 and Aurora has documented 136 homes. In 1918, Standard Oil purchased 156 homes for their operations in Carlinville, Illinois. And we, of course, have our two beautiful homes right here in Madison.
