Sears Modern Homes were houses sold primarily through mail order catalog by Sears, Roebuck and Co., an American retailer.

From 1908 to 1942, Sears sold more than 70,000 of these houses in North America, by the company's count.^[1] Sears Modern Homes were purchased primarily by customers in East Coast and Midwest states, but have been located as far south as Florida, as far west as California, and as far north as Alaska and Canada.^[2] No complete record of their locations was left by Sears when they closed the Modern Homes program, but modern-day researchers are compiling a database of those that have been found so far, and the list continues to grow.^[3][4]

Sears Modern Homes offered more than 370 designs in a wide range of architectural styles and sizes over the line's 34-year history. Most included the latest comforts and conveniences available to house buyers in the early part of the twentieth century, such as central heating, indoor plumbing, telephone, and electricity.

Primarily shipped via railroad boxcars, these kits included most of the materials needed to build a house. Once delivered, many of these houses were assembled by the new homeowner, relatives, friends and neighbors, in a fashion similar to the traditional barn-raisings of farming families.^[5] Other homeowners relied on local carpenters or contractors to assemble the houses. 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. Although most shipments came by rail, newspaper advertisements in the late 1920s and early 1930s showed Sears offering truck delivery to buyers living within a 35 mile radius of their Newark, New Jersey, plant, or their Norwood, Ohio, Sash & Door company.^[6]

Sears discontinued its Modern Homes catalog after 1940, though sales through local sales offices continued into 1942. Years later, the sales records related to home sales were destroyed during a corporate house cleaning. As only a small percentage of these homes were documented when built, finding these houses today often requires detailed research to properly identify them. Because the various kit home companies often copied plan elements or designs from each other, there are a number of catalog and kit models from different manufacturers that look similar or identical to models offered by Sears. Determining which company manufactured a particular catalog and kit home may require additional research to determine the origin of that home.

Sears offered roughly 370 models over the 32 years it sold houses by catalog, with an average of 80 to 100 models in each catalog. The models offered in each catalog varied each year, with some models remaining over long periods, and others appearing in only a few catalogs. In the early years, the models were identified with numbers. In 1918, Sears began assigning names to the various models. Some models were offered with variations, the most common of those being expanded floor plans and additional finished living spaces. Sears houses could also be ordered with reversed floor plans. While the vast majority of models were for single-family house designs, Sears offered some duplex house designs and even a few larger multiple-family buildings.^[16][17]

The most popular models appeared in the catalog for multiple years. Other models only appeared for one year. No built examples have been found of some of the least popular models. Some models were offered in both wood siding and brick veneer versions with different names attributed to the same or almost identical home plan. Some of the most popular models were:^[18]

The largest and one of the most expensive Sears models was the Magnolia.^[19] Only seven Magnolias are known to be still standing. One Magnolia built in Lincoln, Nebraska, was demolished in 1985.^[20]

In addition to houses, the 1908 Sears catalog offered a kit schoolhouse with the model name "Schoolhouse No. 5008". The two-story schoolhouse was priced at $11,500 (equal to $389,978 today) and its design included six classrooms, a library, an auditorium, and a superintendent's office.^[21] 1908 was the only year the schoolhouse appeared in the catalog. It is unknown whether any were purchased or built.^[22]

There was no single architect for the Sears designs. Many of the famous designs were commandeered from other sources and/or purchased from architects but given just enough change to be advertised as their own.^[23] Later on in the Modern Homes timeline, Sears had in-office designers but titled them as "experts" rather than actual architects.^[23]

Identifying Sears Homes has become a pastime among history enthusiasts because of their sturdy structure, the do-it-yourself nature of construction, and the popular architectural design concepts. 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.^[24][25] National and regional competitors in the catalog and kit home market included Aladdin, Bennett, Gordon-Van Tine, Harris Brothers, Lewis, Pacific Ready Cut Homes, Sterling and Montgomery Ward (Wardway) Homes.^[26]

Sears houses can be identified or authenticated using the following methods:

1. Sears Modern Homes were sold between 1908 and 1942. There is some debate about whether some homes from Sears that were built in 1941 and 1942 qualify as Sears Modern Homes. Some of these homes were based on models offered in the Sears Modern Homes catalog. Others were not, but were still pre-cut kit homes built from plans and materials from Sears. Researchers have provided support for the end-date of 1942 in some areas of the country, however.^[27]
2. Original paperwork for the house including blueprints and letters of correspondence from Sears.
3. Public records: From 1911 to 1933, Sears offered home mortgages and Sears company officials or the Sears, Roebuck corporation may be named on the mortgage or deed associated with the property where the home was constructed.^[28] Sears company officials most commonly listed on mortgages and deeds include:
   • Edwards D. Ford (starting in 1929)
   • Walker O. Lewis (primarily before early 1930)
   • John M. Ogden
   • E. Harrison Powell (starting in 1930)
   • William C. Reed (primarily from 1922 - 1929)
   • F. C. Schaub (starting in 1932)
   • Nicholas Wieland (sometimes spelled Weiland)

4. Cities that have records of building permits may list Sears, Roebuck as the original architect. Homes in and around southern Ohio may have financing documents through the "Norwood Sash and Door Company" of Norwood, Ohio. Some Home Club homes have deeds from the "Port Newark Lumber and Material Company".

5. Shipping labels: Often found on the back of millwork like baseboard molding or door and window trim, shipping labels associated with Sears may indicate that the home is a Sears Modern Home. Beginning in 1912, most of the millwork was fulfilled by the Sears-owned Norwood Sash and Door Company of Cincinnati, Ohio, however, the 1926 opening of Sears' Port Newark lumber yard, expanded their framing lumber and millwork supply locations.^[29] Wording on shipping labels varied, and may mention Sears Roebuck, or simply the Sears Roebuck Company address at 925 Homan Avenue in Chicago, or the Norwood Sash & Door company.^[30][31] It's important to remember that building materials like millwork could be purchased separately from Sears so millwork with shipping labels is not, by itself, a definitive indicator of a Sears Modern house.^[32]

6. Stamped lumber: Most easily found in unfinished spaces like a basement or attic, framing members were stamped with a letter and a number. These stamps are normally located on or near the ends of pieces of framing lumber. However, these stamps were not used on lumber shipped before 1916, when Sears first started offering pre-cut lumber.^[33] Additionally, other kit-house companies also marked their pre-cut lumber, so marked lumber does not necessarily tie the house to Sears.^[34]

7. Goodwall sheet plaster was an early drywall-like product offered by Sears and may be an indication of a Sears Modern Home.^[35]

8. Compare house designs to original catalog images. Some models of Sears homes were very similar in design to models offered by other kit home manufacturers or through plan books. Designs may have been modified but generally should match in layout and dimensions.

9. Sears Modern Homes built in the 1930s may have a small circled "SR" cast into the bathtub in the lower corner (furthest from the tub spout and near the floor) and on the underside of the kitchen or bathroom sink. However, since Sears sold bathtubs and sinks separately, if the house does not match a model offered by Sears, this would not reliably authenticate a home as being from the Sears Modern Homes program.

Because the Modern Homes division sales records were destroyed, there is no way to definitively verify the number of Sears houses that still exist. Documented Sears houses have been found across the United States and in a few locations in Canada. Cities with large numbers of documented Sears Modern Homes include:

• Aurora, Illinois, with 117.^[36][37]
• Arlington County, Virginia, with 162^[38]
• Carlinville, Illinois, with 149 in the Standard Addition neighborhood as well as several other Sears houses elsewhere in the city. Carlinville is said to have "the highest concentration of contiguous Sears homes in the nation."^[39]
• Cincinnati, Ohio, and surrounding communities in southern Ohio and Northern Kentucky with over 700.^[40]
• Downers Grove, Illinois, with 67.^[41]
• Elgin, Illinois, with 213.^[42]
• Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and surrounding suburbs, with 1,000 (540 in Pittsburgh itself).^[43]
• Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and surrounding communities.^[44]
• Prince George's County & Montgomery County, Maryland, with over 225.^[45]
• Rockford, Illinois with 144.^[46]
• Washington, D.C., with over 300.^[45]
• Wood River, Illinois, with 23.^[47]
• Yonkers, New York, with 111^[44]

The Carlinville, Illinois, concentration consists of houses bought in bulk by the Standard Oil Company in 1918 to house its mineworkers at a total cost of about US $1 million. The houses, comprising eight models, were all built in a 12-block area known as the Standard Addition. Construction of the houses took nine months which were completed in 1919. The bulk order is the largest known order for Sears Modern Homes and led to Sears, Roebuck naming their "Carlin" model after the city.

Not all Sears houses became private residences. At Greenlawn Cemetery, near the Hampton Roads waterfront in the Newport News, Virginia, area, the cemetery office building is a 1936 Sears Modern Home.^[48]

Like the Standard Addition in Carlinville, neighborhoods of Sears houses still hold a sense of identity and community. Due to reviews by homeowners then and now, it would appear that Sears Modern Homes are just as appreciated now as they were then. According to a review written by Mary Ann O'Boyle of Takoma Park, Maryland, her Sears home feels "unabashedly American, the kind of house you see in movies about the good old days" and "allows me to connect with the past".^[49] Another homeowner, Erskine Hogue Stanberry, states that his Saratoga model was the "first house in Chelsea to have electric lights" and that they "are using the original plumbing and wiring".^[49]

There are examples of modern homes built based on the design of Sears Modern Home. In some cases, homeowners used plans from original Sears homes to recreate a modern version of a Sears home. In other cases, the home followed the general design of a Sears house without being an exact duplicate.^[51][52]

One well-known replica of a Sears house is at the "Farm at Prophetstown" museum in Battle Ground, Indiana, which features a replica of a Hillrose model. The house forms part of the farmstead at the museum.^[53]

• Kit houses in North America
• American Foursquare