118 Pages Plus Covers
Hundreds of Testimonials
Photos of 59 Completed Houses & One Simplex-like Building
Victorian
Arts & Crafts
Four-Square
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Street Addresses & Owner Names in Testimonials

Pictured Houses:
(Some with Street Addresses & Owner or Builder Name)

• Colorado Springs, CO
• Greeley, CO
• New Haven, CT
• Norfolk, CT
• Sarasota, FL
• Caldwell, ID
• Barrington, IL
• Oak Park, IL
• St. Charles, IL
• West McHenry, IL
• Dixon, IA
• Fenton, IA
• Griswold, IA
• Pisgah, IA
• Evansville, IN
• Salina, KS
• Baltimore, MD
• Havre de Grace, MD
• Silver Spring, MD
• Fitchburg, MA
• Grafton, MA
• Detroit, MI
• Grand Rapids, MI
• Springfield, MO
• Tarkio, MO
• Omaha, NE
• Ponca, NE
• York, NE
• Roselle Park, NJ
• Somerville, NJ
• Cohoes, NY
• Concord, NH
• Fulton, NY
• Glen Park, NY
• Oakland [Gardens?], NY
• Ossining, NY
• Wayne, NY
• Cleveland, OH
• Norwalk, OH
• Shelby, OH
• Halifax, PA
• Monongahela, PA
• Temple, TX
• Terrell, TX
• Eau Claire, WI
• Cowley, WY

This is a fine reproduction of a c.1912 Sears Ready Made House catalog, which appears to feature both actual kit houses and others built with Sears materials and plans. For about forty years, starting in 1908, Sears Roebuck sold many thousands of kit houses, garages, and storage buildings. These were delivered ready to build with all necessary hardware and fixtures - and eventually, all lumber, roofing, and siding cut exactly to fit. The builder was responsible for the foundation, but everything else was provided by Sears.

These is no catalog date, but the latest testimonial date is 1912. The style of many of the houses, though, leads us to believe some were ordered as early as 1908. (One letter refers to a 1907 building date, but that house is not pictured.). A wide range of completed house styles is shown, from Victorian to Arts & Crafts, and later. In addition to the more commonly seen Sears houses, a quite unusual one is shown - a tropical house with a long veranda, built in Florida. (This one was apparently not a kit house.) Both single-family and multi-family houses are pictured, and the testimonials seem to be fairly evenly split between builders and live-in owners.

All the testimonials give towns and states, and some list actual street addresses and owner or builder names. Some model numbers are given in the text accompanying the photos. In addition, we have identified more house models, some exact and some variant, in a chart listing model #'s and catalog pages. More model numbers are mentioned in the testimonials.

See more catalogs like this in our Building & Ornament Department.

We have digitally reproduced and restored our original catalog at an extremely high resolution, and printed the pages on a heavy paper stock. This is not a photocopy - our photo-editing software and digital techniques allow us to retain an unusual image clarity and depth of detail, limited sometimes only by the production values of the original. Some of our fine reproduction catalogs are already in museum research collections.

This reproduction catalog is meant to be a permanent reference. Its color-coordinated plastic spiral binding, unlike a cheaper comb binding, allows this book to remain unharmed when left open at the desired place. The front and back covers are printed on heavy marbled cover stock and protected by sturdy clear vinyl outer covers.