Product Description

This is a newly revised and expanded version of The Houses That Sears Built.

This new edition includes more than 20 new photos of existing Sears Homes throughout the country as well as a plethora of recently discovered information.

This major revision also includes reproductions of newly-discovered original documents from the Sears Modern Homes Department as well as compelling interviews with men who worked at the Sears Mill in Cairo, IL. You'll also hear the fascinating stories from Sears Homeowners who actually built their own Sears Kit Home many decades ago!

Want to learn how to identify a Sears Home? This book contains new graphics, photos and easy-to-reference bulleted points that will tell you and show you - step by step - how to identify a Sears Home.

It also includes four brand new chapters, such as "Chapter 3 - The Amazing Mr. Sears; A Brief Look at The Handsome Genius and His Store," "Chapter 5 - Milling About Sears Homes, A Look Inside the Sears Mill at Cairo, Illinois," "Chapter 8 - Homart Homes, The 'Other' Sears Homes, "Chapter 11 - Those Dandy Houses, Testimonials; Trivia and Reminiscences of Building a Sears Modern Home."

Since the first edition of The Houses That Sears Built was published in Spring 2002, the author has appeared on CBS Sunday Morning News, PBS's History Detectives, A&E's Biography and WGN-TV News, as well as the New York Times, Christian Science Monitor, Dallas Morning News and more than 50 regional publications. As a result of this publicity, Ms. Thornton has received more than 1,000 emails and letters from readers all over the country, telling stories and sharing precious memories about their own "Sears Modern Homes," and she incorporated many of these stories into this new edition.

This new edition of The Houses That Sears Built is more than a revision - it contains a tremendous amount of new information and trivia and wonderful photos that the Sears Home enthusiast will treasure and enjoy!

About Sears Homes: Between 1908-1940, Sears customers ordered about 75,000 houses out of the Sears Roebuck and Company mail-order catalogs. The houses were shipped by rail to city lots and farms all over the country.

Each "kit home" contained 30,000 pieces, including 750 pounds of nails and 27 gallons of paint and varnish. A 75-page instruction book showed home buyers, step by step, how to assemble those 30,000 pieces of house.

Only 10% (approximately) of the Sears homes in the country have been discovered.

Because of this, our communities’ best architectural treasures – our grand collection of Sears homes – are being damaged by remuddling and worse, demolished.

There is tremendous interest in this topic and hopefully, The Houses That Sears Built will spur that interest even further.

When you have finished reading The Houses That Sears Built you will be your community’s expert on Sears homes. You’ll learn how to identify Sears homes from the inside, outside and from courthouse documents. You’ll learn the interesting details of Sears homes’ construction. One chapter is devoted to the $1 million order of Sears homes that was shipped to Carlinville, Schoper and Wood River (Illinois).

Another chapter is devoted to "The Lost Sears Homes." These are Sears homes which appeared only once in obscure Sears Modern Homes catalogs and were not included in "Houses by Mail: A Guide To Houses from Sears, Roebuck and Company," by Katherine Cole Stevenson and H. Ward Jandl.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #92075 in Books
• Published on: 2004-02-25
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 158 pages

About the Author
Since 1999, Rosemary Thornton has traveled throughout the Midwest studying, researching and learning more about Sears Homes.

This newest revision of The Houses That Sears Built features pictures of Sears Homes in Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Kentucky, Ohio, Wisconsin, Maryland, Washington, DC and Virginia.

Rose has appeared on CBS, PBS, A&E, WGN-TV and her book has been featured in the New York Times, the Christian Science Monitor, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Dallas Morning News and many more.

Her email and other contact information is in the back of the book, if interested readers would like to write her for more information.

Customer Reviews

Finding the Houses That Sears Built
We moved in our present home 10 years ago. We begin searching for our home some knowledge reguarding if it was a Sears House. We began with The Houses that Sears Built by Rosemary Thornton. However we couldn't find it there but, we found a wealth of information on Sears homes. If you think you have a Sears Kit Home both of the books are must have for you to read, learn, and enjoy. I just learned that Rosemary Thornton was in Beckley WV this week, I'm so sorry that We missed her.

A Fun, Informative and Historical read for all of us
This book is fun!

It's an excellent resource for those interested in learning about and identifying Sears' kit homes. Ms. Thornton has traveled the country in search of these remaining houses and she shares her wealth of knowledge regarding these wonderful kit homes. Her energy and passion shine through the pages as she brings us along on her travels.

What also makes this book such a joy to read is it provides fascinating glimpses into real life, down to earth America during the first part of the 20th century. A high school or college history teacher could easily use this book as a springboard and practical resource for discussing and bringing to life the sociological, cultural, and economic trends and mores during this period of American history. Learning about Richard Sears' foresight and marketing strategy by seeing examples of kit home advertisements for and testimonials from kit homeowners is fascinating. It's an interesting way to learn about American culture through a discussion of our homes throughout the heartland. This book, however, does not read like a textbook or technical manual. Ms. Thornton's casual writing style matches the real life of her subject. It reads more like a fun adventure sprinkled with historical facts rather than a not-so-exciting technical document. Thank you, Ms. Rose, for an excellent contribution!

The Houses That Sears Built
A nice overview of the Sears kit homes. A nice companion to the various catalogs that have been reprinted by Dover.