Sears Catalog Homes by Sears, Roebuck & Co. (1908 -1940)

For nearly thirty-two years, Sears, Roebuck and Company of Chicago was the most prolific designer and manufacturer of prefabricated housing anywhere in the world. Between 1908 and 1940 the company sold over 100,000 homes through their "Modern Homes" mail-order catalogue. A small army of staff designers created some 447 different models that were rendered for the annual sales catalogue, which promised door-to-door delivery and assembly of every single element of the house.

The models ranged from simple one-room structures to elaborate multifamily, multistory units. The company emphasized the ability to track market trends in popular home design, affording the client the added benefit of customizing numerous aspects of each house, including hardware and appliances, certain finishes, the ability to mirror an existing floor plan, and even furnishing sets. In fact, Sears would eventually develop an arm of their homebuilding enterprise to include the capacity to process blueprints drawn entirely by unskilled or semiskilled customers, functioning as a clearinghouse to render the rough designs architecturally sound, and sending the customer the raw building materials and an assembly manual in just a matter of months.

Furthering the streamline system, Sears even secured financing and administered mortgages. Although most clients were motivated to order a Sears home purely for its affordability, Sears found enough diversity in their clientele to offer three tiers of home lines whose costs were commensurate with their relative quality: Honor-Bilt, Standard Built, and Simplex Sectional.

(Source: Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling by Barry Bergdoll and Peter Christensen)