Once apon a time. You could buy an entire house from the sears catalog. Just like we do from the walthers catalog. Has anybody ever made a model.of those sears houses?
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Atlas had "Kate's Colonial" "Kim's Classic" and "Barb's Bungalow" (think I got those right) which were all based on "kit houses" if I remember correctly. Not sure if they were all Sears houses or just kits available from various kit house suppliers. I think that some other available model houses are based on kit houses. Wouldn't suprise me if some of the Walthers Cornerstone series are based on kit houses. I have several of the Atlas kits in storage, not handy to check on, awaiting construction.
Have fun,
Richard
Google search, catalog homes, maybe not Sears
http://www.branchline-trains.com/laserart-structures/residential/residential-ho.html
https://www.amazon.com/Bachmann-88001-Spectrum-Century-House/dp/B0048LRUDM
Paul
Modeling HO with a transition era UP bent
I didnt realize there were otherkit houses other than sears.
Bachmann Spectrum #88001 Sears Home is a very nice kit. I don't know if it is still made or not. I have a kit for sale if you are interested in it at $45. You can search feebay listings and there is at least one there now.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/BACHMANN-SPECTRUM-HO-U-A-SEARS-ROEBUCK-AND-CO-CATALOG-HOUSE-MODEL-KIT-/262752943635?hash=item3d2d4bbe13:g:7MUAAOSwNSxVIxCG
Roger Huber
My Grandfather on my Dads side of the family worked for Sears years ago. He purchased and built the first tri-level home in Allen County ( Fort Wayne) .
If any of you guys reading this live near Ft Wayne it is located at 1835 Curdes Avenue just off of North Anthony street. In fact one of my work benches was my Granddad's old Sears workbench, and still in nice shape! What better place to build a Sears type house kit! Many people never knew Sears sold full scale house kits! They also at one time sold full scale private airplanes! IMHO still one of the best places to buy tools!
I inherited a Sears hammer that had been my Grandad's ! The wood handle broke. I took it into Sears and showed the tool guy, he went over and got a new wood handle for it off the shelf, then put it together for me, then handed e the old handle wanting to know if I wanted to keep it as a "keep sake?"
I asked what do I owe you? He smiled and said You don't owe us anything!
That handle was over 50 years old and Sears stood behind their warranty on it!!!
I think Granddad bought the workbench in 1946, so it's 70 years old this year!
oldline1 Bachmann Spectrum #88001 Sears Home is a very nice kit. I don't know if it is still made or not. I have a kit for sale if you are interested in it at $45. You can search feebay listings and there is at least one there now. http://www.ebay.com/itm/BACHMANN-SPECTRUM-HO-U-A-SEARS-ROEBUCK-AND-CO-CATALOG-HOUSE-MODEL-KIT-/262752943635?hash=item3d2d4bbe13:g:7MUAAOSwNSxVIxCG Roger Huber
What kit do you have Roger?
TheK4Kid I inherited a Sears hammer that had been my Grandad's ! The wood handle broke. I took it into Sears and showed the tool guy, he went over and got a new wood handle for it off the shelf, then put it together for me, then handed e the old handle wanting to know if I wanted to keep it as a "keep sake?" I asked what do I owe you? He smiled and said You don't owe us anything! That handle was over 50 years old and Sears stood behind their warranty on it!!! I think Granddad bought the workbench in 1946, so it's 70 years old this year!
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ROBERT PETRICK Richard Sears was a railroad station agent. There's a story, probably bunk, that Sears bought a watch from Alvah Roebuck. One day he dropped the watch and brought it to Roebuck to repair. Roebuck asked what caused the (obvious) damage, and Sears said somegthing like " . . . it just fell out of my pocket." The watch was repaired and Sears asked how much he owed and Roebuck said " . . . nothing, my watches are guaranteed to not fall out of your pocket." The rest, as they say, is history. Robert
Here's the Wiki overview of the Sears home kits. I was curious about cost. In 1908 they were priced at $360 - $2,890 (in 2016 dollars $8,752 - $70,256). Of course, you could take the price of an HO kit and multiply that times 87...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sears_Catalog_Home
TheK4Kid,
I have the #88001 Sears Home. It's a 2-story, square building with a hip roof. Very neat building.
NVSRR I didnt realize there were otherkit houses other than sears.
There were other companies, such as the Aladdin Co. and the Gordon-Van Tine Co.
https://www.amazon.com/House-Designs-Twenties-Dover-Architecture/dp/0486269590
Many years ago on a different forum, someone scratchbuilt a Finley house and posted plans:
http://www.zealot.com/threads/my-first-catalog-house.151596/
Gary
I never built a Sears kit house but I did live in one. In Poughkeepsie, New York on Park Avenue (not as posh as it sounds) was a row of Sears houses. I bought one in 1982 and only found out about it years later when I was mowing the lawn and a passer-by said it came out of a Sears catalog.
A boxy two-storey, two bedroom home, large front porch, single car garage on a 25' by 100' lot. No insulation in the walls, one bathroom but it had a toilet in the basement below the stairs. Hot air heat, a big octopus type furnace. One day the top of the original cesspool collapsed and I had to get a dumptruck of dirt to fill it in. I looked down into the pit, it was made of stacked flat stones, the top was made of old bedsprings and that was covered in tarpaper and dirt. I wonder who skimmed the money to make a proper cesspool, but being built in 1930, I guess that will remain a secret. I moved out in 1995.
IIRC the Sears house was designed to have all the parts fit in one standard 40' long, 8-1/2' high boxcar. The car would be delivered to a team track, or to a carpenter's or builder's spur track if you chose to hire a professional to assemble it for you.
I just turned up this column on kit houses (it's a blog, so it won't last long, I think):
http://www.mcmansionhell.com
It starts just after the intro comment.
Ed
Funaro & Camerlengo lists an HO "Catalog Home" kit in resin. It appears to be about the same prototype as the Bachmann model.
Tom