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The second edition of this popular book by the country's leading authority on Sears homes, Rosemary Thornton.
With four new chapters, including oral histories of Sears homeowners and many
new photos, this is THE
book on Sears homes. Included are the "The Lost Sears Homes" and exclusive
photos from the archives of Sears, Roebuck and Company.
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Author: |
Rosemary
Thornton |
| Publisher: |
Gentle Beam Publications |
| Format: |
176-pages, 8.5 x 11 inches.
Paperback
More than 80 diagrams and pictures. |
| ISBN: |
0971558817 |
| Buy
it: |
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Between 1908 and 1940, Sears customers ordered about
75,000 houses from Sears Roebuck and Company mail-order catalogs.
Today these houses have become a treasured piece of Americana. Yet while interest
in Sears homes is soaring, research by an expert suggests that fewer than 5,000
Sears houses have been conclusively identified around the U.S.
"More than 70,000 Sears homes remain undiscovered and unknown," says that
expert, Rosemary Thornton. "Because of this, architectural treasures are being damaged by remuddling and worse,
demolished."
Thornton, a regular contributor here at The Old House Web, hopes
this second edition of her popular book will help historians and homeowners alike discover some of
the many thousands of unidentified Sears houses scattered around the
U.S.
Since the first edition was published two years ago, Ms. Thornton
has traveled thousands of miles documenting and lecturing on Sears homes.
Thousands of people have written to her, offering to share their stories and
memorabilia.
"My knowledge of Sears homes has increased exponentially and I want
to share all the new information I've learned; hence the major revision," Rose
writes of her latest edition.
The book also provides a fascinating portrait of the people and ideas
behind the Sears mail-order housing business, including a profile of the grand
master of merchandising, Richard Warren Sears.
Her new book offers a detailed
history of the Sears catalog-home business. And better yet, it is loaded with
pages from those Sears catalogs of yesterday ... including many that have not
seen the light of day in many decades.
Particularly intriguing in this
edition are actual photos of Sears kit houses as they stand today -- alongside
pages from the catalogs from which these homes were ordered.
In this book,
you'll learn how to identify Sears homes from the inside, from the outside and
from visits to the archive vault at your local court house or registry of deeds. You'll learn details of how these houses were built. And you'll learn details
about the largest single order ever placed for Sears houses: a cool $1 million.
From the Back
Cover:
"Between 1908-1940, more than 75,000 Sears homes were
built. Sears kit homes contained 30,000 pieces, including 750 pounds of nails,
27 gallons of paint and a 75-page instruction book. Sears estimated that the
average carpenter would charge $450 to assemble those 30,000 pieces of house.
The painter's fee: $34.50. Sears estimated that other skilled labor would cost
$1 an hour. Prices for these built-it-yourself kit houses ranged from $600 to
$6000."
Table of Contents
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Chapter 1
What is a Sears Catalog Home?
(And Why Are They So Intriguing?)
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Chapter 2
Hang Your Saw on a Nail All Day: Sears Homes and Their Unique Place in American Architecture.
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Chapter 3
The Amazing Mr. Sears: A Brief Look at the Handsome Genius and His Store
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Chapter 4
What Were Sears Homes Made of?: Amazing Facts, Interesting Details and
Curiosities About Sears Homes.
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Chapter 5
Milling About Sears Homes: A Look Inside the Sears Mill at Cairo, Illinois.
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Chapter 6
$1 Million Worth of Sears Homes: The Biggest Order in the
History of the Sears Modern Homes Department.
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Chapter 7
The Houses That Sears Sold and Repossessed: Sears Modern
Homes, Sears Mortgages and the Great Depression
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Chapter 8
Homart Homes: The "Other" Sears Homes
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Chapter 9
Is It Really a Sears Home? How to Identify Sears Homes from
the Curb, the Kitchen or the Courthouse.
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Chapter 10
A House for the Little Woman And The Kiddies ...
A Fascinating Look Inside The Sears Modern Homes Catalogues.
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Chapter 11
Those Dandy Houses: Testimonials, Trivia and Reminiscences
of Building a Sears Modern Home.
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Chapter 12
Fact vs. Fiction ...
Myths, Mistakes and Misinformation About Sears Modern Homes.
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Chapter 13
Frequently Asked Questions
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Chapter 14
The Lost Sears Homes
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Chapter 15
Conclusion ...
What Did George Bailey and Sears, Roebuck have in Common?
About
the Author
Rosemary Thornton has been writing and lecturing about Sears homes for
five years. She has been a featured guest on CBS's
Sunday Morning News, A & E's Biography and PBS's History
Detectives; and has been the topic of stories in the Christian
Science Monitor, The New York Times and 40 other publications. Ms.
Thornton has propelled her interest in Sears kits homes into a full time job. She
lectures around the country and was a featured speaker at the recent 100-year
anniversary of Sears, Roebuck and Company in Chicago. She also conducts surveys of Sears homes for
communities and historical societies. After publishing her first edition
of The Houses that Sears Built, Ms. Thornton has traveled thousands
of miles, seeking and finding Sears homes; she's received thousands of letters
from people willing to share their stories and memorabilia. She decided it was
time to share all this new information about these catalog homes; hence, this
major revision, the second edition of The Houses That Sears Built.
From the Author
"A fine-looking gentleman at a lecture in central Illinois once asked me if I
would marry for a Sears home. I paused for a moment and repeated his question.
'Would I marry for a Sears home? I guess it depends,' I answered thoughtfully.
'Which model are we talking about?'"
"I hope my love of these
awesome
old homes shines through the pages of this book. Above all, I hope "The
Houses That Sears Built" will inspire you to go out into your community and
find the Sears homes that are hidden there...to protect and preserve this country's dazzling collection of Sears Roebuck
catalog homes."
"...Sears homes make the past come alive. The past that is represented within
the brittle and browned pages of an old catalog comes alive when you can walk
into those pages -- physically walk -- into a living room that is pictured in a
1924 Sears Modern Homes catalog."
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