Comments on Tulsa Gal: Mail-Order Homes

I live in a Sears home ordered in 1932 in Bossier ...

2011-09-04T21:17:02.950-05:00

I live in a Sears home ordered in 1932 in Bossier City, La. It was a duplex till I put a door between the side.

Rob Matlock

Rose- corrections made, thanks. Jill- At least it&...

2011-07-12T11:07:47.222-05:00

Rose- corrections made, thanks.
Jill- At least it's still standing though, right?

This is great. In fact my grandparents home, wher...

2011-07-11T18:23:07.419-05:00

This is great. In fact my grandparents home, where Daddy grew up was a Sear's in a box house. It is on Main Street in Broken Arrow and houses a home health care business now. It has been many things over the years but a home no more. So sad.

Nice piece! :) However, it's a fact that Sea...

2011-07-10T15:43:10.950-05:00

Nice piece! :) However, it's a fact that Sears offered about 370 designs during their 32 years in the kit home business, and sold fewer than 70,000 kit homes - total. Sears was inclined to some serious puffery in their advertising copy, and that's where the "100,000 homes sold" came from - advertising copy.

Actual sales reports from annual meetings prove that Sears sold about 70,000 houses - total.

As to Tulsa, I was really surprised to find so many kit homes there. Rebecca Hunter's book - "Putting Sears Homes on the Map" is a compilation of testimonials from the old Sears Modern Homes catalogs, and those testimonials offer a representative sampling of where Sears Homes were sold!

I hope people will start keeping their eyes open, as I'm confident that you have many more Sears Homes than Rachel Shoemaker and I have found, thus far.

Thanks again for the piece. I'm always delighted to see these architectural treasures given a little recognition and appreciation!

Rose Thornton
author, The Houses That Sears Built
www.searshomes.org