That first Modern Homes catalog issued in 1908 was 68-pages long and offered 44 house designs, ranging in price from $695 - $4,115. (Throughout the 1980s and 90s, countless magazine and newspaper articles have perpetuated errors about this first catalog, stating that it had 44 pages and 22 designs, with prices ranging from $650 - $2500. -- RT)

In addition to the 44 houses, Sears offered plans and building materials for a "modern" schoolhouse, which the company claimed could be built for $11,500. This was the only Sears Modern Homes catalog to offer a schoolhouse, or any commercial structure, for that matter.

The timing for these catalog homes was ideal. In 1900 only 8,000 cars were on America's roads. Just a decade later, 460,000 automobiles were registered and licensed.

A small column in the January 22, 1931 Chicago Tribune stated that in 1930, there had been a 53% drop in home construction (housing starts) nationwide. Catalogues and Counters: A History of Sears Roebuck and Company (Boris Emmet & John Jeuck) states that sales of Sears Homes also dropped, from their peak of $12 million in 1929 - to $8 million in 1931, $6 million in 1932 and $3.6 million in 1933.

Check out the chimney. Floor plans change, but chimneys stay put. If the chimney in your suspected Sears house is in the wrong place, it's probably not a Sears house. But keep in mind that floor plans were reversible.

Between 1908-1940, Sears sold 110,000 homes in about 370 different styles. Their sales records, promotional information, catalogs and other ephemera associated with the modern homes department was unceremoniously destroyed.

Two years later, in 1934, the company's annual report to stockholders stated that the Modern Homes department had been closed. That year, Sears liquidated more than $11 million of their home mortgages. At a time when the average Sears house cost well under $4,000, and mortgages were typically a fraction of that amount, this was a staggering sum. Foreclosing on (and evicting) Sears best customers from their own homes became a public relations nightmare.

Sears opened Modern Homes sales centers in several cities, including two in Missouri - one in St. Louis and one in Kansas City. At these sales centers, sales agents helped home buyers design just the home they wanted. Minor and major changes - from adding a few more windows to changing from a hip roof to a gabled roof - were suggested and encouraged. This, coupled with the passage of a few decades, makes identification challenging, to say the least.

The company began offering mortgage loans in 1911. Easy payment plans and lax loan qualifications made home-buying attainable by the masses. A 1924 Sears mortgage application, like the one at right, asked a few simple questions about the house and building lot, but only asked one financial question: "What is your vocation?"

Historical accounts of the rise and fall of the Sears catalog homes are often contradictory. In January 1932, the Wall Street Journal reported that Sears would build its 100,000th house during the year. One hundred thousand homes made for good press, but Sears' own numbers make me suspect that total had been "puffed" a bit. A small paragraph on page four of the 1930 Honor-Bilt Modern Homes catalogue stated that Sears had now sold more than 48,000 homes. (In the 1929 catalogue, that number was 44,200.)

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