Riverdale Park's Sears Homes
America's favorite
homes
Answer: They all showcase a significant trend in American architecture - Sears "Honor-Bilt Modern Homes."
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| Home 122 was offered between 1911 and 1913, and cost between $913 and $1043. |
The Sears-Roebuck company produced a catalog of 22 precut houses in 1908, expanding to over 220 by 1940. Priced from $650 to $2,500, the kits included all materials (except the foundation) right down to the nails. The simplest could be built in 8 hours, and the newest, most elaborate styles were featured at World's Fairs and Exhibitions. Factories built hundreds for their workers, and developers built entire communities of 'tract houses' with the kits. Newly-weds ordered their first homes and raised their kids, our parents, in them.
Sears homes are as much a part of American culture as the 4th of July. While not the first kit homes offered in the U.S., they were the most common. Estimates place the total number of these homes built between 1908 and World War II at nearly one-half million. Is it any wonder that they look so familiar to us?
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Whimsically painted Sears Home sold between $704 to $1400. |
Many homes were ordered straight from the catalog, and by 1925 Sears had opened 48 sales offices in 10 states. Besides offering catalog homes, Sears adapted the designs for individual customers and took the customer's own blueprints, and provisioned their building supplies. The architectural styles ranged from simple bungalows to beautiful homes with a strong Frank Lloyd Wright influence.
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| This is the Palmyra, a Sears House available from 1911 to 1918 that sold from $1993 to $3459. |
Sears had opened "Modern Homes" sales office at 704 F Street, NW, in Washington, D.C. in 1925 and began advertising that $500 to $2,000 (1997 equivalents: $4,575 to $18,300) could be saved by buying one of its homes. Sears not only sold houses, the company also provided financing and a builder, if needed. Thanks to having an office nearby, there are concentrations of the homes in DC and the Maryland and Virginia suburbs.
In 1988, the Historic Preservation Division of the Maryland National Capital Park and Planning Commission conducted a survey of all of the Sears houses in Prince George's County. They identified only 70 that were still occupied. Many of those homes are in Riverdale Park. Some of these local homes were described in the Washington Post article, "They Don't Make Houses Like This Any More."
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Particularly if you have one of these
gems, you
may wish to view an interesting article about Sears
Homes excerpted from the Downers Grove, Illinois
web site. Click on the image at right to see my own Sears-style Home.
Because of recent interest in Sears homes, the Sears Company has put up a site that contains a wealth of information on their "Modern Homes." There is also information about Sears Roebuck Houses from1908 to 1940 at the Arts & Crafts movement page. If you live in one of these historic residences, you may even be able to find your home including the original prices at The Bungalows of Sears Roebuck.