Rare Find: A Sears Roebuck Mail Order House

Last weekend, I took a road trip over the Cascade mountains to Moses Lake, a small town about 150 miles east of Seattle. The trip was positioned as a seasonal fall excursion to a friend’s family farm, with promises of pumpkin carving, a cook out, and a trip to the corn maze. I hadn’t even unpacked my bags when the one of the relatives asked what I did for a living. Minutes later I was blabbering away about  Zillow, real estate, and home values (geek alert). My friend’s dad, a local real estate investor, mentioned that he recently purchased a piece of real estate history in Moses Lake - an original Sears Roebuck mail order home! Who cares about pumpkins - show me the house!

Camera in hand, we ventured out to the “white house,” an original 1910-ish Sears home, which is one of 75,000 mail-order homes built between 1908 and 1940. It’s in its original condition (read: pea green carpet and “vintage” fixtures) and is desperately craving a remodel. The home was assembled out of more than 30,000 pieces, including 750 pounds of nails, 27 gallons of paint and varnish, 10 pounds of wood putty, 460 pounds of window weight, 27 windows, 25 doors and a 75-page instruction book, all shipped directly from Sears.

Sears claimed that their homes would save men 40% of construction time, and promised that a man of “average abilities” could assemble the homes in 90 days. Sears produced over 370  pre-designed home blueprints styles, ranging in price from $500-$3,000. Or, if a family was especially ambitious, they could design the home themselves and Sears would ship off the appropriate materials. Talk about service!

My favorite things about the house were the “vinyl rugs” (above) and lived-in kitchen. Evidently, the previous owner had enough of life in Moses Lake and moved to Thailand  — even leaving the pots on the stove.

Think you’re living in a Sears home?  Check building permits, mortgage agreements, deeds, and scout around for clues on hardware for the Sears brand. There are many look alikes out there, but only a few authentic homes still stand today. However, in some communities such as Carlinville, IL all of the homes built during the early 1900’s were Sears homes.

Thank you to the North family of Moses Lake for the history lesson and for sharing this fascinating price of American history. Good luck with the remodel, I can’t wait to see how it turns out!

Image courtesy of Sears.