Home in a Kit

Clearstory

This Old House

History, Home & Garden, Leisure

4.9 • 726 Ratings

🗓️ 15 July 2021

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Between 1908 and 1940, Sears, Roebuck, and Co. sold 70,000 homes through their catalogs. These were called Kit Homes, and they ranged from simple one-story cottages to elaborate two-story homes with columns and fireplaces. The house arrived in pieces in a boxcar. And they helped spark the first wave of suburbia. Host Kevin O'Connor speaks with Rosemary Thorton, author of The Houses That Sears Built, and Avi Friedman, author of Pre-Fab Living, about this then-groundbreaking concept. How did the kit home answer a booming need for affordable and modern housing? And why did their popularity disappear? And is there a place for a modern kit home today as we face yet another housing crisis? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:27.9	slash UK slash AI for people. It's a really nice town. It's a typical leafy suburb in Massachusetts.
0:39.3	And there is an eclectic mix of homes along this rather busy road.
0:46.3	A little gambrel roof looking house right here.
0:52.3	There's a couple of capes. Oh wow, there it is.
0:57.0	In 1908, something happened that changed the way we build some of our homes. And it was kind of amazing. You could buy a house from a catalog, the entire thing. Four walls, roof, stairs,
1:14.7	even the chimney, all of it. And these kit homes came in 12,000 pieces with 75 pages of instructions,
1:23.0	and a promise that a man of average abilities could have it together in 90 days. I mean,
1:27.0	that's pretty bold. Everything you have it together in 90 days. It was pretty bold.
1:28.9	Everything you needed to build your own home.
1:31.3	And it arrived in a railroad box car.
1:34.4	Talk about rugged individual as we break out in a sweat when we have to build an IKEA TV stand.
1:39.7	You had 48 hours to get those 12,000 pieces of house out of that box car and to your lot.
1:45.1	For a first time homebuyer, this was a huge deal.
1:53.6	Kit homes. They changed housing and home ownership for tens of thousands of people.
1:59.2	So what is a kid home, man? Who built them?
2:02.0	And if they're so incredible, why aren't we all living in one today?
2:10.7	From this old house, this is Clear Story.
2:13.8	Your home in a new life.
2:15.7	I'm Kevin O'Connor.
2:30.0	There's a Sears-Kit home in Sydney, Illinois, not too far from where I live in the St. Louis area.
	...

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