Small Houses of the Twenties

The Sears, Roebuck 1926 House Catalog

Sears, Roebuck and Co.

• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9780486139418
• Topic: Architecture
• Subtopic: History of Architecture

For almost 20 years, Sears, Roebuck and Company purveyed the materials for complete prefabricated houses, providing thousands of Americans with attractive and comfortable low-cost dwellings. Many of these homes are still a common feature in cities and towns across America.
The present volume, a meticulous reproduction of a rare Sears, Roebuck catalog of 1926, provides a thorough, accurate record of the company's `Honor Bilt Modern Homes.` Over 300 photographs and illustrations, with full descriptions, offer views of 86 different houses and cottages of widely varying sizes and designs. Readers may recognize familiar architectural styles in designs such as the cozy six-room `Homewood` bungalow or the elegant `Lexington,` a nine-room, green-shuttered colonial. Also shown are several room interiors for each of 14 homes, along with photographs and plans for nine garages and a hunter's cabin. In addition to visual documentation, the catalog provides extensive, detailed construction information, ranging from the grade of exterior siding to the type of wood used for flooring, windows, and trim.
An invaluable primary source illustrated for anyone engaged in the study, authentication, or restoration of antique homes or furnishings, this period catalog will also be of special value to architectural and social historians, Americana enthusiasts, and general readers.

Publisher’s Note

THE 1920s WERE HEADY YEARS in America economically. As the smoke of World War I cleared, the United States realized that it was the greatest economic power on earth, with an unmatched industrial and agricultural base. Consumer buying, deferred for the war years, soared in its aftermath. And “The World’s Greatest Store” rode the crest of the boom.

Sears, Roebuck and Co. aspired at one time or another to be the provider of virtually every consumer product to the American people. From 1908 to 1912 Sears manufactured its own line of automobiles. For some fifteen years it sold groceries in its stores. Most ambitiously of all, from 1916 to 1933 it offered completely prefabricated houses to customers throughout the country, an offering that led quickly to the underwriting o...

Table of contents

• DOVER BOOKS ON ARCHITECTURE
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Preface to the Athenaeum/Dover Edition
• Publisher’s Note