Wednesday, January 9, 2013
If you live in Royal Oak, Ferndale or Berkley the rafters and joists in your home (or that of a neighbor) might have numbers imprinted on them. And, if so, they can tell an interesting story.
To catch up on Local Mail Order Homes (Some Assembly Required), read the full series. Throughout Royal Oak, Berkley and Ferndale a variety of houses—everything from quaint English cottages, to cozy bungalows, to sturdy American foursquares, to classic Dutch colonials—are actually kit homes built by average joes in pursuit of the American dream. Between 1908 and 1940, Sears Roebuck, Montgomery Wards and other companies offered mail order homes for sale through catalogs. “The average fellow could order his dream home out of the Sears Roebuck catalog, and within 90 days, his kit would be delivered to the train station,” said Rose Thornton, author of “The Houses That Sears Built.” Once you have seen the extertior of a Sears kit home and know …
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
If you live in Royal Oak, Ferndale or Berkley chances are your home (or that of a neighbor) might have been ordered from a catalog.
To catch up on Local Mail Order Homes (Some Assembly Required), read the full series. When a next-door neighbor told Serena and Jim Stock of Berkley their 1927 colonial home was a Martha Washington model ordered from a Sears Roebuck catalog, they were more than intrigued. “Once we learned our house was a Sears kit home, we got excited and started looking into it,” Serena said. Today, the couple are self-described Sears Home enthusiasts, studying books, blogs and anything they can get their hands on to learn more about their mail order home. Between 1908 and 1940, Sears Roebuck, Montgomery Wards and other companies offered pre-cut homes for sale through mail order catalogs. Sears alone estimates it sold more than 70,000 such homes across …
Monday, January 7, 2013
If you live in Royal Oak, Ferndale or Berkley chances are your home (or that of a neighbor) might have been ordered from a catalog.
Neighborhoods throughout Royal Oak, Berkley and Ferndale boast a diversity of homes—everything from quaint English cottages, to cozy bungalows, to sturdy American foursquares, to classic Dutch colonials. And, at least a few of those homes were ordered as kits from a catalog. Michigan is thought to have the large number of such homes, due in part to the relatively close proximity to Sears’ and Wards’ warehouses, which were located in Chicago, as well as the state’s abundance of railroad lines, according to Garry Andrews, president of the Ferndale Historical Society. Never heard of a kit home? Neither had Serena and Jim Stock of Berkley until a next-door neighbor told them their 1927 colonial was a Martha Washington model ordered from a …
Mark Itall
7:23 pm on Wednesday, January 9, 2013
Thanks for the marking location tip. more ›