Urban Community History - Sears Homes

Neighborhoods and communities have histories -- that's what makes them more than a collection of houses and perhaps stores. In walking around, you can often "read" some of the history in the architecture of the houses. Many of them look like they came from the same kits -- and often they did.

Over at Cyburbia.org there is a link to the Sears archives, which contains images and information on some of the 447 different housing styles that Sears & Roebuck produced as kits.

70-100 years ago many homes around North America came as kits from Sears & Roebuck as well as other companies. They also helped popularize certain styles that local builders duplicated.

In walking many neighbourhoods in North American cities, you can tell what years they were built simply by the style of the houses. My neighbourhood has several like this:

-- Or I suspect they once looked like this but various renovations have them appearing a little different today. This is the Mayfair, from 1908-1914, which is the era of my neighbourhood.

In the online version of the Sears catalog, I couldn't find anything that looked like our house, which is a 1911 era Craftsman. And it must be from a kit or something similar because there are dozens just like it in our neighborhood and in other older Vancouver communities.

If anyone knows of other housing kit archives online, please let me know. I'd love to find our house in a kit or "for purchase" architectural plans.