Sears as we’ve known it for decades is changing. They just made another announcement that they will be closing dozens more stores after sales have continued to dwindle. It’s sad to see these companies that once offered so much now slowly dying. Stores such as Sears, G.E., Ford, and more are struggling against retail giants like Amazon and Google.
While Sears may not be the same as it used to be, it’s legacy will live on. Their mail order business sold a little bit of everything through the 1900’s ranging from appliances to home goods, and even whole houses.
Reddit user RealHotSauceBoss recently announced that he is renovating his grandfather’s home that was bought from a Sears catalog in 1916. At the time it was purchased, it sold for just over $1,000. Not bad considering how much a house costs these days.
There were several models available for purchase. All a person needed was a plot of land to build it on. The house was shipped to the customer in pieces with a set of blue prints. It was then the purchasers’ job to build it piece by piece.
Sears archives reveal that they sold about 75,000 mail order homes between 1908 and 1940. The house RealHotSauceBoss’s grandfather bought was called Model No. 137. Taking into consideration inflation, today it would have cost about $27,000.
Despite being over 100 years old, it has held up remarkably well. RealHotSauceBoss says the wood wasn’t treated back then so the exterior was in rough shape, but the house was structurally sound. They installed storm windows over the new windows, covered the exterior with siding, and replaced the roof.
Can you believe what it looks like today? What do you think people will say about the homes we’re building today in the year 2118? Share this story with your friends and see what they think.
