Author: By Gerda / Source: Bored Panda
While these days we don’t think twice about ordering all kinds of things online, with giants like Amazon offering pretty much anything you could possibly imagine shipped to your doorstep, the mail-order concept goes back much further than you might think, and you could even get an entire house delivered by mail.
Sears, once the biggest retailer in the U.S. but which recently filed for bankruptcy, revolutionized home-ownership and kick-started the American dream for thousands by offering affordable ‘kit homes,’ arriving by railroad in pieces that people would put together themselves. With 400 types to choose from in a range of budgets, the mail-order homes proved to be a massive hit, with 75,000 built all over the USA between 1908 and 1940.
The scheme was an impressive foreshadow of today’s Amazon and Ikea, done on a massive scale and over a century ago. Sears’ iconic catalog was a cultural phenomenon of the times, with a full one-fifth of the population signed up to the 1,400-page tome, offering more than 100,000 items to be delivered to your door.
After receiving and building your kit home, which Sears promised could be done without a carpenter and with only rudimentary skills in less than 90 days, you could then furnish it with brand-new Sears goods, including modern conveniences like central heating, indoor plumbing, and electricity.
The accessibility of these homes changed…
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