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Unusual Sears Homes
The Weird, Wacky, and WonderfulAn informal study of Sears houses yields some interesting finds. True, most of the homes have a "Craftsmen Bungalow" style, but there are more than a few outliers....
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Lewis-Liberty Homes
Cover of the 1922 Lewis Homes CatalogLewis-Liberty--The Product of an Unhappy Marriage Lewis-Liberty Homes are an interesting hybrid in the history of the instant house. The company started as Lewis...
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The Aluminaire House
The Aluminaire House TodayThe Aluminaire House: The First Attempt at a Metal House Americans do not like metal houses. For some reason, we just prefer our wood and brick. I think it's something...
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Suntop Homes
Recent view of the Suntop Homes in Ardmore, PAMore Frank Lloyd Wright: The QuadsRemember how in my last Usonian post I remarked that FLW never quite hit the "below $5,000" cost for a modest home? No?...
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Bicknell's Victorian Buildings
Not Quite A KitIn the late 1880s, there was a building boom of Victorian-style homes throughout the United States. The country was industrializing, railroads were making the country smaller, suburbs...
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Wingfoot Homes
Picture of the Wingfoot Home from Popular ScienceMagazine--August, 1946 issue.When is a trailer not a trailer?Answer: when it's a Wingfoot House! Wingfoot Homes was the brainchild of the Goodyear...
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Wardway Homes
1931 Cover--The Final Wardway CatalogMontgomery Ward Enters the Business The business rivalry between Sears and Montgomery Ward is the stuff that legends are made of. Well...at least, interesting...
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Prefabs Before Industrialization
Prefabs in Colonial Americas According to Charles Peterson in his article "Early American Prefabrication", the first prefab to arrive in America was shipped from England for a gold mining project in...
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House on Wheels
House trailers have always had something of an image problem. People like to think of dwellings as permanent--the presence of a chassis and wheels goes against that. Then there are the types of...
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Gunnison "Magic" Homes
From the May, 1943 edition of "The Rotarian" magazinePress a Button, Get a House!This post returns to the "roots" of Instant House - post WWII housing needs. During the late '40s and through the...
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Leisurama - An Impulse Buy???
The House That Macy's Built Americans are impulse buyers. We buy everything imaginable on impulse--food, clothing, computers, gift cards, cars even.....but a vacation home? Believe it or not, Macy's...
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More Lustron Stuff
More Lustron StuffI recently found a picture on the internet of a Lustron being erected in an urban environment. This has to be the one-and-only Lustron erected as a model home in Chicago. Here is...
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California Kits - Sears of the West
Pacific Ready-Cut HomesAnother Ready-Cut Variant The Los Angeles company Pacific Ready-Cut Homes manufactured pre-cut homes in the fashion of Sears & Roebuck from 1908-1940. The company...
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The Techbuilt House
The Techbuilt House Have you ever been inside a barn--a traditional post and beam barn? Barns are amazing feats of engineering and construction. They have soaring ceilings, large usable spaces, and...
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Ocean Grove Camp Meeting
The tents of Ocean GroveThe Tents of Ocean Grove, NJ I recently had the opportunity to take a trip to Ocean Grove, NJ. This is a shore town immediately south of Asbury Park, but the two towns are...
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Gunnison Random Finds
Smithsonian Institution FindA recent web search for Gunnison catalogs pointed me to something in the Smithsonian Institute's American History Archives--a 1941 promotional brochure for the company that...
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Chicago Millwork Supply Company
Catalog CoverAnother Sears Clone I stumbled upon some old PDFs of house plans from a company called the "Chicago Millwork Supply Company". I can't find a date on either of the catalogs, but they...
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Homart Homes
The Sears Homes of the 1950s Even though Sears ended the "Modern Homes" program during the depression, post-World War II prosperity (and housing shortage) convinced them to give it another go. This...
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Techbuilt Vacation Homes
Techbuilt Vacation Homes More Techbuilt homes in this post. This time, the Techbuilt Vacation Home line! Generally, the vacation homes did not differ that greatly from the permanent homes except in...
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Instant House Library
The Instant House LibraryWhile trolling eBay for Instant House finds, it occurred to me that I don't have a central listing of all the source material for Instant House. I toyed around with some...
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Venturi Scott Brown
A Brief DepartureWord came to me this week of the retirement of two of Philadelphia's most storied architects: Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown. While they are not known for prefabricated...
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Lustron Brochures
More eBay FindsA recent eBay acquisition brings us back to the realm of Lustron. Here we have two brochures that address questions that potential buyers would have about the Lustron home. I'm not...
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Civic Park
Civic Park: Lies I've Been Telling If you've spent any amount of time around me (first of all....sorry), you know I originally hail from the town of Reading, Pennsylvania--a mid-sized rust-belt city...
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Leedom Estates
The Leedom EstatesThe original Leedom Estates in 1954. You can seethe beginnings of Ridley Acres in the upper left.Today's Instant House post explores a neighborhood that I'm all too familiar...
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West Coast Instant House - Wright's Textile Block Houses
Wright in Los AngelesLast week, I was in Los Angeles visiting family. One of my "bucket list" houses to visit was the Gamble House in Pasadena, and this visit allowed me to cross that one off the...
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