Sears Kit Homes: 70,000 Sold by Mail and Nobody Kept the List

Sears sold an estimated 70,000 houses through the mail — then liquidated $11 million in mortgages and kept selling without lending a dime. This is the autopsy of a system that outlived its own business. Between 1908 and 1940, Sears shipped complete house kits to rural rail depots across America: precut lumber numbered to match the plans, windows, doors, and 750 pounds of nails in a single model. Sears even carried the mortgages itself, reaching buyers that conventional lenders turned away. When the Great Depression hit, those loans became the company's biggest liability. Using the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond's economic-history account, this investigation traces how credit built the Modern Homes program — and how losing it didn't end the houses, only the system that delivered them. The records were never fully kept, so today researchers identify these homes one stamped floor joist at a time. Subscribe to American Remains for forensic investigations into the hidden economic and industrial systems that reshaped modern life.