House history: Ordered by mail, they arrived by rail, hundreds of thousands of house parts, ready to be hauled out of boxcars to suitable sites and assembled. Sears, Roebuck and Co. wasn’t the only outfit in the ready-cut house business, but it was the most successful, selling more than 100,000 homes from 1909 to 1939.
Today, they’re collectors’ items, inspiring books, newspaper articles, slide presentations, historical society research and, in Glen Ellyn, the Sears Home Association.
Founded in 1994 by real estate agent Joan Johns, the organization’s purpose is education and the preservation of Sears homes.
“We act as a clearinghouse for information regarding identification and restoration,” said Johns, whose Lexington design home was one of six on the association’s recent Step into History tour.
The event attracted more than 100 visitors from Hinsdale, Lombard, Dundee, Downers Grove, Wheaton, Glen Ellyn and Elmhurst. The largest number came from Villa Park, where the Historical Museum will hold a Sears house symposium on Oct. 17.