A ‘kit’ home in Edmond and slice of history

By: J. David Chapman/July 13, 2023

Years ago, we purchased a “kit home” right next to the train tracks in downtown Edmond. For several years it was our most popular Airbnb in downtown Edmond. We renovated the home, adding central heat and air, exterior paint, new electrical, plumbing and roof. Interior changes and updates were made while trying to keep the 1915 charm of the old kit home. Today it has been converted to a work/live unit with a photography studio in the bottom floor and home upstairs.

Before there was Amazon and the Internet, there was Sears & Roebuck and the catalog. I continue to be amazed by the variety of things purchased on Amazon, but long ago, in the pages of the Sears catalog, you could even buy a house. Between the years of 1908 and 1942, the Sears & Roebuck Co. sold more than 70,000 of these Sears catalog homes, which were built in locations all over the country.

The houses, which were shipped on railroad boxcars, came as huge kits containing everything needed to build a home: lumber, siding, windows and doors, shingles, and even some fixtures. Local owners normally provided plaster, brick, plumbing, electrical fixtures, heating systems and labor. This led to a bit of customization, which frankly makes it more difficult to tell if a home is definitely a “Sears” home or some other kit home that was sold during the time frame.

Kit homes required access to the railway for delivery; however, many were shipped via horse-drawn carriage or in later years trucked to owners. Locations, such as Edmond, that have good access to railway were natural candidates for these kit homes, reducing transportation costs. Ours would have been a natural location for a kit home being within 50 feet of the railway, negating the need for further transportation beyond the railcar.

The current demise of the Sears & Roebuck Co. is particularly sad to me considering its contribution to the built environment in the way of kit homes, appliances, fixtures and tools. I still remember the family’s excitement when the Sears & Roebuck catalog filled the mailbox. I am proud to have invested in a bit of the history and made it possible for yet another generation to experience a kit home, ordered out of a catalog, delivered by railcar, built by a community, and still in service today.

J. David Chapman is a professor of finance and real estate at the University of Central Oklahoma (jchapman7@uco.edu).