SEATTLE -- It was the turn of the last century. Population growth and the home building business were booming across the northwest. So some very clever entrepreneurs saw an opportunity.
Businesses marketed detailed architectural plans for do-it-yourself builders, and even offered up the parts and lumber.
Larry Kreisman of the preservation group, "Historic Seattle," says this 1910 home in Seattle's Leschi neighborhood was built from an off-the-shelf blueprint.
The big thinkers at Sears Roebuck took ready-to-build homes one step further. They put out a catalog offering dozens of styles of homes you could have delivered right to your future doorstep.
Pre-made kits were shipped by rail and truck, and included pretty much everything but the concrete.
The homes could cost as little as a few hundred bucks.
More than 70,000 "Sears Modern Homes," as they were called, were sold between 1908 and 1940.
Most were well-built, and many proved a good investment. This model, known as the "Osborn," sold for about 2,000 dollars back in the early 1900's.
Those days are long gone. But the build-by-number homes once ordered from a catalogue remain... A “special delivery” for the ages.
