1910 Sears Simplex Ready Made Buildings Catalog on CD The Simplex Sectional line, as the name implies, contained simple designs. Simplex houses were frequently only a couple of rooms and were ideal for summer cottages. A wonderful addition to your sears collection, a 68 page Sears Simplex Kit Homes Catalog, including prices. Sears Catalog Homes (sold as Sears Modern Homes) were ready-to-assemble houses sold through mail order by Sears Roebuck and Company, an American retailer. Over 70,000 of these were sold in North America between 1908 and 1940. Shipped via railroad boxcars, these kits included all the materials needed to build an exceptionally sturdy and well designed house. Many were assembled by the new homeowner and friends, relatives, and neighbors, in a fashion similar to the traditional barn-raisings of farming families. Sears helped popularize the latest technology available to house buyers in the early part of the twentieth century. Central heating, indoor plumbing, and electricity were all new developments in house design that "Modern Homes" incorporated, although not all of the houses were designed with these conveniences. Central heating, for example, not only improved the livability of houses with little insulation but also improved fire safety, a worry in an era when open flames threatened houses and even entire cities, as in the Great Chicago Fire (1871). As demand decreased, Sears expanded the product line to feature houses that varied in expense to meet the budgets of various buyers. Sears began offering financing plans in the 1920s. However, the company experienced steadily rising payment defaults throughout the Great Depression, resulting in increasing strain for the catalog house program. Over the program's 32-year history, 447 different house models were offered. The mortgage portion of the program was discontinued in 1934; the entire program ceased altogether in 1940. Sample thumbnails taken from the collection. (Low resolution thumbnails - CD images are scanned at 300 DPI) Screen shot 1 Screen shot 2 Screen shot 3 Screen shot 4 Screen shot 5 Screen shot 6 Screen shot 7 Screen shot 8 FINE PRINT: Files in our collections are in .pdf format, so you can easily view, copy, print, or share as you see fit. Use our scanned images for research or school projects, all pages are scanned at 300 DPI or more. View directly in Adobe Reader - perfect for reprinting in newsletters, magazines or art projects, use as clip art in any graphics program, scale it, edit it, print it to suit your needs. Our catalog and image CD-ROM's are intended to be used on any computer capable of viewing .jpgs, .tiffs and .gifs. CD is not intended for DVD Players. (DVD movies are of course playable on any home DVD player). BEFORE bidding on this item, please note the shipping location. We ship from multiple locations, CD/DVD's are shipped immediately, custom vintage giftware is Special Order, and will ship factory direct - holiday season please allow 10 to 14 days production time BEFORE item is shipped. Shipping: SAVE on shipping, purchase additional items and pay only $1.00 ($2.00 Int'l) for each CD/DVD! Please wait for invoice prior to remitting payment - we are happy to combine your purchases to save on shipping costs. Did you know that many of our reproduction catalog covers are now available on great gift items such as mose pads, clocks, jewelry and more? Please check out the VLR on Ebay store to see all these all original gift items.
	© 2009-2010 About Us | Storefront | Contact us