Sears, Roebuck and Co., commonly known as Sears, is an American chain of department stores founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwald, with what began as a mail ordering catalog company migrating to opening retail locations in 1925, the first in Chicago. In 2005, the company was bought by the management of the American big box discount chain Kmart, which upon completion of the merger, formed Sears Holdings. Through the 1980s, Sears was the largest retailer in the United States. In 2018, it was the 31st-largest. After several years of declining sales, Sears's parent company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on October 15, 2018. It announced on January 16, 2019, that it had won its bankruptcy auction, and that a reduced number of 425 stores would remain open, including 223 Sears stores.
Sears Canada Inc. was a publicly-traded Canadian company affiliated with the American-based Sears department store chain. In operation from 1952 until January 14, 2018, and headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, the company began as Simpsons-Sears—a joint venture between the Canadian Simpsons department store chain and the American Sears chain—which operated a national mail order business and co-branded Simpsons-Sears stores modelled after those of Sears in the U.S. After the Hudson's Bay Company purchased Simpsons in 1978, the joint venture was dismantled and Hudson's Bay sold its shares in the joint venture to Sears; with Sears now fully owning the company, it was renamed Sears Canada Inc. in 1984. In 1999, Sears Canada acquired the remaining assets and locations of the historic Canadian chain Eaton's. From 2014, Sears Holdings owned a 10% share in the company. ESL Investments was the largest shareholder of Sears Canada.
A bungalow is a small house or cottage that is single-storey, sometimes with a smaller upper storey set in the roof and windows that come out from the roof, and may be surrounded by wide verandas.
Sears Modern Homes were houses sold primarily through mail order catalog by Sears, Roebuck and Co., an American retailer.
Mail order is the buying of goods or services by mail delivery. The buyer places an order for the desired products with the merchant through some remote methods such as:
The Great Indoors was a chain of home decor stores in the United States, founded by Sears in 1997.
The American Foursquare is an American house vernacular under the Arts and Crafts style popular from the mid-1890s to the late 1930s. A reaction to the ornate and mass-produced elements of the Victorian and other Revival styles popular throughout the last half of the 19th century, the American Foursquare was plain, often incorporating handcrafted "honest" woodwork. This architectural vernacular incorporates elements of the Prairie School and the Craftsman styles. It is also sometimes called Transitional Period.
The Aladdin Company was a pioneer in the pre-cut, mail order home industry. Sometimes referred to as Aladdin Readi-Cut Houses, the company was the first to offer a true kit house composed of precut, numbered pieces. Its primary competitors were Montgomery Ward and Sears, Roebuck and Co. in the US and Eaton's in Canada. Two other kit home manufacturers, Lewis and Sterling, were also based in Bay City. Aladdin began operations in 1906 and ceased operations in 1987. In 2014 the rights to the company name and logo were acquired by Charles Munro and sold in 2018
Katrina Cottages are small residential shelters designed and marketed in the United States in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. They were designed as a response to the inadequacies of the trailers issued to flood victims by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The homes' designs attempt to fulfill the needs of their occupants in a more permanent and humane manner, while addressing the challenges of building and protecting a home in the Gulf Coast region, particularly in southern Louisiana where much of the land currently used is below sea level and protected by levees. The cottages are also common in parts of storm surge damaged coastal Mississippi. Though designs may vary, the main aesthetic criterion is that Katrina Cottages resemble traditional homes in the area in appearance, scaled-down in size to reduce costs and ease construction so that multiple units can be built quickly as needed.
The American System-Built Homes were modest houses in a series designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright. They were developed between 1911 and 1917 to fulfill his interest in affordable housing but were sold commercially for just 14 months. The Wright archives include 973 drawings and hundreds of reference materials, the largest collection of any of single Wright project. Wright cancelled the project in July 1917 by successfully suing his partner Arthur Richards for payments due and didn't speak of the program again. The designs were standardized and modular, so customers could choose from one hundred and twenty nine models on seven floorplans and three roof styles. Most materials were prepared and organized at Arthur Richards' lumber yard, so there was less waste and specialized labor needed for construction. Milled and marked materials were delivered to the work site for cutting and assembly by a carpenter. Windows, doors and some cabinetry were built at the yard. Frames, shelves, trim and some fixtures were cut and assembled on site. Most wood parts had a part number and corresponding instructions and drawings for joining, fit and finish. Richards' yard also supplied plaster, concrete, paint and hardware.
The Eastwood Park Historic District is a historic district in Minot, North Dakota. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986. The listing included 118 contributing buildings and one contributing structure on 180 acres (73 ha).
The Harriet Phillips Bungalow is located on NY 23B on the western edge of Claverack, New York, United States. It is a stucco-sided frame building dating from the 1920s.
The Edward C. Roberts House is a historic building located on the east side of Davenport, Iowa, United States. It has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1984.
The Cecil Baker Round Barn near Kensal, North Dakota, United States, was a round barn built in 1921. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986. It was demolished in 2010 and delisted from the National Register the following year.
Kit houses in Michigan were a type of housing that was largely developed in the US state of Michigan throughout the first half of the 20th century. Michigan was home to the Aladdin Company, the first and longest-lived manufacturer of kit houses in North America, who had sales "in every part of the world, from Saskatchewan to Tahiti". Lewis and Sterling, two other major manufacturers of kit houses, were also based in Michigan.
The E. Payne Palmer House is a Gordon-Van Tine "Brentwood" model of a catalog kit house, or pre-cut house, that was built in 1925 on Central Avenue in Phoenix, Arizona.
The Gordon–Van Tine Company Historic District, also known as the U.N. Roberts and Company Buildings, is a nationally recognized historic district located east of downtown Davenport, Iowa, United States. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2017. At the time of its nomination it consisted of four resources, all contributing buildings. The Gordon–Van Tine Company manufactured pre-cut, mail-order homes in this facility, beginning around 1916.
A Gothic-arched roof barn or Gothic-arch barn or Gothic barn or rainbow arch is a barn whose profile is in the ogival shape of a Gothic arch. These became economically feasible when arch members could be formed by a lamination process. The distinctive roofline features a center peak as in a gable roof, but with symmetrical curved rafters instead of straight ones. The roof could extend to the ground making the roof and walls a complete arch, or be built as an arched roof on top of traditionally framed walls.
The Northwest Side Historic District is residential district in central Stoughton, Wisconsin, United States with 251 contributing homes built from 1854 to 1930. In 1998, the neighborhood was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
