Sears sold houses?

Complete houses? Why did I never know about this before now? One of my cubicle mates mentioned yesterday that Sears Robuck once sold complete houses as kits. Turns out he was right-

Between 1908 and 1940, Sears sold about 70,000 homes in 48 states through their mail-order Modern Homes program, with 370 designs that you might not readily recognize as a kit home. Sears kit homes were shipped via boxcar and came with a 75-page instruction book. Each kit contained 10,000 - 30,000 pieces and the framing members were marked to facilitate construction.

Pretty interesting! Can you imagine having a train box car with every part needed to build your house show up, ready for you to crack open the 75 page instruction manual and get to work?

Here is original Sears catalog descriptions of all the designs from 1908 to 1940. Pretty neat!