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In
the early part of the twentieth century, Sears, Roebuck and Company began
selling house plans and the kits to build them. Their mail order home business
peaked in the 1930s and they published their last home catalog in 1940.
Over 100,000 families built Sears homes throughout those years and some
of those families lived in Libertyville.
Cook Memorial Public Library, along with the Libertyville-Mundelein
Historical Society, has embarked on a project to document mail order houses
in Libertyville. So far we have identified over 20 houses that were mail
order homes, either from Sears or one of the other companies who sold
kit homes. Pictures and descriptions of them are under the heading "Houses
In Libertyville" to the left. More information is available in the
local history collection of the Cook Memorial Public Library, Libertyville,
Illinois.
We invite you to look through the houses in our exhibit
and maybe take a look at your own home. If you think that you might live
in a mail order house, see the information under "Documentation;"
then contact us to be included in our project. We've also included a bibliography
of books on the subject and links to other web sites related to this topic.
We hope you'll enjoy taking a look at a little slice of history in your
own backyard.
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