“Home is the place where it feels right to walk around without shoes.” – Unknown
The Coronado Museum in Liberal Kansas today. It began life as a Sears and Roebuck mail order home. -- Photo by Pat Bean
Travels With Maggie
On my way to Idaho to escape the Texas heat for the summer, I visited the Coronado Museum in Liberal, Kansas. It was so named because Vasquez de Coronado traveled through the area in 1541 in search of the fabled Seven Cities of Gold. He and his band of soldiers left behind a few trinkets, which are now on display at the museum
While the exhibits were interesting, the tidbit that intrigued me was the fact that the 1918 building housing the museum was ordered from a Sears and Roebuck Catalog. The popular mail-order business sold hundreds of these between 1908-1940, offering 150 different models to choose from.
It was the second such building I had encountered in my travels. The first was a historic farm house in Battle Ground, Indiana, adjacent to Prophetstown State Park.
That Indiana home, the Hillrose model, came complete with all electrical and plumbing fixtures, and had been shipped by rail to the site, at a cost of $6,880. For tourist purposes, meaning dollars, that house had been recreated at a cost much exceeding the original.
What got me thinking about these homes were two things. First, the main topic of conversation on my Story Circle Network chat group the past week has been the green benefits of smaller, older homes vs larger, newer ones.
One of the mail order homes offered by Sears and Roebuck between 1908 and 1940. -- Illustration courtesy of Wikipedia
Having once lived in a small home built in 1912 that had thick walls and real wood construction – and low utility bills, I weighed in on the side of smaller and older. While not exactly small, the Kansas mail-order former home and now a museum looked as if it had stood the test of time.
The second thing that got me thinking about Sears and Roebuck homes was a great mystery writer, Blaize Clement, whom I discovered a couple of weeks ago. Her heroine’s grandparents, and now her brother, lived in a Sears Roebuck mail-order home. The fictional home was mentioned in all five of her books, which I gobbled up the past two weeks.
It’s sort of funny how when once you learn something new, you come across it everywhere. It makes you wonder why it’s only now come to your attention.
Has that kind of thing ever happened to you?
Pat Bean's blog 
YES – all the time.
Years ago, my mother was diagnosed with ALS. Had never really heard of it. During the course of her illness, I then heard of Stephen Hawking and got interested in his work as he also has ALS. Which lead me to read physics, which lead me to read Eastern mystical writings, and so on and so on. It seems that those kinds of happenings occur at a time when I need my consciousness expanded!!
BTW – another great pre-fab house is the Edison house in Ft. Myers, FL. Don’t think it is a S&R house, but it was built off-site and floated to Ft. Myers on barges. No roads to there at that time. (You can’t get there from here!!) If you ever get down this way, it is one of my most favorite fascinating places.
They phrase they just don’t make them like they used to comes to mind. Dallas is full of million dollar behemoth houses. The first thing that comes to mind is it much cost a small fortune to heat and cool them. No thought was giving to any energy saving. There is a whole row of them near us that all have a huge bank of windows facing the afternoon Texas sun. That is beyond stupid.
That Coronado Museum building is not a Sears house. It in no way shape or form resembles any of the models they offered.