Allen County, Indiana Genealogy

Places in Allen County, Indians

Sears

Catalogue no. 112. by Sears, Roebuck and Company Publication date 190- on Archive.org

Sears Archive online: www.searsarchives.com. Archive.org has over 150 Sears publications online. Sears started out at 113-115 West Berry Street, had a fire in 1944, then built a mega store on South Clinton Street.

October 30, 2023 post by Steve Winans on Facebook:

SEPTEMBER 28, 1953 advertising for the GRAND OPENING of Sears on Clinton Street & Rudisill Blvd.

Sears opened their "new" store on September 29, 1953.... 70 years ago!! 😮😮😮

HOW AWESOME is this??? 🏆🏆🏆

Such a MAGICAL place!!

FUN FACT: When Sears opened, Clinton Street was a TWO WAY Street!! -- Lafayette Street was a MINOR Street that DEAD ENDED at Columbia Street, & Spy Run Avenue ANGLED into Superior Street RIGHT at the Gas House (now Hall's Gas House)!!

Sears at Glenbrook Square among the latest 46 targeted for closure in November published August 23, 2018 in The News-Sentinel newspaper.
Sears at Glenbrook Square Mall has announced it’s closing. This week, the company told 46 unprofitable stores they’d be closing in November. Glenbrook’s location was on the list. Sears Holdings’ said in a statement the decision is part of “ongoing efforts to streamline Sears Holdings’ operations, strengthen our capital position and focus on our best stores.” Back in May, the company announced the closure of 72 stores nationwide. Copied from Sears at Glenbrook Mall to close in November posted Aug 22, 2018, updated: Aug 23, 2018 on CBS WANE-TV NewsChannel 15.
Fort Wayne's Last Sears Store photos by Chris Crawford: Documentary Photography.

Atlas Obscura image

Image on the right is from an Atlas Obscura article that stated In 1906, the mega-company published a specialized 'Tombstones and Monuments' mailer, advertising it as a 'Catalogue of Memorial Art in Granite and Marble.' Sears’ prices, which beat out traditional funeral parlors’ significantly, allowed consumers to participate in the elite practice of custom-ordering grave markers. Copied from Sears Once Offered Mail-Order Tombstones Its beloved catalogue had a good run. by Evan Nicole Brown published October 30, 2018 on AtlasObscura.com.

See the 1906 Sears Tombstone catalog on our cemetery page or Using the Sears Catalog for Genealogy by Brenda Leyndyke posted January 3, 2020 on the Journey to the Past blog.

Tombstones and Monuments Catalogue of memorial art in granite and marble by Sears, Roebuck and Co. Publication date 1906 on Archive.org.
They also have a 104 page 1919 edition of Monuments, tombstones, markers on Archive.org
The 1919 Sears and Roebuck's Tombstone and Monument Catalog is a video by Words From Us on Facebook.

The Rise and Fall of Sears How the retail store that taught America how to shop navigated more than a century of economic and cultural change, Vicki Howard, Zócalo Public Square, July 25, 2017 on Smithsonian Magazine.

The fall of Sears by CBS Sunday MorningDecember 16, 2018 on YouTube
At its peak, Sears, Roebuck was the largest retailer in the world. And then, the company that dominated the department store and mail order business for much of the 20th century officially filed for bankruptcy, buckling under its massive debt load and staggering losses. David Pogue looks at the company and its failure to evolve in a changing economy.

Sears Roebuck catalog and Sears kit homes: encore (original November 18, 2018) posted April 25, 2020 on the Archives of Hoosier History Live podcast on Saturdays, noon to 1 p.m. ET on WICR 88.7 FM introduction starts with: Although Sears Roebuck & Co. announced many department store closings across Indiana and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2018, the retailer has a deep and storied history on many levels in the Hoosier state. In this encore show originally broadcast in November 2018, we turn back the pages of history to explore the enormous impact of the Sears Roebuck Catalog 100 years ago, particularly on small towns and rural areas. In addition to leafing through the catalog's significance in its heyday (with more than 500 pages, it has been called "the amazon.com of its era" by social historians), we also explore Sears kit homes that were built across Indiana beginning in 1908. The mail-order catalog began earlier, during the 1890s, and offered products ranging from household appliances to hats, shoes, undergarments, sleds, dolls and baseball mitts from Sears. Rival retailer Montgomery Ward had been selling goods by mail even before that, having been established in 1872. Nelson's studio guests are Paul Diebold of Indiana DNR's division of historic preservation and archaeology, an expert on Sears kit homes, and public historian Glory-June Greiff, who has researched the impact of the catalog.

Nursery stock, seeds, bulbs, shrubs, fruit trees, plants, fertilizers, insecticides, sprayers / Sears, Roebuck and Co., Philadelphia, Boston by Sears, Roebuck and Company, Publication date 1933 on Archive.org.

1937 Sears Christmas Wishbook Catalog one of many Sears Christmas catalogs on Archive.org.
The Story of the Sears Wish Book posted November 8, 2019 on OrangeBeanindiana.org. Their December 7, 2022 post on Facebook stated: This icon of Americana grew from a few dozen pages in 1934 to over 500 full-color pages by the 1980s. By the mid-90s, the Wish Book was no more.

Sears Home Kits

Modern homes by the Sears, Roebuck and Company, Publication date 1911 on Archive.org
Our special catalog for home builders by Sears, Roebuck and Company, Publication date 1910 on Archive.org

From 1908 to 1940, the Sears Modern Homes Program offered complete mail-order houses to the would-be homeowner — what would come to be called “kit homes.” Customers could select from dozens of different models in Sears Modern Homes Catalog, order blue-prints, send in a check, and a few weeks later everything they needed would arrive in a train car, its door secured with a small red wax seal (just like the seal on the back of a letter). Paragraph copied from The House that Came in the Mail on 99% Invisible.com half-hour audio that includes a transcript of the audio with lots of images of houses and catalog pages. They described Production as Producer Joe Rosenberg spoke with Rosemary Thornton, an architectural historian and the author of The Houses That Sears Built: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Sears Catalog Homes; and Penniman: Virginia’s Own Ghost City; Guy Parks, who lives in a Sears catalog home in Cairo, Illinois; and Rebecca Hunter, a Sears house hunter who lives in Elgin, Illinois and wrote Mail-Order Homes: Sears Homes and Other Kit Houses. This item was posted September 15, 2018 by ARCH ( Architecture and Community Heritage).

A Comment by Olinda Frances Wilson stated There is one at the corner of Cook and Felger roads in Lake Township. It arrived in Arcola on the train. to a September 15, 2018 Post by ACGSI on Facebook.
Sears craftsman homes 2309 N. Anthony posted September 28, 2017 on Live in the '05on Facebook.
Others may be on Broadway, Creighton, Fairfield, and Rudisill areas from a November 19, 2012 comment on The Amazing Collection of Sears Homes - in the Midwest! on SearsHomes.org.
11104 W. Cook Road built by Felix F. Ladig in 1914 or 1915 with his wife Frances and their four children, left the original Sears shipping label, is shown in several photos from horse and buggy to automobile on The Proud Owners of a Sears Modern Home No. 118 posted October 22, 2013 on Sears Homes of Chicagoland Sears-Homes.com.
Video posted November 13, 2017 on NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt.
Home Shopping with video shows several local Sears homes by Eric Olson, 21Country Featured Reporterpublished July 9, 2018 on 21AliveNews.com.
Sometimes confused with Lustron Homes.
July 20, 2023 post by Heritage Documentation Programs, NPS on Facebook:

For our fans of "Sears Kit Houses".

From 1908 to 1942, Sears sold more than 70,000 of these kit houses in North America, by the company's count.

Learn more about Sears kit houses on Wikipedia at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sears_Modern_Homes

HEARD ABOUT THE HABS/HAER/HALS COLLECTION?

Conducting research on a historic site, structure, vessel or landscape? Consult the nation's largest archive of historical architectural, engineering, and landscape documentation - the HABS/HAER/HALS Collection - in The Library of Congress at http://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/hh/

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A catalogue of windmills by Sears, Roebuck and Company, Publication date 1900 on Archive.org