Table of Contents
0 Introduction 7
1 Comment on Research 9
1.1 Cultural studies and translation 10
1.2 Purpose and objectives 11
2 American History 1900-1940 12
2.1 Progressive Era 13
2.2 Immigration 13
2.3 From economic boom to stock market crash 15
2.3.1 The Roaring Twenties 16
2.3.2 The Great Depression 18
3 Sears, Roebuck and Co., Chicago 20
3.1 Company History 20
3.2 Sears mail-order homes 30
3.2.1 Modern Homes Department 31
3.2.2 Marketing Sears homes 32
3.2.3 Types of Sears homes 34
3.2.4 Construction 36
3.3 The Sears Tower 38
4 Indiana 44
4.1 Porter County and the Dunes 46
4.2 Porter 49
4.3 Chesterton 49
5 Sears houses in Chesterton and Porter, Indiana 51
5.1 Models of Sears houses 52
5.1.1 The Silverdale 52
5.1.2 The Puritan 55
5.1.3 The Ridgeland 57
5.1.4 The Hampton 59
5.1.5 The Rodessa 61
5.1.6 The Vallonia 65
5.1.7 The Winslow 67
5.2 Architectural styles 74
5.3 Modern conveniences 75
6 Sears and the American Dream 78
6.1 The notion of the American Dream 78
6.1.1 Defining the concept 79
6.1.2 Ambiguities 80
6.1.3 Elements of the American Dream 81
6.1.4 Inequality and the American Dream 83
6.1.5 The American Dream in literature 84
6.2 The homeowner and the American Dream 85
6.2.1 Development of home ownership 86
6.2.2 Importance of home ownership 88
6.3 Sears houses: Building the Dream 88
6.3.1 Homes for workers 89
6.3.2 Homes for immigrants 90
6.3.3 Letters from happy Sears homeowners 91
7 “The World’s Largest Store” 94
7.1 Sears: A success story 94
7.1.1 The Sears Laboratory 94
7.1.2 Serving the Customer 95
7.1.3 Buying strategy 95
7.1.4 Sears’s strategy for growth 96
7.2 Other mail-order companies 97
7.2.1 The Chicago mail-order giants 97
7.2.2 Sears’s competition in the kit home industry 100
7.2.3 The Sears advantage 106
7.3 Sears and social responsibility 108
7.3.1 Sears: “The farmer’s friend” 109
7.3.2 Loans and mortgages 111
7.3.3 The end of the Modern Homes Department 114
8 Architects and “Non”-Architects 116
8.1 Vernacular architecture 116
8.2 Architects versus mail-order builders 117
9 Identifying Sears homes 121
9.1 Clues to Sears houses 122
9.2 Survey results 126
10 Sears homes today 135
10.1 Kit house fascination 135
10.1.1 Forums 136
10.1.2 Modern Home Enthusiasts 137
10.1.3 Tourism Event: Sears homes 139
10.2 Modern Kit Homes 140
10.2.1 Types of kit homes 140
10.2.2 Kit homes and home improvement chains 141
10.3 Modern Inspiration from classic Sears Designs 143
10.3.1 Building “Not So Big” 143
10.3.2 Coolman Communities 144
11 Conclusion 146
12 Glossary 148
13 Image Database Sears houses 157
14 Bibliography 158
15 Table of Images 173
cultural studies in the heartland of