I worked as a Real Estate agent for a couple of years when I was in my 20s. The RE office was located in Massapequa, Long Island, NY … walking distance from the railroad.

Jane a fellow agent was a sort of historian of the area having worked as a writer for the local paper and the mayor and other things that added a lot of knowledge that many others did not have.

Each week we would get a list of the new houses for sale and try to get to as many open houses as possible to see what was out there. It seemed as if Jane always knew more about the interesting ones than the agents themselves.

Which ones had been part of the silent FOX movie studios on location homes for directors and actors and crew while making pictures on Long Island. All sorts of interesting info. You could never see all the houses but if you followed her you’d see the most interesting ones.

And one of the intering homes that would come up every now and then were SEARS kit houses. Wow those Sears homes were impressive and well made always standing the test of time.

I had never heard of such a thing as a SEARS kit house it was so interesting whenever I arrived to view a SEARS kit home when Jane was there at the same time and she could tell me all she knew about it. She should have specialized in those listings because she was better than any historical tour guide at any museum could have been.

Here is a link to an article about kit homes it goes into pre-SEARS kit homes also SEARS starts in the fifth paragraph (the article begins below the Construction Company Listings).

http://local.smart-homeowner.com/Kit_Homes_Massapequa_NY-r1197843-Massapequa_NY.html

Many of the houses here on Long Island were built close to the railroad and all the supplies made the main trip to the homeowner by RAILWAY.

Thanks for putting up this site and helping keep the memory of SEARS ROEBUCK kit homes alive!

sincerely … Joanne J