Sears offered about 370 designs of kit homes in the early years of the 1900s. During their 32 years in the kit home business, Sears sold about 70,000 of these houses. Sears also sold kit barns. While doing research on Sears Homes in Illinois, I was told about this Sears Barn outside of Mattoon, Illinois (see picture below). It was built in the early 1920s and is still in beautiful condition today.

I’m often asked for more information about barns, but I’m not the expert on this topic. All that I need to know about barns came from The Book of Barns, by Rebecca Hunter and Dale Wolicki. According to this interesting little book,  Sears started offering barns in 1911, when four barn designs first appeared in the pages of the Sears Modern Homes catalog. In 1915, a few hog houses and chicken coops appeared. In 1918, the first speciality catalog appeared, featuring barns and other outbuildings.

Rebecca and Dale’s research shows that part numbers (originally used to facilitate construction of these DIY kits) can be found on the framing members of the Sears kit barns.

Purportedly, there is a Sears barn at Montpelier (Virginia), the home of James Madison and his wife, Dolly.

Sears Barn in Mattoon, IL