The Boyd House – Sears Kit Homes

Boyd House, Greenview Model Sears House

In The Case of Bonnie & Clyde in Rome, Laurel and the boys visit Widow Boyd in her very austere Sears kit house. Sears (then Sears and Roebuck) was a revolutionary business in their time, and kit houses were just one of the ways they changed commerce. The Boyd house model is shown below.

Greenview Sears Small
Click on the image to visit the fantastic Sears Archives.

From 1908-1940, housing kits were available to be purchased through the Sears and Roebuck catalog, alongside shaving necessities, clothes, and anything else you could imagine. It was, quite simply, revolutionary. More than 100,000 of the kits were sold, which arrived with all of the lumber pre-cut and exciting new products like drywall and asphalt shingles, all you would need for a thoroughly modern home.

[bctt tweet=”Sears houses were a revolution – pre-cut lumber and with newfangled drywall and asphalt shingle roofing. Have a look!”]

I also very much love the floor plans that are included. You can tell that a lot of thought was put into them, and nothing was wasted by their standards.

Boyd House, Greenview Model Sears House
Click the image to visit the Sears Archives for more homes

If you’re interested in more information, including about original color schemes, The Arts & Crafts Society has a great set of articles and several books as well.

Dallas is lucky enough to have a few pockets of these original gems left. I’m hoping to make it to the area and take some pictures or possibly a walking video tour to post here. Would anyone be interested in that?

Pop Music of early 1930’s

The Case of Bonnie & Clyde in Rome

There’s someone who calls themselves MusicProf78 (and, alternately, “Music Professor” Bob Moke) on Youtube who has posted thousands of rare and old records from the 1920’s through the 1960’s. It really is incredible.

Below are some 200 dance songs from the time frame when Laurel was just moving into Dallas. It’s been great fun to listen to as I edit.

[bctt tweet=”Feel the music- 200 song playlist of the biggest early 1930’s dance and pop music.”]

What do you think of the pop music?

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTFzQlK7fWk-fAJgjBL4Otx0znmEX4vfF