Sears kit homes helped build Batavia

BATAVIA – When Jennifer Faivre and her husband bought their house on Batavia’s west side, the couple suspected that they were living in a kit home.

“Kit home is kind of an elastic term. It’s the ultimate do-it-yourself project,” Faivre said. “It’s a home whose plans were bought in a catalog and whose parts were shipped all together in a railroad box car."

Faivre’s curiosity led her to conduct painstaking research into kit homes and their important role in helping to build Batavia.

She will share that story at the general meeting of the Batavia Historical Society at 2 p.m. on Sept. 22 at Batavia City Hall, 100 Island Ave. The meeting is open to the public and admission is free.

Between 1930 and 1940, numerous Sears kit homes were constructed in Batavia.

There are 22 confirmed Sears kit homes in Batavia, Faivre said, but there are probably twice that many.

Sears issued mortgages for about half the kit homes it sold, and it was through those mortgage records that Faivre was able to identify the Batavia homes.

There are Sears kit homes standing today on Jefferson, Jackson and Main streets on the west side, and on North Washington Avenue, South Prairie Street and Church Street on the east side, among other locations.

The homes were “stick-built,” from individual pieces, Faivre said,

With Batavia having good railroad access in those days, the city was the perfect place for kit homes to be delivered.

All of the parts were numbered and organized in the order in which they would be needed for construction, Faivre said. “It was a very organized approach,” she said.

“There were endless customization opportunities,” Faivre said, with buyers selecting the kitchen cabinets or even reversing the floor plan if they liked. Priced from $2,500 to $5,000, the kits made homeownership affordable.

When Sears first offered the kit homes in its 1908 catalog, Faivre said, there were 22 plans to choose from. By 1940, there were 370 plans available, she said, including plenty of bungalows and American Foursquare designs.

“The homes were built of high-quality hardwood timber,” Faivre said. “They have stood the test of time.”

Faivre worked with fellow historical society members Ellen Anderson, Boyd Nielsen and Sherry Whyte to help identify the Batavia kit homes.

In the course of her research, Faivre discovered that her own home is indeed a kit home, but was sold not by Sears, but another Chicago-based firm.