Rosemary Thornton was born in Portsmouth, Virginia in 1959, to Thomas Hoyt Fuller and Betty Brown Fuller. Thornton spent most of her childhood in Virginia, where her father worked as an assistant manager at Skippy Peanut Butter. In 1974, her father left Thornton and her mother, and would not return to Thornton’s life until the early 2000’s. Most of Thornton’s life from then on was spent in Illinois. As an adult, Thornton’s career has revolved around real estate. She first worked as both a realtor and freelance writer in Alton, Illinois. Later, she and her husband started a small rental property business. She continued to do freelance work, along with her real estate business, and published her first book, “The Reality of Real Estate”, in 1993. Kit-homes were pre-assembled homes that could be ordered and delivered via railroad boxcar in the first half of the 20th century. Thornton discovered kit-homes in 2001 while writing an article on them for a freelance job in Carlinville, Illinois. She began writing her second book, “The Houses that Sears Built: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Sears Catalog Homes”, not long after. That same year, Thornton’s mother died, and she and her husband divorced two weeks later. Thornton made Sears homes and writing her primary focus and career from that point on. She spent the remainder of the year completing her manuscript for her second book and published it in 2002. In less than two years, the book sold several thousand copies, and Thornton received several hundred e-mails and letters about possible Sears homes and praise for her book. She published two more books about Sears homes following that two-year timespan, as well as a re-print of “The Houses That Sears Built”. Thornton later moved from Illinois to Norfolk, Virginia and re-married in 2007. She traveled to more than 24 states to give lectures on Sears homes. Thornton made appearances on several television programs to promote her writing and bring attention to the existence of kit-homes. Since publishing her second book, hundreds of Sears and kit-homes have been found across the United States. Kit-homes were first introduced by Bennett Homes in 1902. The houses were designed using a “balloon-style” framing system and pre-cut lumber. Each house came with at least 10,000 pieces of lumber and each piece numbered, stamped, and labeled, thus eliminating the need for measuring or cutting. As there was no need for a team of skilled carpenters for each house, kit-homes were affordable and the customer could either hire a carpenter to put the house together for them or put it together himself/herself. Most chose the latter. Aladdin Homes began offering kit-houses in their catalogs in 1906, and sparked the true beginning of the kit-house trend. Their largest competitors were Montgomery Wards and Sears, Roebuck and Company. Sears began selling kit-homes in 1908. However, as most Americans already had Sears catalogs and ordered most of their home essentials from Sears, it was not long before Sears became the primary seller of kit-houses. Advertising their kit-houses as Sears Catalog Homes, Sears offered more than 370 different house designs, and also offered barn and schoolhouse designs. Plumbing, electricity, and central heating were all offered as modern conveniences to be installed. The houses were affordable, with the cheapest ranging around $450, while a school house might have averaged $11,500. Sears also began to offer financing plans in 1916, including both mortgage programs and loans with low interest rates. From the introduction of Sears homes to their end, Sears sold more than 70,000 houses. The success of kit-homes began to falter in 1930. The Great Depression, coupled with demand for more intricate house designs, slowed house sales. Sears was forced to liquidate $11 million in mortgages. Sears closed the Modern Homes department in 1940. All sales records were destroyed during the company’s corporate house cleaning, leaving no record of where the houses were located. Thornton’s third book, “Finding the Houses that Sears Built; A Guide to the 60 Most Popular Designs”, revolves around identifying Sears homes, as the only way to find them now is one by one.  All other companies closed down their kit-home departments or were out of business by 1982.

Note written by Special Collections Staff