From the Archives: Sears, Roebuck and Company
In the 1880s, Richard W. Sears started the R.W. Sears Watch Company in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The company specialized in selling watches by mail order. Soon after, Sears moved his business to Chicago where he hired Alvah C. Roebuck to help with repairing the watches. After a couple years, the two started a business together which they called Sears, Roebuck and Company. In 1895, a wealthy clothing manufacturer named Julius Rosenwald bought out Roebuck.
The company grew exponentially offering a large variety of mail-order retail products. Sears worked diligently on creating the company’s later well-known catalogs. In 1920s, General Robert E. Wood joined the company and initiated the construction of the first Sears retail store which opened in Chicago in 1925.
Sears stores and catalogues offered customers everything from automobile repair services, household appliances and electronics, cooling and heating systems, and even kits to build houses.
The Sears Modern Homes catalogue allowed customers to select a style of home from over 300 options and order a kit which included all the materials needed to build that house. Once delivered, the houses were often assembled by the homeowners themselves. The catalogue was discontinued in the early 1940s.
08-04-1933 (cutline): Sears, Roebuck and Company reopens for business at 8 o'clock this morning in the building pictured above. It is located on the north side of Broad Street, between Third and Fourth Streets.
05-03-1981 (cutline): Sears Broad St. store.
05-03-1981 (cutline): Sellers have put a $3 million asking price on the Broad Street property.
05-18-1956 (cutline): Former Coca-Cola building leased to Sears Roebuck.
04-24-1981 (cutline): Sales at Sears Roebuck & Co. store on Broad Street have dropped in past years. Building was constructed between 1946 and 1949 and is owned by Equitable Life Assurance Society of the U.S.
10-22-1971: Sears
In November 1965, Charles Baker, the toy division manager for the Sears, Roebuck and Co. store on West Broad Street in Richmond, set up a miniature racing set. Baker expected such products to be popular toys during the holiday season.
04-10-1967 (cutline): Employees gather in the shoe department at Sears, Roebuck & Co. just before the store opened today for a World Day of Prayer service, conducted by the Rev. A. Purnell Bailey. The special annual observance is sponsored by the United Church of Women.
In November 1972, the Sears store in Cloverleaf Mall featured new coat and dress styles as well as furs. The Chesterfield County mall opened in August of that year; it closed in 2008, and the building was demolished in 2011.
12-07-1990 (cutline): November sales were down nationally for Sears, Roebuck and Co., but the Regency Square store in western Henrico County bucked the trend.
06-26-1989 (cutline): This Sears, Roebuck and Co. office center at Regency Square is designed to appeal to small businesses, individuals who work out of their homes and those people who own or want to own a computer as a personal convenience.
Sears, one of the anchor stores in Virginia Center Commons. March 22, 2017
A group of men sit on N. Allen Ave. near W. Broad St. beside the long-closed Sears store onTuesday, August 15, 2017. The covering above them is filled with discarded cans and bottles.
This is an entrance to the former Sear's store at Regency Square Monday, July 1, 2019.
The former Sear's store at Regency Square photographed on Monday, July 1, 2019.
The former Sear's store at Regency Square photographed on Monday, July 1, 2019.
Sears at Virginia Center Commons photographed on Monday, July 1, 2019.
10-06-1985 (cutline): City Point Road bungalow is thought to be from Sears.
10-06-1985: House ordered from Sears--rounded front door.
09-24-1985: Arched wall in Sears home in Hopewell.
Page from 1908 Sears catalog which offered a "modern home" for $650.
04-19-1987: Historian discovered 80 Sears homes in Arlington County.
07-31-1986 (cutline): Hopewell houses ordered from Sears include English cottage with chimney detail and round-top door.
The house at 102 Prince George Avenue, home of Charles and Janet Dane, one of the many Sears houses in Hopewell. Tuesday, July 8, 2014.
The Sears home of Robin Andrews in Hopewell.
The Sears home of Jayn and Wayne Roark in Hopewell was built in 1928 with a garage. Jayn Roark is shown at the living room with original fire place in Hopewell on Monday, May 12, 2014.
The Sears home of Jayn and Wayne Roark in Hopewell was built in 1928 with a garage. This photo shows the original fire place.
The Sears home of Jayn and Wayne Roark in Hopewell was built in 1928 with a garage. Jayn Roark said that most of Sears homes have attached iron board on the wall.
The Sears home of Jayn and Wayne Roark in Hopewell was built in 1928 with a garage.
The Sears home of Jayn and Wayne Roark in Hopewell was built in 1928 with a garage.
Sears is closing its store at Chesterfield Towne Center — the chain’s last remaining location in the Richmond region.
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Higher-density development can spread out the cost of new home construction, including single family, condos, apartments and town houses, among a greater number of buyers and/or renters on the same area of land.