Coastal Delaware's "Catalog Homes" Gaining Prominence

Every so often, while reading the daily newspapers and/or browsing local news sites, we come across a story that piques our interest and we feel the need to share it with all of our friends.

On theoldfathergroup.com, that means sharing it with all of you.

And there was a story on www.delmarvanow.com a couple of weeks ago that certainly falls into that category. The subject matter did not surprise us, but some of the specifics definitely did.

In fact, Rae Tyson’s story on coastal Delaware’s catalog homes was so intriguing that we thought you’d enjoy a summary of what was really an incredibly interesting piece of journalism.

If not for this story, even we would not be aware that many of the homes the writer profiled were, in fact, ordered from a catalog. I mean, if they don’t come up for sale, we’d have no reason to do research on each of these homes individually.

But now when we drive by the Blue Moon on Baltimore Avenue, or any of the other structures mentioned in the story, we won’t be looking at them in quite the same way. In our view, it just adds a little more history to what is already a very historical area of the country.

Now, regarding that history. For many of you reading this - at least millennials who were born in the “Age of the Internet” - you may be wondering exactly what a catalog home is. It’s likely a foreign concept for you, so let us explain.

Before computers and cell phones became commonplace in America, people generally thumbed through catalogs, which were really just large magazines, found what they wanted and then used house phones to call in their orders. The item was then delivered to a person's doorstep in a few days.

During the World War I generation, many people even ordered their homes this way – or at least kits to build their own homes, complete with step-by-step instructions. And these were obviously structures made of high quality materials. I mean, the fact that many of them are still around a century later can attest to that, right?

Read the rest of our thoughts regarding coastal Delaware's "catalog homes" by clicking HERE.