Origins of Kenmore Name

[eurekaprince]

I have lately been wondering about the origin of the Sears brandname "Kenmore."

Does it come from some Sears executive named Ken or Kenneth? Any ideas?

 

[kenkart]

No...

I believe Kenmore was either a Street or a neighborhood, I do know for sure, Homart was taken from Homan Ave and Arthington street, Which was where Sears headquarters was located in Chicago, Tower, whuch was their brand of cameras/typewriters etc, Was from the Sears Tower,,,not the big hi rise, but the original one on the headquarters building.

 

[eurekaprince]

Interesting...thanks Hans!

I guess I could Google this and see what I find....

 

[paulg]

Chicago has KENMORE AVENUE

There is a Kenmore Avenue found throughout Chicago. I don't know if it pertains to SEARS brands though.
If indeed they did pick a street name, they made a good choice.

Chicago streets that would NOT make good appliance brands include:

GOETHE (everyone mispronounces this street even TV news anchors which is really funny when it happens)
LUNT
BALBO
BUFFALO
GLADYS
LIPPS
LIVERMORE
POPE JOHN PAUL II DR.
WEED

 

[eurekaprince]

In researching the answer, it seems that many websites offer 1927 as the year in which Kenmore first appeared on an appliance - a washing machine. But Kenmore.com says that the first appearance of the name was on a sewing machine in 1913!

One website suggests that the name may have come from an idyllic American suburb called Kenmore outside of Buffalo, NY....which makes some sense as Sears main target market seems to have been middle class Suburban America.

 

[vacman1961]

This is a good question, on how Sears came up with brand names for their products. I do remember growing up in the 60's the Homart name on plumbing items purchased at Sears, we had a kitchen faucet that said Homart and I remember our dishwasher saying Hobart, being 7 year old it was kind of confusing that one was misspelled LOL. My grand parents had a well pump that said Homart also, which I am sure was purchased from Sears. Also,  I always wondered why they used the Kenmore name on all their appliances except for their refrigeration line, all refrigerators, food freezers, room air conditioners and dehumidifiers were called Coldspot. Also, their "Brown" goods, such as televisions, and stereos had the name Silvertone on them, remember that one?? This should be interesting on where it goes.

 

[super-sweeper]

Bad street names!

"I just got this new Kenmore Vacuum from Simpson-Sears!" Sounds a whole lot of better than "I just got this new Pope John Paul II Dr. Vacuum cleaner from Simpson-Sears"!

 

[eurekaprince]

Haha!

Alex...are you originally from Canada? How do you know about Simpson's-Sears?

 

[super-sweeper]

Simspson-Sears

No,I'm not form Canada. I was under the assumption that Simpson-Sears was Sear's name during the 1950s and 1960s, I did not know it was a regional thing!

 

[eurekaprince]

Growing up in Montreal in the 1960's (Expo '67 was great), we had three major national department stores downtown and in the suburban shopping centres: Eaton's, Morgan's and Simpson's. At some point, Morgan's morphed into The Bay and Simpson's morphed into Simpson's Sears. By the 1990's Simpson-Sears was gone and eventually Sears bought Eaton's. Now I hear that The Bay has been bought by Lord and Taylor as Sears Canada struggles to keep their stores open!

Was there ever Simpson's-Sears in the USA? I did not think so...

 

[petek]

Sears was Sears-Roebuck in the US. They came to Canada in 1955 and formed a partnership with the Canadian dept store chain Simpsons. Simpsons at the time were only located in a few bigger cities in Ontario and Quebec and primarily were big flagship downtown stores. The then new Simpson-Sears stores were all suburban stores only and opened across the country in plaza's and malls. I think I read where one of the restrictions was that there couldn't be a Simpsons-Sears store within 60 miles of a downtown Simpsons store at least for a number of years. There was a downtown Simpsons in London Ontario and come to think of it I can't remember them having a Simpsons-Sears store for a city that size whereas in our little berg where we didn't have a Simpsons, we had one of the first Simpson Sears stores that opened in 55. Maybe I'm wrong on that..someone else might know if there were Simpson-Sears stores within 60 miles of downtown Toronto or Montreal back in the 50s and 60's ?

 

[fan-of-fans]

And high end models of washers, etc were Lady Kenmore, kind of like today's Kenmore Elite I guess.

The Homart name was also on some window fans that Sears sold in the 1950s-60s before being replaced with Kenmore and then just Sears.

For lower end appliances Capri and Galaxy would be on them instead of Kenmore.

 

[eurekaprince]

Thanks for that bit of Canadian retail history and clarification, Pete!

Indeed, I think the only Simpsons-Sears stores I remember were in small shopping centres in the suburbs of Montreal. The large indoor Fairview Centre Shopping Mall out on the West Island had a Simpsons, not Simpsons-Sears.

 

[caligula]

Hi eurekaprince.

At the annual meeting in 1993, my co-founder John Lucia did a presentation on his yearlong project, researching all the vacuum cleaners in the Sears-Roebuck catalog. I'm quoting from the second part of that report.


 


   "Sears and Roebuck Company officially started the Kenmore line of appliance in the Fall of 1932. The machines did not change  much in appearance at this milestone. The hand portables, however, did go through an evolution at this time. Kenmore featured two portables in the Fall 1932 catalogue. There was now a Kenmore Junior, which was very similar in appearance to the Eureka Junior. This was a straight-suction model with a 20 foot cord.  The Kenmore Deluxe Junior cleaner was a revolving motor-driven brush model with a snub-nosed appearance. "


 


So there you have it,


Alex Taber.


 


 


 

 

[eurekaprince]

Thank you for that Alex!

 

[caligula]

Hi eurekaprince.

In case you don't know, John Lucia, and I went to the Hoover historical Center in 1982, and decided to create the V.C.C.C.


 


Imagine my surprise when John started that presentation. Up to this point, he would not let me see the two part history he'd written. The first vacuum cleaner Sears listed was the Dust-Killer. When John read that, I nearly fell over, as I had a Dust-Killer in my collection, and still do. It dates back to 1909, and is an awesome, two person non electric pumper. Have a look.

 

[rugsucker]

'Kenmore'

I have seen,but do not have,a Sears catalog that must have been about 1932 as above for the introduction of 'Kenmore'.They refer to the historic Kenmore estate in the Williamsburg area of Virginia as the origin of the name.

 

[gottahaveahoove]

I remember my sister-in-law

My late brother's wife.( a cross between Sue Anne Nivens and Martha Stewart) the worst of both, boasted her brand new, "coffee" matching LADY Kenmore laundry set. "LADY" didn't last too long. My brother anf his wife were big "Sears" fans! I only loved their paint. Does anyone know where we can get that paint since Sears discontinued selling paint?

 

[suckolux]

I had a lady kenmore set, looked like creamed coffee, but I think it was called Toast. Loved it.