172, later marketed as the. Honor Bilt homes used the best quality materials that Sears could source and they were designed with what was then state of the art heating, plumbing, and electricity. Tasty Soft Garlic and Herb Bread Sticks Recipe How to Make it in 23 Simple Steps, Villa Faberge! It looks almost like a Sears, And, finally, we have this pretty rare model, the Sears.
Sears Homes 1908-1914 Car culture hadnt yet arrived, but trains and trolleys began extending to these greener areas that were still pretty empty so you could visit or work in the city. Construction of the houses took nine months which were completed in 1919. [38][39], One well-known replica of a Sears house is at the "Farm at Prophetstown" museum in Battle Ground, Indiana, which features a replica of a Hillrose model. Many included the latest technology available to house buyers in the early part of the twentieth century, such as central heating, indoor plumbing, telephone, and electricity . Sales slowly recovered as the United States emerged from the Great Depression until 1940. All these years later it is still a fortress.. This was the case with most of the compact pre-1920 Sears houses. Due to reviews by homeowners then and now, it would appear that Sears Modern Homes are just as appreciated now as they were then.
national database of sears homes - thanhvi.net Sears licensed the plans for the Argyle from a. real estate builder/developer named Jud Yoho. They produced three different product lines based on budget: the high-end Honor Bilt homes, Standard Built homes that were popular with young families, and Simplex Sectional low-budget homes that were mostly used as vacation cottages. This site is a tribute to the original Sears Houses in Cincinnati Charleston, West Virginia is a hotspot for Sears model homes, in addition to Aladdin and Montgomery Ward homes. The kit was greatly modified by Lane's ambitious designs. 199 (the predecessor to the Sears, We've put eleven houses on our list that we are pretty confident are the early version of the. 162 Sears houses still standing, including those in the city of Alexandria. Prefab homes arent exactly an exotic concept nowadays. It is unknown whether any were purchased or built. My uncle mentioned that he had found some shipping labels from Sears in the house and when we asked my grandmother about it, she said: Oh, yes, we ordered it from the Sears catalog, Chabot said. Ohio, Michigan, and Illinois in particular are your best bet for finding Sears homes although Newark, New Jersey apparently still has a couple. 171 often has a full front porch that ends up extending all the way to the left side of the house. Sears could keep manufacturing costs down compared to standard builders and competing catalogs because they had their own manufacturing facilities by then and were able to mass-produce wood, asphalt, insulation material, hardware, and everything else needed to produce a home that wasnt a Habitat for Humanity hut. This Sears mail-order kit home in McCandless is owned by Normajean Moser. some ch Don't miss this never before seen catalog from Sears. The article mentioned Sears having sold 50 houses in La Porte, Indiana but, interestingly, Sears had actually provided the funding and the houses, knowing that the area was in need of housing right away, and offered to have the houses paid for on time. We could make the assumption that the model we have located the most was, in fact, the top seller. Carrying on with Same Name, Different House topic we find that some of the From 1908 to 1940, the Sears Modern Homes Program offered complete mail-order houses to the would-be homeowner what would come to be called "kit homes." Customers could select from dozens of different models in Sears Modern Homes Catalog, order blueprints, send in a check, and a few weeks later everything they needed would arrive in a train car, its door secured with a small red wax . I don't feel comfortable making that assumption. You'll also notice that the No. 110 (, 1524 2nd Street, La Porte, Indiana earliest version of the Sears No. Before 1916, the home builder had to cut their Sears-supplied lumber to appropriate lengths. As some areas begin to see population booms, such as the tech triangle region of Raleigh, Durham, and Cary as more companies and tech talent make exodus from California and New York based on what I hear from taxi drivers and my university contacts in the region at games conferences every year? Related: Floating Chairs and Texas McMansions | McMansions vs Really Big Houses | Strange Mansion in Carmel, Indiana | What is a Mansion. We are a team of about 10 researchers who work together to hunt around the U.S. for Sears kit houses built during the era of the Sears Modern Homes program (1908-1942). You'll notice that most are in states east of the Mississippi River, with highest overall state totals in Ohio, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and New York. You usually just left with the clothes on your back and a few trunks, and that was it. 159, but it's likely especially because we have found interior views of a couple, and we think we see Sears staircase balusters and newel. She said she also didnt know it was a mail-order house when she bought it 14 years ago. Additionally, at this point in the Sears Modern Homes program, the homes were sold/packaged only with standard-length wood, so none of the framing lumber would have been pre-cut (and, therefore, there would be no alpha-numeric stamps on the wood pieces in the house). Like this page to learn about homes purchased as kits through mail order catalogs. National Database: Sears Homes in the U.S. SHORT VIDEO: What It's Like to Live in a Sears Catalog Home, SHORT VIDEO: NBC Nightly News visits Andrew & Wendy Mutch. Many included the latest technology available to house buyers in the early part of the twentieth century, such as central heating, indoor plumbing, telephone, and electricity. ", "How to Properly Identify a Sears Magnolia", "Have You Seen This Kit Schoolhouse? One Magnolia built in Lincoln, Nebraska, was demolished in 1985. Theres a whole checklist of signs to look for, such as stamped lumber in the basement or attic, shipping labels on the baseboards and other millwork, or even looking up your deed and records pertaining to the actual home purchase. 171's porch roof (when it is a partial porch) connects to the house far to the right side of that upper window and then has a wedge-shape side part to that roof, so that both models end the porch just to the edge of the front door, but with a very different treatment to the shape of the porch roof there. The Sears Argyle was a small house, about 1,000 square feet, and many of them have been demolished. [5] Early balloon structures were very basic, to enable home buyers to assemble them independently and also because designers had yet to see the implications the method held.[5].
national database of sears homes - dowdcreative.com In fact, the No. Stamped lumber: Most easily found in unfinished spaces like a basement or attic, framing members were stamped with a letter and a number. Asphalt shingles were cheap to manufacture and ship, and easy and inexpensive to install. I thought it was very interesting when I learned that you could also buy a house from their catalogs.. Sears Lewiston: A Sears Model Home in New Jersey Authenticated Sears Lewiston 261 N. Jackson St., North Plainfield, NJ 1929 This great-looking Sears Lewiston was built in 1929, and used as a model home for Sears after it was built by Anthony P. Raffaniello, and his wife, Helena. Moreover, it was just more feasible to plunk down a house somewhere because there just werent as many homes on account of a smaller population. Originally marketed as the. Simply put, life was rougher. Also, homes in southern Ohio may have financing documents through the "Norwood Sash and Door Company" of Norwood, Ohio. The multi-million-dollar home has been red-tagged while two other Sears Modern Homes offered more than 370 designs in a wide range of architectural styles and sizes over the line's 34-year history. I believe my parents were the 3rd owners purchasing the house in 1965 or 1966. | Sears Modern Homes", "Sears Houses in Arlington Virginia: A Comprehensive List", "How Sears built an entire local neighborhood", "Historic Structures Crystal Lake Historical Society", "Sears Houses in Elgin Illinois arranged according to model name", "Philadelphia Inquirer: Sears Homes in the Philly Suburbs and Sears House Hunters", "Where are the rest of the Sears houses in the U.S.? So, I put together a list, but I decided to provide some clarifying background information in that blog post, too-- it's especially intended to help those who might hear the term Craftsman, and think it means Sears House, or who see a 1920s bungalow and wonder if that means that the street is lined with Sears houses, or who find marked lumber in their house, but can't seem to find a match to a Sears model. The most popular models appeared in the catalog for multiple years. Primarily shipped via railroad boxcars, these kits included most of the materials needed to build a house. Measuring in at a roomy 3,500 square feet, the . Without facts and sales records, we can make an educated guess. Knowing the limitations of a newspaper article, I know that he will only be able to show one or two house photos, so I thought that I would highlight a few that we have found, through our research. Photo from Lake County Assessor. The house that would soon become the Argyle in one of Yoho's magazines, 1913. Another old model found predominantly in that Lakeview area, was the. , something that piqued my interest was the idea that you could buy literal houses from the catalog. The American Lumberman article referred to this area where the houses were being built, as the Fairview neighborhood. The nine easy signs follow: 1) Look for stamped lumber in the basement or attic. Sears also offered a plasterboard product similar to modern drywall as an alternative to the plaster and lath wall-building techniques which required skilled carpenters and plasterers. Tucker/Crossroads 5008". In the companys own words, Sears didnt really innovate home building. One of the things that Marie has done for us, is to perfectly describe our search for Sears houses, as a "badass hobby" that is akin to a "huge historical treasure hunt".
And it led me to dig a little deeper into the history of my community.. Damn, it was like. 4120 Adams St., Gary, IN. Modest half-timbering in the gables, exposed rafters, knee braces, and gable-end ridge finials combine to create an optimistic facade. The group has identified nearly 540 of the estimated 1,000 Sears mail-order homes that are believed to have been constructed in the region. The houses made it as far as Alaska and Canada, as the parts were delivered by railroad. And Sears Modern Homes werent a monolith. We have three on our list in Glenside -- one on Cedar, one on Tyson, and one on Edge Hill Rd. But at the time, there was a housing boom taking place as people wanted to escape the crowds and disease of the cities. Its as sturdy as a house as Ive ever seen. One key set of homes that we are fortunate to have on our list, comes from the research of noted Architectural Historian, Rebecca L. Hunter. website, which was published from Oct 2013 to Nov 2014. A number of those homes are featured on the organizations website. Theres a whole checklist of signs to look for. Here is the Uriel or Conway at 408 Bond Street. However, based on what the experts said in that Atlas Obscura piece, youre most likely to find Sears homes in places where railroad stations once stood (or are lucky to still have) and where Sears factories had a major role on the local economy, like Cincinnati. that ranged from simple and rustic to utterly decadent. Sometimes the legal description is nice and straightforward, like, "lot 15, block C, Tanglewood Estates, in the town of Dunham". A Newport Beach home remains dangerously close to tumbling down a cliffside after the ground underneath gave way on Friday morning. We've seen this in Carlinville, Illinois, and we've seen this with large orders of homes bought from Aladdin and from Gordon-Van Tine. Buyers could hire a contractor to assemble their home or build it themselves following the detailed instructions that were included. BMO, LAFC, and Angel City FC leaders were joined by special guests Earvin "Magic" Johnson and Mia Hamm for the . Run by experienced researcher Cindy Catanzaro (with a little help from yours truly). You usually just left with the clothes on your back and a few trunks, and that was it. In areas where the land is already mostly developed and zoned, its not that simple. The NHPD is the only de-duplicated source for comprehensive data on the publicly supported housing property inventory. The new owner was a Sears House fan - even produced a short doc film about the house and how she updated it. Basic cross-gabled two-story farmhouses are to be found almost everywhere in towns and cities as well as many rural areas throughout the United States. While I'm at it, I'll tell you a bit about our mission, as a research team. Parts for the homes, which were sold between 1908 and 1940, were delivered to the nearest rail station. Molly Harbst of Munhall sent along photos of her beautifully preserved Sears homes a 1920 model called The Crescent after reading the article. Or, perhaps we have background information about it to share with you!Judith. We cannot be absolutely certain, but the numbers do not support it. We just can't say, because we can't access those records. For this week's listing of the week, we decided to find seven charming Sears Catalog homes you can actually buy today. [7] Early mortgage loans were typically for 5 to 15 years at 6% to 7% interest. Goodwall sheet plaster was an early drywall-like product offered by Sears and may be an indication of a Sears Modern Home. It even halted sales of houses themselves for a short time before restarting sales. In this case, the problem was that we couldn't see the left side of these models, just by looking at the catalog and the floor plans. Search crews have rescued Californians stranded for days in multiple feet of snow after back-to-back storms plastered the state's mountain communities and trapped many in their homes.
Is My House a Sears House? The Nine Easy Signs. - Sears Modern Homes Data Portal - NASA These stamps are normally located on or near the ends of pieces of framing timber. The original "Sears Modern Homes" community page on Facebook, for those interested in Sears homes. I love finding these houses and learning more about them, the different models that were sold and the people who bought them.. And, to top it off, Gordon-Van Tine has a model almost the same. If your house was built between 1908-1940, theres a chance it might be an original Sears house. Other models only appeared for one year. In the story, homeowner Alicia Dallago said she had no idea the home she bought in 1998 was built from a kit. Sears has opened the doors to its vast archival collection and invited the public to peek inside. You can clearly see a major difference on this side of the houses. The next housing boom came after World War II so that veterans could have affordable housing for their families and suburbs could accommodate the massive amount of white flight taking place. If any of you have ever been interested in coming to see me do a kit home It mightve been easier to get a job or start a business off the bat compared to the hoops and bureaucracy we have for both these days, but there was no U-Haul or Pods to make moving easier. They had 447 different styles that ranged from simple and rustic to utterly decadent. These pre-1916 houses are generally considered "catalog houses", not "kit houses". So, Can We See Some Philly Suburbs Sears Houses? 1916 Sears Roebuck Modern Homes. You can search the house listings by clicking on a group of years ( 1908-1914 , 1915-1920 , 1921-1926 , 1927-1932 and 1933-1940 ). PDF See the video of my interview on the St. Louis Business Journal's website. 118 In Columbia, Where are the Sears Houses - February 2023 Edition, The Strange Case of the Wandering Bungalow, DC House Cat Chiming In - Historic Mail-Order Homes, Same Name, Different House Part 2 - From Aurora to the Elmwood, 1926 Sears Special Supplement from AntiqueHome.org. Because of the economics after 1931, I can say I am. National Database: Sears Homes in the U.S. SHORT VIDEO: What It's Like to Live in a Sears Catalog Home, SHORT VIDEO: NBC Nightly News visits Andrew & Wendy Mutch, Sears No 137 In Mendham, New Jersey, Morris County. There were about 132 million people by the time Sears stopped selling Sears Modern Homes kits in 1940. It was just recently sold again earlier this year. 4120 Adams St., Gary, IN.
Because the various kit home companies often copied plan elements or designs from each other, there are a number of catalog and kit models from different manufacturers that look similar or identical to models offered by Sears. If home is where the heart is, then those living in houses built from Sears mail-order kits may have fallen head-over-heels. We thought it might be of interest to those readers to point out some more of the history of Sears houses in the greater Pittsburgh area, said Chabot, whose family still owns a Sears Silverdale model home in Northampton, Mass., that was built by her great-grandparents in 1911. Balloon frames could be built faster and generally only required one carpenter. Sears Magnolia was also known as Model #2089. One of the most expensive models was the Magnolia, a 10-room Colonial-style house with. Simply put, life was rougher. The mortgage program was also a PR disaster, as many of the families Sears foreclosed upon refused to do further business with the company. So, they are likely from Sears. You can find catalog images for these models, in the links on the table at the end of this blog post: Also on W Johnson Road, we have new information from Nancy, who contacted me to let me know that she grew up in the Sears house shown below, a Sears.
Homes Index The company was forced to liquidate $11 million in defaulted debt.
Sears Modern Homes - Wikipedia However, in La Porte, we've also found five examples* of houses that look like a great match for the No. Sears is estimated to have sold about 70,000 of their home building kits from 1908-1940 and it's currently estimated that about 70% of the original Sears homes built from kits are still standing today.
excited about this find and I really hope it is one: a Sears No. Lets find out! Its not like nowadays where you move, wait for your stuff to arrive, and if youre a work-at-home like me, youre pretty much unable to work while you wait for a technician to ensure you have Internet access. Researchers Cindy Catanzaro and Andrew Mutch, and the late Donna Bakke, put together a document explaining Bea's work, and listing 345 of the houses that she found, which you can see. Chabot focuses her research on scouring mortgages and deed records, old newspaper articles and other sources to identify kit homes sold by Sears. 159, except for a closed pediment up in the front and side gable. Park, MD. While financing through Sears helped many homeowners purchase homes, many of those purchasers defaulted during the ensuing Great Depression. Our list, by the way, began in the early years of our research group. [37] Similiar references are made to boyhood homes of Richard Nixon and Warren Buffett. Government spending was dedicated to housing in an unprecedented manner as the mantra was driven home that the ideal was a nuclear family in a 3-bedroom suburban house with a car in every driveway. the case of the Anstett family of Torrington, Connecticut. Original paperwork for the house including blueprints and letters of correspondence from Sears. 1232 click. In their own way, houses with Craftsman-style design elements often managed their own form of ebullient excess such as Modern Home No. Their blueprints were based on what was popular at the time and while they werent the first or only company to do mail-order houses, theyre among the most memorable because you could buy damn near anything in their 500+ page catalogs. Damn, it was like Stardew Valley! New York state is 4th, with 1,679 houses found. took off, many builders started offering everything from ready-made prehab homes to foundations and blueprints. Thanks for your interest! Some models were offered in both wood siding and brick veneer versions with different names attributed to the same or almost identical home plan. Moreover, it was just more feasible to plunk down a house somewhere because there just werent as many homes on account of a smaller population. Other times, the legal description refers to a house being on "a road leading from York to Millville", and maybe the lot bordering "the land of Joseph Craws" usually, that road, if we can figure out which one it is, is miles and miles long, and there's no way to find "the land of Joseph Craws", so that's of no help at all. marlon brando children; pete the cat and his four groovy buttons comprehension questions; nolin lake conditions; dan majerle hall of fame; dayton floor drill press,belt Wonderful, Malissa! Identifying Sears Homes has become a pastime among history enthusiasts because of their sturdy structure, the do-it-yourself nature of construction, and the popular architectural design concepts. 306 Highland, Madison, WI. I'm currently working my way through the Burlington County records, but they are limited, and set up in a way that makes the process very time consuming. Dover, Chateau, and Lexington models are particularly plentiful there! Kushel is credited with suggesting to Richard Sears that the company assemble kits of all the parts needed and sell entire houses through mail order.