This is the case for the southern New Jersey counties that are suburbs of Philadelphia. houses that share a name also share either a number, a floor plan or had Where Are The Rest Of The Sears Houses In The U.S.? Another gabled ell farmhouse that we found quite a few of in La Porte, is the No. More than 100 years of stories, product and brand histories, photographs, catalog images and more are now available online. Cities with large numbers of documented Sears Modern Homes include: The Carlinville, Illinois, concentration consists of houses bought in bulk by the Standard Oil Company in 1918 to house its mineworkers at a total cost of about US $1 million. Sears Houses in Elgin, Illinois (Rebecca L. Hunter), BOOK:Houses By Mail -- published by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, BOOK: History and Field Guide to Wardway Homes, Rosemary Thornton's Sears Modern Homes website (use to search for models), Beatrice Lask Thesis: Summary list (Cincinnati Sears Homes). They werent all the 3-bedroom Craftsman ranch style you see throughout Los Angeles or the compact Levittowners in Pennsylvania and Long Island to the east: the Atlanta and Chateau models were probably the great-grandaddy of the modern McMansion, with the Malden model being its odd little cousin that sits in the potato salad at the family reunion, what with the odd arrangement of dormer windows although they arent fake. when you switch jobs, buy a house, and go on an international trip, all Would you mind messaging me with an address, so that we can add your Sears house to our (private) national database? In 1906, Frank W. Kushel, a Sears manager, was given responsibility for the catalog company's unwieldy, unprofitable building-materials department. Through those two resources, we can see not only kit-house catalogs, but also lumber-yard plan books, which offered house plans to those who were building their homes, in the 19-teens through 1930s, in the traditional method, of hiring a contractor, and buying the building resources locally. 1227 Disston St, Oxford Circle neighborhood of Philadelphia. But what if you want something bigger than a tiny house, but not as gargantuan as the average American single family home? We have not surveyed all areas of the country equally. It was built in 1917. An open floor plan with sensible . of "Where are the Sears Houses?" Lara and Cindy were joined by Andrew Mutch, who is based out of his own Sears house, in Novi, Michigan. As I detailed in the account of the rise and fall of the Sears empire, this literally led them to become the largest retailer in America because they had so many burners going at onceand their Modern Homes kits, and even the home buying process itself, were part of that in addition to catalog and retail sales. Some of the models are easier to identify visually and their counts may be disproportionately high. We scour real estate listings, we "drive" around streets (using Google maps Streetview) in towns with a concentration of homes of the era, and we especially love researching, using primary sources such as historic newspapers and the old mortgage and deed resources held in each town's Register of Deeds office, looking for houses that were financed through Sears. Harbst said it wasnt until after she bought the house that she learned homes were once sold through mail-order catalogs. In areas where the land is already mostly developed and zoned, its not that simple. Having just covered the Fallen Titan that is Sears department stores, something that piqued my interest was the idea that you could buy literal houses from the catalog. But who knows, maybe well see tiny shipping container homes in a museum someday after we take back the rest of the real estate after the revolution. I learn all kinds of interesting stuff here; thanks! Species: 4,512; Preserves: 238; Sightings: 95,174 . [37] Similiar references are made to boyhood homes of Richard Nixon and Warren Buffett. If any of you have ever been interested in coming to see me do a kit home Thanks for giving me a new appreciation for the Argyle! Click to visit. Because lets get real: those adorable and affordable ranchers were only for CERTAIN veterans and their families. She said she also didnt know it was a mail-order house when she bought it 14 years ago. Simple theme. Fabricated houses sold primarily through mail order, Column detail from a Sears Vallonia house, pictured alongside its appearance in the catalog, Modern interpretations of Sears Modern Homes, "Did Sears, Roebuck Sell Homes in Canada? As its mail-order catalogs were already sent to millions of homes, Sears had a distinct advantage over other kit-home competitors. 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. 199 models here in La Porte, are somewhat tweaked in their design, but we still do think that they are examples of that model. Not all Sears houses became private residences. The best guidebook to the basic history of the Sears Modern Homes program, is the book, Houses By Mail, put out by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and written by Katherine Cole Stevenson and H. Ward Jandl. Hi, Lauren! The Greenview/No. Other companies such as Aladdin sold mail-order homes, but thats all they sold, Chabot said. Sears Modern Homes offered more than 370 designs in a wide range of architectural styles and sizes over the line's 34-year history. This is a complete list of Sears houses in Aurora (and two in Montgomery that were originally in Aurora). Related: Floating Chairs and Texas McMansions | McMansions vs Really Big Houses | Strange Mansion in Carmel, Indiana | What is a Mansion. Los Angeles Modern Stilt Home Featured in Heat (Listed for $1.599 Million), International House Flipper Alex Camacho Makes $80k Profit on One House Flip, Bugsy Siegel Murder Mansion in Beverly Hills Flats (Listed for $17 Million), Zsa Zsa Gabors Pink Palm Springs Palace (Listed for $3.8 Million), 35 Kitchen Breakfast Bars The Latest In Casual Kitchen Dining. Photo from Realtor site. I love finding these houses and learning more about them, the different models that were sold and the people who bought them.. Looking at the sorry state of Americas rail infrastructure today, this also makes me weep although today theyd just be delivered via truck. easier. Today, those marks can help prove that you have a kit home. Please browse through and enjoy the 1,000+ posts and 5,000+ photos! Catalogs Online: Sears, Radford, Gordon-Van Tine, Sears Starlight (Sears Homes of Chicagoland), Sears Door Hardware: La Tosca, Shefton, Rhythmic, ONLINE CATALOGS on Archive.org: Sears, GVT, Radford +more. You can clearly see a major difference on this side of the houses. Browse the list below to see if there are Modern Homes in your While researching the property, Harbst learned it was among the first homes built in the boroughs Homestead Park neighborhood. *Sears Americus - Temple, PA*It's been about 3 months since the last update To see a variety of models similar to the Mitchell, that were offered during the kit-house era, see this article. 920 North Madison Avenue, Anderson, Indiana Asking: $379,900 Sears Roebuck Model: Elmhurst Year Built: 1932 Listing Agent: Julie Armington Listing Brokerage: F.C. In many cases, we may be able to tell you of homes in your town, that have actually been authenticated as Sears homes, and, in some cases, we may be able to tell you that the house in question is a kit house from another company (consider, , All photos in these blog posts are the property of the author of this blog- link to this blog. If your house was built between 1908-1940, theres a chance it might be an original Sears house. Sales slowly recovered as the United States emerged from the Great Depression until 1940. | 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.? Here is the Uriel or Conway at 408 Bond Street. I'm sure it was Matthew who cleared up for me that the No. A Gilded Mansion in Newport Beach, CA (Unreal), Fallen Titan that is Sears department stores. Rosemary Thornton PDF See the video of my interview on the St. Louis Business Journal's website. However, as you can see in the photos above, that showed the sides of the house, the Rossville/No. You usually just left with the clothes on your back and a few trunks, and that was it. 171 examples in La Porte. Our national database of Sears houses in the U.S. has over 13,600 homes on it, and, after Ohio and Illinois, Pennsylvania is #3 in U.S. states with, at today's count, 1,963 Sears homes found. ", "Sears Houses of Massapequa Park, New York", "Made to Order: Many American Dreams Came Out of the Sears Catalog, Including Do-It-Yourself Houses", "Yesterday's kit houses are today's sought-after properties", "The Story on Sears: Houses by rail and mail", "Syracuse house, which came from a Sears catalog, is one of only seven of its kind in U.S.", "The House Is in the Mail: 'Kit homes' from Sears and others were an affordable housing option", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sears_Modern_Homes&oldid=1142882633, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0. Orders were placed by mail, the See more 5,581 people like this 5,890 people follow this https://www.searshouses.com/ cyn.catanzaro@gmail.com There are many very close lookalikes to this model, so we aren't always confident that they are from Sears, when we spy them in the wild, but this house has Sears curlicues on the hinge end of the decorative iron strapping. In some cases, Sears provided construction services to assemble the homes. Some models were offered in both wood siding and brick veneer versions with different names attributed to the same or almost identical home plan. 1916 Sears Roebuck Modern Homes. In the companys own words, Sears didnt really innovate home building. The last Sears Modern Homes catalog was issued in 1940. We could make the assumption that the model we have located the most was, in fact, the top seller. You can contact Rose through her Facebook group, "Sears Kit Homes" or email: Magnolia2047@gmail.com. Our goal is always to authenticate these houses through mortgage and deed research, or other primary sources, but, when that is not possible, we apply a careful, team approach to analyzing each house that goes on our national list. The Rossville/No. Cindy's research in Delaware County, coupled with my research in Montgomery County, netted at least 200 hundred authenticated houses, but that research was preceded by many hours of searching the streets of Willow Grove, Glenside, and other suburbs, by Karen, Nigel, Sarah, Marie, and Andrew. The houses made it as far as Alaska and Canada, as the parts were delivered by railroad. So this blog has been radio silent for a while now! 181 (264P181) in the 1914 Sears Modern Homes catalog, This image is from the 1913 Sears Modern Homes catalog re-print, available, 374 Hawthorne Street, La Porte, Indiana Sears Modern Home No. It even halted sales of houses themselves for a short time before restarting sales. It's likely that other Sears models can be traced to him as well. Lg Refrigerator Temperature Min Max, Cardinal Health 2017 Annual Report, How To Cook Lettuce Indian Style, Friday Brushed Canvas Extra Slipcovers, Pacinos Italian Family Restaurant Menu, Thekkady Tourist Places In Tamil, How To Get A Job At Target, , Cardinal Health 2017 Annual Report, How To Cook Lettuce Indian Style, Friday Brushed Canvas Extra Whitehouse. However, these stamps were not used on lumber shipped before 1916, when Sears first started offering pre-cut lumber. This one, too, looks pretty much like just a taller version of the Greenview/115 and the Rossville/171, from the front and porch side of the house so, it was another mystery, as to what to look for on the other side of the house. : Ohio is the state with the largest number, Pennsylvania is the third- highest-ranking state, Prince George's County, MD & Montgomery County, MD. I see you posted about the origins of Hollywood three years ago! 159 was available with either clipped gables or peak gables, for the roof. 162 Sears houses still standing, including those in the city of Alexandria. After several years, Sears also began assigning names to the various models. Author, researcher and lecturer Rebecca Hunter became fascinated with the phenomenon of mail order homes in 1996, and is currently engaged in the study of kit homes and agricultural buildings marketed from 1906-1982 by nine different companies. The kit was greatly modified by Lane's ambitious designs. 506 W 11th Street, La Porte, Indiana probable Sears No. 06/16/2022 . That's what happens Precut lumber was cut to the appropriate lengths and angles based on where the framing timber would be used in the house. Because of the economics after 1931, I can say I am. Kmart History | Search Archives | Sears Holdings Alumni | sears.com | kmart.com : Thursday, Mar. Original paperwork for the house including blueprints and letters of correspondence from Sears. We found and listed about three houses, I think but didn't really focus on La Porte much more than that day in 2015. I didn't have very many leads for Kevin Riordan, for the NJ suburbs but, for the PA side of the Philadelphia suburbs that's a different matter, indeed! 1232, later marketed as the No. Historic Homes Images of Sears Homes Click on the associated link for a collection of images and photographs of almost all 447 house designs sold through the Sears Modern Homes program. Also, considering that the article was published in April of 1912, all of these models would have been marketed only with their number, as no word names were given to the models until 1916. Were most Sears Houses built by the owners? There were less people, but quality housing that could get built easily was a must for the quickly-growing population as World War I veterans came home and started families, and an immigration boom was taking place. None of these houses are authenticated through mortgage or deed research, but they are spot-on matches for the models, and we feel certain enough of their origin, to add them to our database. 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 People always seemed surprised to learn that Sears sold home kits. 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. Despite this large number, Sears houses are still, actually, rare, and only make up about 2% of the houses built in their era. the case of the Anstett family of Torrington, Connecticut. If those were the top sellers, no model could catch the Argyle at that rate. Philadelphia Inquirer: Sears Homes In the Philly S 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. From 1908 to 1942, Sears sold more than 70,000 of these houses in North America, by the company's count. The multi-million-dollar home has been red-tagged while two other Following is a list of Sears Homes enthusiasts who have agreed to share their names with others who might be interested in contacting them by clicking on their name. The houses, comprising eight models, were all built in a 12-block area known as the Standard Addition. How Many Sears Houses Are Still Out There? 168 (Matoka): Here is the catalog image of the No. This phrase is trademarked and cannot be used without permission of Ricky Bobby, Inc. The new owner was a Sears House fan - even produced a short doc film about the house and how she updated it. Damn, it was like. When the. Our team did some traveling around streets inside Philadelphia, in neighborhoods like Oxford Circle, Rhawnhurst, and Roxborough, to name a few, and added about 43 houses to our list, from these neighborhoods. PDF See the video of my interview on the St. Louis Business Journal's website. The HMS data portal is a collection of models, simulations and synthetic observations of the Sun. 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. I saw a recent article in The Star Ledger about Sears Homes that mentioned your blog. Our list, in fact, began with 345 Sears houses that Mrs. Lask had found in the Cincinnati area, as part of a Masters Degree thesis project at the University of Cincinnati. Pre-cut lumber reduced construction time by up to 40%, according to Sears. There were about 132 million people by the time Sears stopped selling Sears Modern Homes kits in 1940. . Powered by, Table of Sears Houses in La Porte, Indiana. Construction of the houses took nine months which were completed in 1919. Argyles also have a tendency to hide. [5] The method was originally named in the sense that the structure was light and could be lifted away like a balloon. Excuse me while I openly weep thinking about how many vacation cottages today probably cost the same or even more than, Sears also offered mortgages to home buyers and was pretty liberal with their lending terms, which made them an attractive option for widows, the self-employed, and people in marginalized groups who otherwise had trouble qualifying for traditional bank loansa problem that still persists today. In it, they included excerpts from an interview with David S. Betcone, who was the chief architect for Sears at the time. My home reminds me of that type of architecture.. Had the. Damn, it was like Stardew Valley! So, I've added an asterisk next to the addresses of these possible No. Here is the catalog image, from the 1911/12 catalog: And here are two examples in La Porte. The CNDDB is comprised of two data components: Text information and spatial information. 1232 click. Sears licensed the plans for the Argyle from a. real estate builder/developer named Jud Yoho. Chuck Holtzen has joined up with Lara to do research in Illinois, and has been helpful in adding a number of authenticated houses to our list. We have three on our list in Glenside -- one on Cedar, one on Tyson, and one on Edge Hill Rd. They had 447 different styles that ranged from simple and rustic to utterly decadent. [15] 1908 was the only year the schoolhouse appeared in the catalog. Telephone 847-697-4551. www.kithouse.org. A number of those homes are featured on the organizations website. This is just the top of the blog page you'll find dozens of links to online catalogs here, a link to the excellent Pinterest resource made for us by Sears-house owner Dale Haynes, and a list of hard-copy book resources that are both interesting and informative. Shipping label image from my mother's family's 1911 Sears No. Posted by ; fort lincoln cemetery obituaries; One of the biggest questions that researchers have been wanting to answer is: What is the Top-Selling Sears House of All Time? The company was forced to liquidate $11 million in defaulted debt. Checklist Search provides a simple and fast way to generate a pre-formatted checklist suitable for printing. Park, MD. 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. The windows, the kitchen and the bathroom were updated over the years, but it is still very much the house it was when it was built.. Built around 1917 home resembles the Hazelton Model C2025,l 1915-1920 and the Vallonia Model P13049A or P13049B, 1927-1932. At one point, I realized that I needed to organize a list of online catalog resources, so I put together this blog post, which has links to catalogs not only from Daily Bungalow and AntiqueHome, but to the many catalogs uploaded on another key resource, Archive.org (have you donated lately?). I think that one of our researchers, Lara Solonickne. Years later, the sales records related to home sales were destroyed during a corporate house cleaning. 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. From that, we have to try to connect all of that to an existing street address. There are two examples of this model, in La Porte. Ohio, Michigan, and Illinois in particular are your best bet for finding Sears homes although Newark, New Jersey apparently still has a couple. Sears Modern Homes were sold between 1908 and 1942. 126 and a Sears No. According to Betcone, the two models that were the top sellers for Sears in 1930 totaled just over 100 houses a year. Sadly, surviving Argyles do tend to be heavily altered there are probably lots more hiding in plain sight. 115 cuts off abruptly, right in the middle of the front facade, even with the left side of the upper window, and it then has a straight slope porch roof jutting out. *Sears Americus - Temple, PA*It's been about 3 months since the last update Modest half-timbering in the gables, exposed rafters, knee braces, and gable-end ridge finials combine to create an optimistic facade. Documented Sears houses have been found across the United States and in a few locations in Canada. , there were about 88.7 million people living in the United States. Some models were offered with variations, the most common of those being expanded floor plans and additional finished living spaces. I considered putting a full chart here, but, honestly, we have found hundreds through searching the suburban PA counties outside of Philadelphia. Beginning in 1916, the catalogs showed an additional floor plan that did have a bathroom: The rest of the examples of Sears houses in La Porte, that we have found to date, are one-off examples, so were probably individual purchases by the original homeowner, or a few spec houses by the realty company mentioned in the American Lumberman article. I think teardowns are the reason that Argyles are not positioned higher in our national database of Sears homes (the Argyle comes in at number 20). Most of us have a small collection of physical catalogs, or PDF catalogs, but we rely heavily on resources provided, especially, by our friend at AntiqueHome.org, and Daily Bungalow. 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". 4120 Adams St., Gary, IN. , something that piqued my interest was the idea that you could buy literal houses from the catalog. The houses made it as far as Alaska and Canada, as the parts were delivered by railroad. However, in La Porte, we've also found five examples* of houses that look like a great match for the No. By the time of the 1914 catalog, the model had been tweaked, to add the peak gable, closed pediment pop-up dormer over the upper bay windows. Public records: From 1911 to 1933, Sears offered home mortgages and Sears company officials or the Sears, Roebuck corporation may be named on the mortgage or deed associated with the property where the home was constructed. Following is a list of Sears Homes enthusiasts who have agreed This Sears mail-order kit home in McCandless is owned by Normajean Moser. Call me a cynic, but I often wonder why kit houses were not stolen. Please contact me if you would like a free We just love the Walton model! homes for rent in laplace 70068. national database of sears homes. If those were the top sellers, no model could catch the Argyle at that rate. This label was discovered in a Sears Silverdale model home built in 1911 in Northhampton, Mass., by Judith Chabots grandparents. Prefab homes arent exactly an exotic concept nowadays. If yours is not one of those, please let us know :) We are confident about all three being Sears houses, but have not been able to authenticate any of them (with mortgage or deed records, blueprints, shipping labels, letters from Sears, or marked lumber). Some models of Sears homes were very similar in design to models offered by other kit home manufacturers or through plan books. website, which was published from Oct 2013 to Nov 2014. Lara was joined by researcher Cindy Catanzaro, who researches especially in Ohio, and writes the blog. Sears Houses in Elgin, Illinois (Rebecca L. Hunter), BOOK:Houses By Mail -- published by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, BOOK: History and Field Guide to Wardway Homes, Rosemary Thornton's Sears Modern Homes website (use to search for models), Beatrice Lask Thesis: Summary list (Cincinnati Sears Homes). Looks like Yoho probably bought plan #466 from H. L. Wilson, the actual designer. While I'm at it, I'll tell you a bit about our mission, as a research team. Click here. Here are a few: Andrew just today noticed this brick house with the Sears curlicue decorative iron strapping (only offered by Sears, and the only style of iron strapping ever offered by Sears). 5 Jun. Andrew is our number-cruncher, and his blog, I joined the team shortly after Lara, Cindy and Andrew began, in earnest, to log the homes that they were finding. ", "How to Properly Identify a Sears Magnolia", "Have You Seen This Kit Schoolhouse? Please contact me if you would like a free 181, and the early version of the. Buyers could hire a contractor to assemble their home or build it themselves following the detailed instructions that were included. The iron strapping itself can be strait or curved, but the curlicue is always there, if it's iron strapping from Sears. 1916 Sears Roebuck Modern Homes. In 1908, Sears issued its first specialty catalog for houses, Book of Modern Homes and Building Plans, featuring 44 house styles ranging in price from US $360$2,890. Simply put, life was rougher. Marie's great-grandfather, Freeman Pretzinger, built this Sears. Ha! Chabot focuses her research on scouring mortgages and deed records, old newspaper articles and other sources to identify kit homes sold by Sears. Tasty Soft Garlic and Herb Bread Sticks Recipe How to Make it in 23 Simple Steps, Villa Faberge! Andrew spotted these two houses right next to each other, on W 11th Street: a No. 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). Images are available Sales peaked in 1929, just before the Great Depression. You can search the house listings by clicking on a group of years ( 1908-1914 , 1915-1920 , 1921-1926 , 1927-1932 and 1933-1940 ). In the story, homeowner Alicia Dallago said she had no idea the home she bought in 1998 was built from a kit. presentation, nows your chance! 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. Simply put, life was rougher. The two-story schoolhouse was priced at $11,500 and its design included six classrooms, a library, an auditorium, and a superintendent's office. Run by experienced researcher Cindy Catanzaro (with a little help from yours truly).