Chabot notes that Sears mail-order homes sold before 1916 did not use precut lumber that was stamped with numbers to guide construction. So, I've added an asterisk next to the addresses of these possible No. Chabot focuses her research on scouring mortgages and deed records, old newspaper articles and other sources to identify kit homes sold by Sears. easier. The Greenview/No. It's highly improbable that any model could hit the 1,700 mark. Among those are: Sears Modern Homes can also be found in historic districts listed in the National Register of Historic Places: According to Carolyn Fraser's Pulitzer-winning book, Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder, the house that Rose Wilder Lane built for her parents, Laura Ingalls Wilder and Almanzo Wilder, at Rocky Ridge Farm in Missouri was from a Sears kit. 168 / Matoka: I am really (really!) So, they are likely from Sears. I'm not surprised that the Argyle is likely the best seller; it had a long run and was as good-looking as it was practical. Because lets get real: those adorable and affordable ranchers were only for CERTAIN veterans and their families. "Our national database of Sears houses in the U.S. has over 13,500 homes on it, and, after Ohio and Illinois, Pennsylvania is No. So Betcone gave us a huge clue as to what the top seller for Sears was. [8] By 1934, Sears had stopped offering mortgages. 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. A high-speed chase involving an armed carjacking suspect ended in Los Angeles Friday afternoon when the suspect crashed into a police vehicle, and then into a pole. of the original Sears homes built from kits are still standing today. national database of sears homes. An open floor plan with sensible . She searched the Sears Home archive until she found a catalog with a photo and description of her home. Photo from Lake County Assessor. We love her for giving us this to quote over and over again and for the many Sears houses that she has added to our list. Dover, Chateau, and Lexington models are particularly plentiful there! Jud Yoho may also have been the designer behind the popular Sears model called the Hollywood. Asbury Methodist Village Communications Dept. Some of these homes were based on models offered in the Sears Modern Homes catalog. 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. Carrying on with Same Name, Different House topic we find that some of the The last Sears Modern Homes catalog was issued in 1940. That's what happens You can contact Tony by email at tlarussa@triblive.com or via Twitter . Powered by, Table of Sears Houses in La Porte, Indiana. 5 Jun. 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. Lets find out! Given the more disposable nature of shipping container homes and the portability granted by some tiny houses, its kind of sad in a way that this current crop of Internet-order homes is not only not as simple or affordable as it was yesteryear, but also carries less permanence compared to these mail-order houses. One of the most expensive models was the Magnolia, a 10-room Colonial-style house with. 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. There havent been any major structural changes, she said. 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.. It was just recently sold again earlier this year. 159 has two full stories on that non-porch side of the house. There are examples of modern homes built based on the design of Sears Modern Home. Builders that already have both the funds and the skilled professionals in architecture, construction, and land use make it easier for the average person who only wants to worry about their career, move, and family. 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. According to the US Census, there were about 88.7 million people living in the United States. 4120 Adams St., Gary, IN. They had. Some builders and companies purchased houses directly from Sears to build as model homes, speculative homes, or homes for customers or employees. 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. We have just over 200 Sears houses on our list, that came from Rebecca's research project in Elgin (it also included kit houses from other companies, that she was able to identify -- we've added those to our lists for those companies, as well). One final note about our list: as I've mentioned, our list includes, for the most part, homes that we have located, ourselves, but also those that we have learned about from other people. The suburbs of Philadelphia are not the only places where we find Sears houses, by the way. 181, and the early version of the. Or did we just go wrong somewhere when someone decided the house you live in should be treated like a bank? Marie gives the perfect explanation of our Sears House hunt, in this. One of the early Sears House researchers that our group still relies on for her expertise in the D.C. housing market, is D.C. realtor Catarina Bannier (Bannier & Sandalow). Between 1908 and 1940, Sears Roebuck and Co. published specialty catalogs offering house plans and building materials. that was $886 in 1940 dollars, about $16,000 today. Despite being prefab, they got more character than the endless sea of suburban eyesores we got out there now. city or state, or to find someone who owns the same model as you. Sears Magnolia was also known as Model #2089. 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. There are two examples of this model, in La Porte. We soon realized that she had a keen eye for Sears houses (and a keen love for them, as her great-grandfather had built a Sears Martha Washington in Oakwood, Ohio), and she joined our research group. Advertisements for Sears Modern Homes appeared through May 1942. 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? 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). Welcome to the New NSCAA. While seeing a bunch of Sears homes jammed together in a cookie cutter suburb wasnt a very common sight in the 1930s and 40s, they still got knocked together like IKEA furniture compared to building a home from scratch. Due to reviews by homeowners then and now, it would appear that Sears Modern Homes are just as appreciated now as they were then. Interested in hearing about Rose's near-death experience? The wild pursuit began with an a Other Sears houses were found dotting other areas of La Porte, but the biggest concentration of the early models, probably all from 1912, were in that Lakeview area. Park, MD. A recent Tribune-Review story about a 1922 Sears mail-order home in McCandless that has most of its original features intact drew scores of letters and comments from Pittsburgh area residents interested in learning more about the unique role these houses played in U.S. history. 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. to you on Flickr or Pinterest. See that curled element at the hinge edge? Photo from Realtor site. Betcone spoke of how housing styles were drastically changing and how many customers wanted more efficient, streamlined designs. If my house is not a kit, where did it come from? I thought it was very interesting when I learned that you could also buy a house from their catalogs.. 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). Thousands of developments in cities, suburbs, and exurbs have sprung up since with a seemingly endless amount of homes that were built between World War II and today. 159. In the early years, the models were identified with numbers. 1916 Sears Roebuck Modern Homes. By Posted on Mar 10, 2021. national database of sears homes. Later, Sears constructed a second mill in Port Newark, New Jersey and purchased the Norwood Sash and Door Company in Norwood, Ohio. 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. , in addition to Aladdin and Montgomery Ward homes. And Sears Modern Homes werent a monolith. The house that would soon become the Argyle in one of Yoho's magazines, 1913. We certainly imagine that the houses have been retro-fitted with one, at this point. hennessy privilege limited edition / what is mc hammer doing now 2020 / national database of sears homes. Years later, the sales records related to home sales were destroyed during a corporate house cleaning. Harbst said many of the original features in her home are intact and the exterior remains mostly unchanged. For this week's listing of the week, we decided to find seven charming Sears Catalog homes you can actually buy today. ", "Bill of Materials for Sears Modern Home", "Two Italian Families and their Neighboring Sears Houses", "New Homes in Cranford for $4,000!Biggest development evolved in Sunny Acres", "Yes, Virginia, Sears Homes Were Built After 1940", "The Top Four Most Popular Sears Homes--Have You Seen These? Im looking at this cute little Cape Cod that was $886 in 1940 dollars, about $16,000 today. Asphalt shingles were cheap to manufacture and ship, and easy and inexpensive to install. 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. Washington D.C. and its nearby suburbs have an unusually rich cache of kit houses stashed away in some of the leafy, well-tended neighborhoods where 1920s houses still shine. According to Betcone, the two models that were the top sellers for Sears in 1930 totaled just over 100 houses a year. Rockstar, Consistent Trees, and Baryon Mass data from the Generation 3 and Generation 6 VELA Simulations. 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. 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 . In 1906, Frank W. Kushel, a Sears manager, was given responsibility for the catalog company's unwieldy, unprofitable building-materials department. Sales slowly recovered as the United States emerged from the Great Depression until 1940. So, I'll just post a nice selection here. 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. From 1931-1942 Sears sold about 5,000 houses altogether. some ch Don't miss this never before seen catalog from Sears. Because the Modern Homes division sales records were destroyed, there is no way to definitively verify the number of Sears houses that still exist. 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. The multi-million-dollar home has been red-tagged while two other But before all this, having to get your own home built was more common instead of getting on a waitlist for a HUD-subsidized tract home or buying one secondhand from the current occupant. House was moved to Carbondale, CO in about 1972, Still trying to find more info.. 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 1916 Sears Roebuck Modern Homes. It was built in 1917. 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. Welcome to Sears Homes! Your comment will appear after it has been previewed and approved by the blog author. So this blog has been radio silent for a while now! On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. The most popular models appeared in the catalog for multiple years. 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. We found and listed about three houses, I think but didn't really focus on La Porte much more than that day in 2015. But, as of this date in 2021, here are leading areas in the U.S. with high numbers of Sears houses. 2) Look for shipping labels. Another gabled ell farmhouse that we found quite a few of in La Porte, is the No. Other companies such as Aladdin sold mail-order homes, but thats all they sold, Chabot said. The houses made it as far as Alaska and Canada, as the parts were delivered by railroad. . We have not surveyed all areas of the country equally. Capture from Google Streetview. How do we know another house didn't outsell the Argyle after 1931? Sears Modern Homes built in the 1930s may have a small circled "SR" cast into the bathtub in the lower corner (furthest from the tub spout and near the floor) and on the underside of the kitchen or bathroom sink. I believe my parents were the 3rd owners purchasing the house in 1965 or 1966. In their own way, houses with Craftsman-style design elements often managed their own form of ebullient excess such as Modern Home No. Carrying on with Same Name, Different House topic we find that some of the In some cases, homeowners used plans from original Sears homes to recreate a modern version of a Sears home. Several Sears Modern Homes are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Normajean Moser of McCandless owns a Walton model that was purchased from the Sears Modern Home catalog. So, Can We See Some Philly Suburbs Sears Houses? Call me a cynic, but I often wonder why kit houses were not stolen. 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. I now live in St. Louis, Missouri, and am sometimes asked if there are any Sears houses here. In fact, the No. That's why we love seeking them out! contacting them by clicking on their name. That's what happens The original "Sears Modern Homes" community page on Facebook, for those interested in Sears homes. ", "How to Properly Identify a Sears Magnolia", "Have You Seen This Kit Schoolhouse? And, shortly after me, came Karen DeJeet, a Pittsburgh resident who learned of Sears houses when she found out that she lived in one (the. 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. Sometimes researchers get lucky and find facts and figures in old company newsletters, personal papers of Sears managers and executives, historical newspapers, and archival interviews conducted with people who worked in the department in the 1930's and 1940's. Please contact me if you would like a free Precut framing timbers, an innovation pioneered by Aladdin, were first offered by Sears in 1916. Ohio, Michigan, and Illinois in particular are your best bet for finding Sears homes although Newark, New Jersey apparently still has a couple. . If those were the top sellers, no model could catch the Argyle at that rate. On another block of W 11th Street, there is an example of the Sears Modern Home No. when you switch jobs, buy a house, and go on an international trip, all Modest half-timbering in the gables, exposed rafters, knee braces, and gable-end ridge finials combine to create an optimistic facade. However, many houses described as Sears Homes are not true Sears Homes, being either the product of another kit home manufacturer or not a kit home at all. How Many Sears Houses Are Still Out There? I'm sure it was Matthew who cleared up for me that the No. catalogs for all central and satellite halos down to 10^06 MSun. The kit was greatly modified by Lane's ambitious designs. If home is where the heart is, then those living in houses built from Sears mail-order kits may have fallen head-over-heels. 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. | 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.? But David Betcone told us what model was in first place as of 1931. Determining which company manufactured a particular catalog and kit home may require additional research to determine the origin of that home. If those were the top sellers, no model could catch the Argyle at that rate. Looking at the sorry state of Americas rail infrastructure today, this also makes me weep although today theyd just be delivered via truck. Precut lumber was cut to the appropriate lengths and angles based on where the framing timber would be used in the house. Between 1908 and 1940, Sears, Roebuck and Co. sold nearly 75,000 kit homes through its Modern Homes program, which featured 447 styles of houses, ranging from large multistory dwellings to tiny summer cottages with an optional outhouse. Here is one of the eleven examples in La Porte: This early version of the No. But, in the case of the early, non pre-cut houses, when we know that a large number of houses were bought by a company (or offered up on spec, by Sears), we sometimes see that special versions were created for these neighborhoods, specifically. Prefab homes arent exactly an exotic concept nowadays. So, each house that we find through these records, represents a great deal of digging, and lots of amassed knowledge in how to attack the task because each county's records system is a little different than others. Buyers could hire a contractor to assemble their home or build it themselves following the detailed instructions that were included. Rebecca lives in Elgin, Illinois, and undertook a huge research project, to find, and document, kit houses in that town. 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. Some of the models are easier to identify visually and their counts may be disproportionately high. 306 Highland, Madison, WI. In the companys own words, Sears didnt really innovate home building. 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. 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. As its mail-order catalogs were already sent to millions of homes, Sears had a distinct advantage over other kit-home competitors. I hope you found this informative, and learned that Sears houses come in lots of shapes, sizes, and styles. You'll also notice that the No. . More than 100 years of stories, product and brand histories, photographs, catalog images and more are now available online. 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. This is a complete list of Sears houses in Aurora (and two in Montgomery that were originally in Aurora). Researching Historic Kit and Plan Book Homes, We started looking around La Porte, Indiana, in 2015. The truth is out there, and I think you've found it! The group has identified 2,700 Sears homes in Ohio and 2,300 in Illinois. 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 love finding these houses and learning more about them, the different models that were sold and the people who bought them.. 4120 Adams St., Gary, IN. When we find a mortgage record, we're just given a buyer's name, and a legal description of a property. Park, MD. Open to the public. But what if you want something bigger than a tiny house, but not as gargantuan as the average American single family home? You can see that La Porte, Indiana is mentioned as one of the "built at" locations: We found four examples of what we believe to be the model No. But what if you want something bigger than a tiny house, but not as gargantuan as the average American single family home? Tasty Soft Garlic and Herb Bread Sticks Recipe How to Make it in 23 Simple Steps, Villa Faberge! New models were introduced every year, and some only stuck around for a couple years. The ability to mass-produce the materials used in Sears homes reduced manufacturing costs, which allowed Sears to pass along the savings in lower prices for customers. But the houses don't match any of the designs that Sears sold in their catalogs. Had the. They kept up with it, of course, but it sure has good bones. 5008". The Rossville/No. There were about 132 million people by the time Sears stopped selling Sears Modern Homes kits in 1940. Thank you for visiting! The NHPD is the only de-duplicated source for comprehensive data on the publicly supported housing property inventory. In a second blog post, I'll show the several probable kit houses that we've found in LaPorte, Indiana, from other companies.
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