However, the streets that are lined with these farmhouse models (and many other houses), are actually in the Lakeview neighborhood so, we imagine that was a mistake in the article. Many of the famous designs were commandeered from other sources and/or purchased from architects but given just enough change to be advertised as their own. Many of these post 1940 homes were based on models from the 1940 and earlier Sears catalogs but not all were, leading to debate over whether these homes qualify as "Sears Modern Homes". Sears Modern Homes offered more than 370 designs in a wide range of architectural styles and sizes over the line's 34-year history. We have three on our list in Glenside -- one on Cedar, one on Tyson, and one on Edge Hill Rd. Because of the economics after 1931, I can say I am. 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! Although it is sometimes claimed that no Sears kit homes were built after 1940, Sears continued to offer pre-cut kit homes through 1941 and into early 1942. 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. 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. 217 (early Starlight), Sears Modern Home No, 126, on the left, at 808 W 11th Street, La Porte, Indiana, On the right, Sears Modern Home No. Following is a list of Sears Homes enthusiasts who have agreed Instead, shipping labels were affixed to the backside of trim that identified properties. [2] No comprehensive list of their locations exists.[3]. Prefab homes arent exactly an exotic concept nowadays. There are examples of modern homes built based on the design of Sears Modern Home. Interested in hearing about Rose's near-death experience? 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). Carrying on with Same Name, Different House topic we find that some of the 162 Sears houses still standing, including those in the city of Alexandria. They had 447 different styles that ranged from simple and rustic to utterly decadent. Andrew is responsible for adding hundreds (and hundreds) of Sears houses to our database, especially in the Maryland suburbs of D.C., in numerous counties in Michigan, and a gold mine of houses in Westchester County, New York, especially in Yonkers. 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? For this week's listing of the week, we decided to find seven charming Sears Catalog homes you can actually buy today. 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. Early on, we were joined by Sarah Mullane, who lives in North Tonawanda, New York. In it, they included excerpts from an interview with David S. Betcone, who was the chief architect for Sears at the time. 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. [7] Early mortgage loans were typically for 5 to 15 years at 6% to 7% interest. But David Betcone told us what model was in first place as of 1931. 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. So this blog has been radio silent for a while now! Normajean Moser of McCandless owns a Walton model that was purchased from the Sears Modern Home catalog. 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. Welcome to Sears Homes! When we find a mortgage record, we're just given a buyer's name, and a legal description of a property. Simple theme. He published the design as #466 in his 1912 "Craftsman Bungalows" catalog. But Matthew has a way of pulling everything together and spitting out a coherent comparative analysis with visuals that helps us see what we hadn't noticed previously. This label was discovered in a Sears Silverdale model home built in 1911 in Northhampton, Mass., by Judith Chabots grandparents. 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. In fact, the No. , something that piqued my interest was the idea that you could buy literal houses from the catalog. Owners of these houses along the years may have, however, found paper shipping labels affixed to the back of trim pieces around doors or windows, or decorative moulding pieces. The multi-million-dollar home has been red-tagged while two other Dover, Chateau, and Lexington models are particularly plentiful there! In other cases, the home followed the general design of a Sears house without being an exact duplicate. Other models only appeared for one year. Please contact me if you would like a free It's also possible that some local builder just put together a similar design, to compete with the Sears houses being built in town, but, some of these examples are on blocks of streets that are lined with Sears houses from this early spec offering by Sears. Its kind of exciting to learn that your home is unique because of the way it was bought and constructed, she said. Here are both of these models in the 1911/12 Sears Modern Homes catalog. The article explained that Sears had already sold five houses that were in the midst of construction, and these first houses were all of three different models, and at least 50 more would be built with the possibility that a total of 200 might find their way to the streets of La Porte (it doesn't look like that happened). Lets find out! Photo from Realtor site. presentation, nows your chance! Park, MD. If those were the top sellers, no model could catch the Argyle at that rate. After all, future generations became more transient out of circumstance or in light of the digital nomad movement and taking advantage of technology in general, more mobile by choice. is selling shipping container homes for about $50,000 a pop and Amazon is also selling prefab tiny houses at a variety of sizes and price points. 1. Our list, by the way, began in the early years of our research group. I've always seen this one in the catalogs, and thought it was kind of ungainly in proportions, but we hadn't found one before this one this is a pretty good match, though not perfect, but, in the days before pre-cut, we are more likely to see some modifications to the models. 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. Ohio resident Marie Vore reached out to us one day, on our Sears Modern Homes Facebook page, with a question about a possible Sears house that she had run across in a real estate listing. Because lets get real: those adorable and affordable ranchers were only for CERTAIN veterans and their families. Designs may have been modified but generally should match in layout and dimensions. If my house is not a kit, where did it come from? TribLIVE's Daily and Weekly email newsletters deliver the news you want and information you need, right to your inbox. [34], Like the Standard Addition in Carlinville, neighborhoods of Sears houses still hold a sense of identity and community. According to the catalog image, both models have only a partial porch at the front of the house. The group has identified 2,700 Sears homes in Ohio and 2,300 in Illinois. Michigan, Indiana, and New Jersey have large overall numbers, as well. 1916 Sears Roebuck Modern Homes. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. 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. Chabot can help people identify if their home was built from a Sears kit if they provide her with an address of the property through the House Seekers website, which also has links to catalogs produced by the company and other sellers. However, in La Porte, we've also found five examples* of houses that look like a great match for the No. New York state is 4th, with 1,679 houses found. Ive visited New Orleans several times and love the style of the buildings there. That year, the Aladdin Company of Bay City, Michigan, offered the first kit homes through mail order. The last Sears Modern Homes catalog was issued in 1940. Despite this large number, Sears houses are still, actually, rare, and only make up about 2% of the houses built in their era. . 159, except for a closed pediment up in the front and side gable. 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. Without authentication, however, we can't be 100% certain that this house was ordered from Sears, as numerous kit and non-kit companies offered a very similar model, and these kinds of stories that are passed down over time, often turn out to be mistaken (with the house actually being a model from a different kit company, or simply resembling a model offered by Sears). I saw a recent article in The Star Ledger about Sears Homes that mentioned your blog. While financing through Sears helped many homeowners purchase homes, many of those purchasers defaulted during the ensuing Great Depression. 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. The house forms part of the farmstead at the museum.[40]. of "Where are the Sears Houses?" Lara Solonickne, who writes the blog. Images are available Sales slowly recovered as the United States emerged from the Great Depression until 1940. Despite being prefab, they got more character than the endless sea of suburban eyesores we got out there now. 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. I think that we had only a handful of houses already on the list a few. 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. Posted by ; fort lincoln cemetery obituaries; Sales peaked in 1929, just before the Great Depression. So, I've added an asterisk next to the addresses of these possible No. Shipped by railroad boxcar, and then usually trucked to a home site, the average Sears Modern Home kit had about 25 tons of materials, with more than 30,000 parts. ", "How to Properly Identify a Sears Magnolia", "Have You Seen This Kit Schoolhouse? 172/ Hazelton, at 810 W 11th Street, La Porte, Indiana. Some of the models are easier to identify visually and their counts may be disproportionately high. And it led me to dig a little deeper into the history of my community.. 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. A number of those homes are featured on the organizations website. According to a review written by Mary Ann O'Boyle of Takoma Park, Maryland, her Sears home feels "unabashedly American, the kind of house you see in movies about the good old days" and "allows me to connect with the past". city or state, or to find someone who owns the same model as you. of "Where are the Sears Houses?" There are two examples of this model, in La Porte. Welcome to the New NSCAA. 199 models here in La Porte, are somewhat tweaked in their design, but we still do think that they are examples of that model. Originally marketed as the. You can contact Rose through her Facebook group, "Sears Kit Homes" or email: Magnolia2047@gmail.com. Damn, it was like. ", "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. In real life, with its two full stories, the whole house is a much taller house than the Rossville/171 or the Greenview/115. Sears Modern Homes are something we totally need to bring back from the past for this. The larger Victorian-style houses that were already there and scant in number were out of reach for working class first-time home buyers. 181, Sears No. While Sears no longer has records of where each of the nearly 75,000 mail-order homes it sold were built, it does main an extensive archive of the models that were available as well as the history of its Modern Homes division. easier. 506 W 11th Street, La Porte, Indiana probable Sears No. I thought it was very interesting when I learned that you could also buy a house from their catalogs.. We also find street names that have changed (without our knowing that), or, especially for folks who bought their house in 1930-32 (the waning years of the mortgage program), we find that folks lost their homes during the depression, so we can't pin them down using the 1930 or 1940 census records. From that, we have to try to connect all of that to an existing street address. 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. . website, which was published from Oct 2013 to Nov 2014. some ch Don't miss this never before seen catalog from Sears. There was one snippet in the press release that only a couple newspapers reprinted: "Following twelve years of usefulness, one old design was removed from the home catalogue in 1928, as antiquated after having been constructed more than 1700 times, which probably constitutes the world's record for any construction duplication from a single house plan, he [Betcone] says.". Precut lumber was cut to the appropriate lengths and angles based on where the framing timber would be used in the house. No built examples have been found of some of the least popular models. 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). Sears Magnolia was also known as Model #2089. 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. 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. Sears Modern Homes were kit homes and the framing members were stamped with a letter and a number to help facilitate construction. There havent been any major structural changes, she said. Weve got so much fucking housing just sitting there that NO ONE should be condemned to homelessness. [4] Other homeowners relied on local carpenters or contractors to assemble the houses. 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. I'm sure it was Matthew who cleared up for me that the No. within a fe A very special, authenticated Aladdin home just hit the market in Takoma Not all Sears houses became private residences. Ohio, Michigan, and Illinois in particular are your best bet for finding Sears homes although Newark, New Jersey apparently still has a couple. It is unknown whether any were purchased or built. 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). Many of the smaller models are regularly torn down. How Many Sears Houses Are Still Out There? 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. Our research team especially loves searching Pennsylvania for Sears houses because there are so many there, Chabot said. Those are ridiculously difficult to pin down. Were most Sears Houses built by the owners? 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. While the vast majority of models were for single-family house designs, Sears offered some duplex house designs and even a few larger multiple-family buildings. [35] Another homeowner, Erskine Hogue Stanberry, states that his Saratoga model was the "first house in Chelsea to have electric lights" and that they "are using the original plumbing and wiring".[35]. 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. On another block of W 11th Street, there is an example of the Sears Modern Home No. I just loved the look of it, she said. They came in all sizes and price points before buying a ready-made house or building kit of your choosing became relegated to the tiny house movement if you dont have the resources to buy a plot of land and build from there. Sadly, surviving Argyles do tend to be heavily altered there are probably lots more hiding in plain sight. 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. If you have any authenticating source for us, we'd love to hear about it (you can email me directly at SearsHouseSeeker@gmail.com). 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. 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. Architecturally, I'm really surprised by the two versions of the Cedars floor plan -- they are completely different, though only two feet were added to make the larger one. 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. Like this page to learn about homes purchased as kits through mail order catalogs. Some models were offered in both wood siding and brick veneer versions with different names attributed to the same or almost identical home plan. Buyers could hire a contractor to assemble their home or build it themselves following the detailed instructions that were included. Your comment will appear after it has been previewed and approved by the blog author. 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. You roughed it until you found a new place and if you wanted a FOREVER home, you stayed put until it was done being built. 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. [6] Plumbing, electrical fixtures, and heating systems were options that could be ordered at additional cost; they were many families' first steps to modern HVAC systems, kitchens, and bathrooms. Sears licensed the plans for the Argyle from a. real estate builder/developer named Jud Yoho. Thank you for visiting! This phrase is trademarked and cannot be used without permission of Ricky Bobby, Inc. You usually just left with the clothes on your back and a few trunks, and that was it. But it was a different story when Sears began selling house building kits in 1908. If your house was built between 1908-1940, theres a chance it might be an original Sears house. A Newport Beach home remains dangerously close to tumbling down a cliffside after the ground underneath gave way on Friday morning. 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. As only a small percentage of these homes were documented when built, finding these houses today often requires detailed research to properly identify them. During the later era of pre-cut houses, we don't usually put homes on our list, if they have these kinds of design differences. Lara and Cindy were joined by Andrew Mutch, who is based out of his own Sears house, in Novi, Michigan. The builder was W.L. 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. 168 / Matoka: I am really (really!) hennessy privilege limited edition / what is mc hammer doing now 2020 / national database of sears homes. She said she also didnt know it was a mail-order house when she bought it 14 years ago. Some builders and companies purchased houses directly from Sears to build as model homes, speculative homes, or homes for customers or employees. [13] Only seven Magnolias are known to be still standing. A kick-off celebration was held March 3, 2023, for the newly renamed BMO Stadium. The original "Sears Modern Homes" community page on Facebook, for those interested in Sears homes. In areas where the land is already mostly developed and zoned, its not that simple. Boxabl is selling shipping container homes for about $50,000 a pop and Amazon is also selling prefab tiny houses at a variety of sizes and price points. Other companies such as Aladdin sold mail-order homes, but thats all they sold, Chabot said. 159 examples that have a closed pediment in the gable (and a porch style difference). That's what happens sub 2:15 half marathon training plan; national database of sears homes. 1232, later marketed as the No. 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. Excuse me while I openly weep thinking about how many vacation cottages today probably cost the same or even more than house houses in many parts of the country. 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. Some Home Club homes have deeds from the "Port Newark Lumber and Material Company". 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. Let's take a look at a comparison of that side, for these two models: Also, the front view shows us how the front porch roof connects to the house differently, across these two models. Walker O. Lewis (primarily before early 1930), William C. Reed (primarily from 1922 - 1929), Nicholas Wieland (sometimes spelled Weiland), Shipping labels: Often found on the back of. 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. Call me a cynic, but I often wonder why kit houses were not stolen. 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. Really, they couldn't find any space in there for the Modern Homes records? 110 (, 1524 2nd Street, La Porte, Indiana earliest version of the Sears No. Today, those marks can help prove that you have a kit home. 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. But the houses don't match any of the designs that Sears sold in their catalogs. Action in the Community Through Service Homeless Shelter. Related: Floating Chairs and Texas McMansions | McMansions vs Really Big Houses | Strange Mansion in Carmel, Indiana | What is a Mansion. 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. But at the time, there was a housing boom taking place as people wanted to escape the crowds and disease of the cities. 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. Precut framing timbers, an innovation pioneered by Aladdin, were first offered by Sears in 1916. We certainly imagine that the houses have been retro-fitted with one, at this point. some ch Don't miss this never before seen catalog from Sears. presentation, nows your chance! 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. However, these stamps were not used on lumber shipped before 1916, when Sears first started offering pre-cut lumber. 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. "The Sears Homes of Illinois" has more than 200 color photos of the most popular designs that Sears offered and can be very helpful in identifying Sears Homes. 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. 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. That's why we love seeking them out! Would you mind messaging me with an address, so that we can add your Sears house to our (private) national database? The kit was greatly modified by Lane's ambitious designs. 159. 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.