We saw that on numerous Rossville/No. Ive visited New Orleans several times and love the style of the buildings there. We have not surveyed all areas of the country equally. 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. It was just recently sold again earlier this year. 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. As only a small percentage of these homes were documented when built, finding these houses today often requires detailed research to properly identify them. Sears would be listed as the architect, and because they often gave out mortgages, you can find out if the previous owner(s) had a Sears mortgage or not. In real life, with its two full stories, the whole house is a much taller house than the Rossville/171 or the Greenview/115. [34], Like the Standard Addition in Carlinville, neighborhoods of Sears houses still hold a sense of identity and community. Powered by, This September 2017 article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, this short video story by the Washington Post. 171 often has a full front porch that ends up extending all the way to the left side of the house. How did Sears Modern Homes come to be? 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. Sears discontinued its Modern Homes catalog after 1940, though sales through local sales offices continued into 1942. Andrew spotted these two houses right next to each other, on W 11th Street: a No. This Sears mail-order house named The Crescent was built in Munhall in 1920, according to owner Molly Harbst. 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". Please contact me if you would like a free Marie gives the perfect explanation of our Sears House hunt, in this. To see a variety of models similar to the Mitchell, that were offered during the kit-house era, see this article. Pre-cut lumber reduced construction time by up to 40%, according to Sears. , something that piqued my interest was the idea that you could buy literal houses from the catalog. As its mail-order catalogs were already sent to millions of homes, Sears had a distinct advantage over other kit-home competitors. That's why we love seeking them out! Without facts and sales records, we can make an educated guess. Balloon frames could be built faster and generally only required one carpenter. So this blog has been radio silent for a while now! This is what these two models look like, in the catalogs (these are from the 1911/1912 catalog): Up until this point, we weren't really sure what the difference was between these two models. In the story, homeowner Alicia Dallago said she had no idea the home she bought in 1998 was built from a kit. This is the case for the southern New Jersey counties that are suburbs of Philadelphia. TribLIVE's Daily and Weekly email newsletters deliver the news you want and information you need, right to your inbox. 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. 306 Highland, Madison, WI. If your house was built between 1908-1940, theres a chance it might be an original Sears house. national database of sears homes42 ft gibson houseboat. Your comment will appear after it has been previewed and approved by the blog author. The Sears Argyle was a small house, about 1,000 square feet, and many of them have been demolished. Fast forward to this past summer --early August of 2022. 4120 Adams St., Gary, IN. 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. But the houses don't match any of the designs that Sears sold in their catalogs. Not all Sears houses were mortgaged through Sears, but many were, so it's a great help for us to be able to access those records. "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. Our national database of Sears houses in the U.S., is constantly growing, with over 13,600 homes currently listed. Before 1916, the home builder had to cut their Sears-supplied lumber to appropriate lengths. According to the US Census, there were about 88.7 million people living in the United States. 920 North Madison Avenue, Anderson, Indiana Asking: $379,900 Sears Roebuck Model: Elmhurst Year Built: 1932 Listing Agent: Julie Armington Listing Brokerage: F.C. Our home also resembles the Bedford Model # P3249, 1926 (this was not in your listings). national database of sears homes. . The nine easy signs follow: 1) Look for stamped lumber in the basement or attic. I have seen articles throughout the years about Sears homes in the Pittsburgh area, she wrote after reading the Trib story. I learn all kinds of interesting stuff here; thanks! This is the Lakeview area where we found most of the examples of the 115, 171, and 159, as well as a number of examples of the No. Ohio, Michigan, and Illinois in particular are your best bet for finding Sears homes although Newark, New Jersey apparently still has a couple. There is some debate about whether some homes from Sears that were built in 1941 and 1942 qualify as Sears Modern Homes. Looking at the sorry state of Americas rail infrastructure today, this also makes me weep although today theyd just be delivered via truck. 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. Park, MD. 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. 159 examples that have a closed pediment in the gable (and a porch style difference). But articles are so scattered by time, date and location that it is difficult to realize the scope and number of Sears homes here in the Pittsburgh area.. HBM (. Also, homes in southern Ohio may have financing documents through the "Norwood Sash and Door Company" of Norwood, Ohio. Sadly, surviving Argyles do tend to be heavily altered there are probably lots more hiding in plain sight. Photo from Lake County Assessor. They kept up with it, of course, but it sure has good bones. homes for rent in laplace 70068. national database of sears homes. However, these stamps were not used on lumber shipped before 1916, when Sears first started offering pre-cut lumber. 126 and a Sears No. 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. 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. Instead, shipping labels were affixed to the backside of trim that identified properties. This Sears mail-order kit home in McCandless is owned by Normajean Moser. 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. 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. national database of sears homescalgary police organizational chart. Early on, we were joined by Sarah Mullane, who lives in North Tonawanda, New York. 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. So, I've added an asterisk next to the addresses of these possible No. 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. within a fe A very special, authenticated Aladdin home just hit the market in Takoma 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. small-town America, 1920! Either way, these houses offered variety and quality even if they werent necessarily innovative. 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. small-town America even into the 1940 census). Those kinds of topics are cleared up, in this blog post: When I chatted with Kevin Riordan, I also sent him a list of several nice Sears houses that he could consider photographing for his article in the Philadelphia Inquirer. : Ohio is the state with the largest number, Pennsylvania is the third- highest-ranking state, Prince George's County, MD & Montgomery County, MD. national database of sears homes. Sarah is especially interested in searching the kit homes of Western New York State, and has found us some beautiful Sears houses, but she is especially revered by all of us for her extensive knowledge of kits from the Ray H. Bennett kit homes company, which was based out of North Tonawanda. Historic house: Built in 1911, this Sears home sits on a large, corner lot in a historic district, surrounded by antebellum homes. While these features werent in every single Sears home, they still set the stage for home builders to realize what people wanted in their new digs because of how much their quality of life was improved. Whatever Happened to Those Mail-Order Houses From the Sears Catalog? 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. I'm sure it was Matthew who cleared up for me that the No. Sears Modern Homes were sold between 1908 and 1942. New York state is 4th, with 1,679 houses found. I think that maybe Google maps Streetview wasn't great quality on many of the streets. I don't know the model, but it was a 2 story - 6 room house - 3 bedrooms, 1 bath, living room, dining room, and very small galley type kitchen. I think that one of our researchers, Lara Solonickne. The suburbs of Philadelphia are not the only places where we find Sears houses, by the way. Its not like nowadays where you move, wait for your stuff to arrive, and if youre a. like me, youre pretty much unable to work while you wait for a technician to ensure you have Internet access. How do we know another house didn't outsell the Argyle after 1931? True to the companys roots in selling to rural Midwesterners, they even had a catalog for farmhouses, barns, and other barn buildings. 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). The HMS data portal is a collection of models, simulations and synthetic observations of the Sun. that was $886 in 1940 dollars, about $16,000 today. Some of the most popular models were:[12], The largest and one of the most expensive Sears models was the Magnolia. 1232 click. easier. 168/Matoka, 301 Weller Avenue, La Porte, Indiana probable Sears Modern Home No. Thanks! Not all Sears houses became private residences. Sears Modern Homes offered more than 370 designs in a wide range of architectural styles and sizes over the line's 34-year history. From 1931-1942 Sears sold about 5,000 houses altogether. Chabot notes that Sears mail-order homes sold before 1916 did not use precut lumber that was stamped with numbers to guide construction. 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. Tucker/Crossroads Designs may have been modified but generally should match in layout and dimensions. Thanks for giving me a new appreciation for the Argyle! Its as sturdy as a house as Ive ever seen. 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. 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. Carrying on with Same Name, Different House topic we find that some of the So, I'll just post a nice selection here. That's what happens Browse the list below to see if there are Modern Homes in your city or state, or to find someone who owns the same model as you. Here is the catalog image, from the 1911/12 catalog: And here are two examples in La Porte. Precut lumber was cut to the appropriate lengths and angles based on where the framing timber would be used in the house. It looks almost like a Sears, And, finally, we have this pretty rare model, the Sears. So this blog has been radio silent for a while now! PDF See the video of my interview on the St. Louis Business Journal's website. houses that share a name also share either a number, a floor plan or had We could make the assumption that the model we have located the most was, in fact, the top seller. , in addition to Aladdin and Montgomery Ward homes. Related: Floating Chairs and Texas McMansions | McMansions vs Really Big Houses | Strange Mansion in Carmel, Indiana | What is a Mansion. One Magnolia built in Lincoln, Nebraska, was demolished in 1985. 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). Shipping label image from my mother's family's 1911 Sears No. 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. 506 W 11th Street, La Porte, Indiana probable Sears No. Local building requirements sometimes dictated that certain elements of the house construction be done professionally and varied depending on where the house was constructed. Her parents did not care much for the house and eventually moved back into their original farmhouse. Among those chiming in about the article was Judith Chabot of St. Louis, Mo., who runs SearsHouseSeekers.com, which serves as a depository for information gathered by Sears home enthusiasts across the country. 175, 1911/12 catalog image for the Sears Modern Home No. Lets find out! 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. I grew up in a Sears house located in Keyport NJ. 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. Documented Sears houses have been found across the United States and in a few locations in Canada. 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. 159 has two full stories on that non-porch side of the house. See that curled element at the hinge edge? Prefab homes arent exactly an exotic concept nowadays. In it, they included excerpts from an interview with David S. Betcone, who was the chief architect for Sears at the time. A number of those homes are featured on the organizations website. It's likely that other Sears models can be traced to him as well. Another old model found predominantly in that Lakeview area, was the. If you have any information on a Sears house or a style that is not identified, please notify the Preservation Commission. Sears Modern Homes offered more than 370 designs in a wide range of architectural styles and sizes over the line's 34-year history. Depending on where you live, the thought of just building a small or medium sized house can sound totally bizarre or perhaps totally doable if youve got miles and miles of wide open space to work with. ", "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? Simply put, life was rougher. 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. Damn, it was like Stardew Valley! 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. Following is a list of Sears Homes enthusiasts who have agreed
Square . Sears Modern Homes were kit homes and the framing members were stamped with a letter and a number to help facilitate construction. I know of several other models in McCandless. Price: $179,900. But David Betcone told us what model was in first place as of 1931. Dover, Chateau, and Lexington models are particularly plentiful there! Ruth's Beauty Parlor: A Sears No. More than 100 years of stories, product and brand histories, photographs, catalog images and more are now available online. The mortgage program was also a PR disaster, as many of the families Sears foreclosed upon refused to do further business with the company. 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. Whitehouse. 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. 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. presentation, nows your chance! Harbst said many of the original features in her home are intact and the exterior remains mostly unchanged. Images are available Molly Harbst of Munhall sent along photos of her beautifully preserved Sears homes a 1920 model called The Crescent after reading the article. Run by experienced researcher Cindy Catanzaro (with a little help from yours truly). More information, in this blog post of mine, documented through historic mortgage research, by Andrew Mutch, Philadelphia Inquirer article by Kevin Riordan, 418 Woodlawn Ave, Collingswood, NJ 08108, USA, 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. The Sears Argyle was named after Argyle Street in Chicago. We just can't say, because we can't access those records. "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. In late 1930, sales of Searshomes were starting to tank. Did materials and labor really get that much more expensive between now and then? If any of you have ever been interested in coming to see me do a kit home Open to the public. For more information on who we are, and what we do, visit our website: All photos in these blog posts are the property of the author of this blog- link to this blog. These pre-1916 houses are generally considered "catalog houses", not "kit houses". We've found examples from the Wardway, Gordon-Van Tine, Harris Homes, and Ray H. Bennett companies. If you don't know what that means, look at these two examples, and note where the orange arrow points that little extra strip of roofing that makes a sort of closed triangle. By Posted on Mar 10, 2021. national database of sears homes. 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. Lara was joined by researcher Cindy Catanzaro, who researches especially in Ohio, and writes the blog. 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 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). The house forms part of the farmstead at the museum.[40]. Click here. 264B155. 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. Simple theme. I-79 restrictions begin Wednesday night in Allegheny County, West Deer firefighters respond to bedroom fire, heavy smoke at Poplar Street home, Man shot dead in McKeesport the 4th slaying this week and 5th in a month, Medical examiner IDs man killed in McKeesport shooting, Report on Allegheny County Jail deaths finds no 'trends or common factors' that led to them, Historic Hempfield cemetery seeks volunteers, donors to help care for grounds, 2nd annual 'Restaurant Ramble' features 10 downtown New Kensington eateries, Tom Sizemore, Saving Private Ryan actor, dies after brain aneurysm, TV Talk: Mel Brooks History of the World, Part II belatedly arrives on Hulu, Western Pennsylvania's trusted news source, story about a 1922 Sears mail-order home in McCandless, number of those homes are featured on the organizations website.