Whitehouse. The wild pursuit began with an a When the tiny house movement took off, many builders started offering everything from ready-made prehab homes to foundations and blueprints. to you on Flickr or Pinterest. As sales grew, Sears expanded its production, shipping, and sales offices to locations across the U.S. To provide the materials needed for the Modern Homes division, Sears operated a lumber mill in Cairo, Illinois. A kick-off celebration was held March 3, 2023, for the newly renamed BMO Stadium. While financing through Sears helped many homeowners purchase homes, many of those purchasers defaulted during the ensuing Great Depression. Rosemary Thornton Sears Modern Homes Construction of the houses took nine months which were completed in 1919. 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. Home Whatever Happened to Those Mail-Order Houses From the Sears Catalog? that was $886 in 1940 dollars, about $16,000 today. You'll also notice that the No. Sales peaked in 1929, just before the Great Depression. Without complete sales records, we cannot say definitively that the Sears Argyle was the top seller. 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. 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. Argyles also have a tendency to hide. 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. national database of sears homes - onehundredeggs.com Telephone 847-697-4551. www.kithouse.org. excited about this find and I really hope it is one: a Sears No. In addition to home building costs being up to 40% lower than traditional building, you also had the option to bring your own blueprints to Sears to get them modified for far less than itd comparatively cost to go to a builder or architect today. House was moved to Carbondale, CO in about 1972, Still trying to find more info.. *Sears Americus - Temple, PA*It's been about 3 months since the last update From that, we have to try to connect all of that to an existing street address. 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. Another old model found predominantly in that Lakeview area, was the. In fact, the No. Or, perhaps we have background information about it to share with you!Judith. In the companys own words, Sears didnt really innovate home building. Stevenson, Katherine Cole, and Jandl, H. Ward, (1995), Davis, Michael W.R. and Schweitzer, Robert (1990), This page was last edited on 4 March 2023, at 21:18. Sears Is Crumbling, but These 9 Sears Catalog Homes Stand Tall The iron strapping itself can be strait or curved, but the curlicue is always there, if it's iron strapping from Sears. Price: $179,900. The suburbs of Philadelphia are not the only places where we find Sears houses, by the way. I have seen articles throughout the years about Sears homes in the Pittsburgh area, she wrote after reading the Trib story. 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. Images are available According to the US Census, there were about 88.7 million people living in the United States. 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. Its kind of exciting to learn that your home is unique because of the way it was bought and constructed, she said. Related: Floating Chairs and Texas McMansions | McMansions vs Really Big Houses | Strange Mansion in Carmel, Indiana | What is a Mansion. [34], Like the Standard Addition in Carlinville, neighborhoods of Sears houses still hold a sense of identity and community. If your house was built between 1908-1940, theres a chance it might be an original Sears house. We are a team of about 10 researchers who work together to hunt around the U.S. for Sears kit houses built during the era of the Sears Modern Homes program (1908-1942). easier. 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. Photo from Realtor site. 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. It was built in 1917. [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]. Researching Historic Kit and Plan Book Homes, We started looking around La Porte, Indiana, in 2015. Homes built after 1916 can be identified as Sears kit homes by numbers stamped on the timbers. I think that we had only a handful of houses already on the list a few. 168 (Matoka): Here is the catalog image of the No. It was just recently sold again earlier this year. 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! Hi, Lauren! Simply put, life was rougher. This picture came from an original set of Sears "Honor Bilt" blueprints. The rest of these models are singletons, from the mid 1920s to early 1930s. We have three on our list in Glenside -- one on Cedar, one on Tyson, and one on Edge Hill Rd. 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. 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. homes for rent in laplace 70068. national database of sears homes. 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 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. While the bathroom and kitchen of this 1920 Sears mail-order house in Munhall called The Crescent have been updated, most of the homes original features remain unchanged, said owner Molly Harbst, who learned it was among the first homes built in her Homestead Park neighborhood. It even halted sales of houses themselves for a short time before restarting sales. Researching Historic Kit and Plan Book Homes. 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. Remember when Sears sold houses? See some of Ann Arbor's kit homes - mlive The search for Sears Roebuck houses nationwide was launched in the mid-1970's when the, This was a case of unfortunate timing. 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. PDF See the video of my interview on the St. Louis Business Journal's website. Determining which company manufactured a particular catalog and kit home may require additional research to determine the origin of that home. Catarina is quite well informed about Sears houses in the D.C. area, but also has researched the origins of many of the Lewis Homes kit homes in the area. CNDDB Maps and Data. I considered putting a full chart here, but, honestly, we have found hundreds through searching the suburban PA counties outside of Philadelphia. 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. 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. 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. 175 (in 1913). 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. Ohio and Illinois are still leading, though, with 2700+ and 2300+, respectively. Click to visit. Identifying Sears Homes has become a pastime among history enthusiasts because of their sturdy structure, the do-it-yourself nature of construction, and the popular architectural design concepts. 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. 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. 168/Matoka, 301 Weller Avenue, La Porte, Indiana probable Sears Modern Home No. some ch Don't miss this never before seen catalog from Sears. Sears Homes 1908-1914 Ruth's Beauty Parlor: A Sears No. Here is the Uriel or Conway at 408 Bond Street. For this week's listing of the week, we decided to find seven charming Sears Catalog homes you can actually buy today. Sears Lewiston: A Sears Model Home in New Jersey - Sears House Seeker Dover, Chateau, and Lexington models are particularly plentiful there! Simply put, life was rougher. Chabot said while Sears wasnt the first or only company to sell mail-order homes, they were unique among the competition. [1] Sears Modern Homes were purchased primarily by customers in East Coast and Midwest states, but have been located as far south as Florida, as far west as California, and as far north as Alaska and Canada. Because the Modern Homes division sales records were destroyed, there is no way to definitively verify the number of Sears houses that still exist. Thanks to the Santa Clara Valley Chapter of the California Native Plant Society, the NRDB will continue to be updated and available at least through 2023, and in some form, beyond that. , 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. 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. some ch Don't miss this never before seen catalog from Sears. Its as sturdy as a house as Ive ever seen. Some models were offered with variations, the most common of those being expanded floor plans and additional finished living spaces. 920 North Madison Avenue, Anderson, Indiana Asking: $379,900 Sears Roebuck Model: Elmhurst Year Built: 1932 Listing Agent: Julie Armington Listing Brokerage: F.C. 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. Thanks to Ancestry.com, we are often able to get a street name from a census record, but we run into problems there, when we find a town that has no street names (yes! ", "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? 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. 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. 1. 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. While researching the property, Harbst learned it was among the first homes built in the boroughs Homestead Park neighborhood. 181, Sears No. Sears Modern Homes are something we totally need to bring back from the past for this. 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. Carrying on with Same Name, Different House topic we find that some of the 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. 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. 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. Capture from Google Streetview. 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. And, to top it off, Gordon-Van Tine has a model almost the same. Sears provided "capital and materials", on the condition that lots and foundations were already in place. Here is one at 17 Hill Street, Villa Park. Search. They had 447 different styles that ranged from simple and rustic to utterly decadent. national database of sears homes. Residential construction was drastically down nationwide due to the Great Depression. 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). 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. [5] Early balloon structures were very basic, to enable home buyers to assemble them independently and also because designers had yet to see the implications the method held.[5]. Were most Sears Houses built by the owners? Home - National Housing Preservation Database (NHPD) 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. Looks like Yoho probably bought plan #466 from H. L. Wilson, the actual designer. And Sears Modern Homes werent a monolith. Sears discontinued its Modern Homes catalog after 1940, though sales through local sales offices continued into 1942. 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. This Sears mail-order house named The Crescent was built in Munhall in 1920, according to owner Molly Harbst. Due to reviews by homeowners then and now, it would appear that Sears Modern Homes are just as appreciated now as they were then. sub 2:15 half marathon training plan; national database of sears homes. Our research would not be possible, without online resources for Sears Modern Homes catalogs, and the catalogs for other kit-house companies, such as Gordon-Van Tine, Wardway, Aladdin, Sterling, Lewis, and Bennett. In 1916, Sears began shipping pre-cut lumber in its mail-order kit homes that contained stamped numbers used to match pieces during construction. by . Some builders and companies purchased houses directly from Sears to build as model homes, speculative homes, or homes for customers or employees. Our national database of Sears houses in the U.S., is constantly growing, with over 13,600 homes currently listed. My uncle mentioned that he had found some shipping labels from Sears in the house and when we asked my grandmother about it, she said: Oh, yes, we ordered it from the Sears catalog, Chabot said. Our research team especially loves searching Pennsylvania for Sears houses because there are so many there, Chabot said. How do we know another house didn't outsell the Argyle after 1931? 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. There are two examples of this model, in La Porte. Some of the most popular models were:[12], The largest and one of the most expensive Sears models was the Magnolia. 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 think that maybe Google maps Streetview wasn't great quality on many of the streets. 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. 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. That's not shown anywhere for this model, so we can't say for sure if these are examples of the No. I don't feel comfortable making that assumption. Statewide, about 1,900 Sears catalog homes have been identified. Another gabled ell farmhouse that we found quite a few of in La Porte, is the No. If any of you have ever been interested in coming to see me do a kit home According to Betcone, the two models that were the top sellers for Sears in 1930 totaled just over 100 houses a year. Our home also resembles the Bedford Model # P3249, 1926 (this was not in your listings). People always seemed surprised to learn that Sears sold home kits. The Sears Argyle was named after Argyle Street in Chicago. 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. Philadelphia Inquirer: Sears Homes In the Philly Suburbs and Sears Lets find out! Thanks for giving me a new appreciation for the Argyle! of "Where are the Sears Houses?" built in New Jersey could look just like the same one ordered in Texas and built there, but it wasnt designed to look exactly like the other homes on the block. Thank you for visiting! 126 and a Sears No. 159 was available with either clipped gables or peak gables, for the roof. He published the design as #466 in his 1912 "Craftsman Bungalows" catalog. 06/16/2022 . Despite this large number, Sears houses are still, actually, rare, and only make up about 2% of the houses built in their era. According to the catalog image, both models have only a partial porch at the front of the house. 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. 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 . Wonderful, Malissa! Several Sears Modern Homes are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Betcone spoke of how housing styles were drastically changing and how many customers wanted more efficient, streamlined designs. Sears offered 370 models over the 32 years it sold houses by catalog. Because lets get real: those adorable and affordable ranchers were only for CERTAIN veterans and their families. Kushel is credited with suggesting to Richard Sears that the company assemble kits of all the parts needed and sell entire houses through mail order. 324 W Johnson Road Sears Jewel, Jewell, or Wilmore (depends on the year). I think that one of our researchers, Lara Solonickne. Open to the public. Here is the catalog image, from the 1911/12 catalog: And here are two examples in La Porte. A Gilded Mansion in Newport Beach, CA (Unreal), Fallen Titan that is Sears department stores. Carrying on with Same Name, Different House topic we find that some of the Teen hikers rescued after days stuck in California snowstorm Local building requirements sometimes dictated that certain elements of the house construction be done professionally and varied depending on where the house was constructed. If your house was built between 1908-1940, theres a chance it might be an original Sears house. 168 / Matoka: I am really (really!) As its mail-order catalogs were already sent to millions of homes, Sears had a distinct advantage over other kit-home competitors. Keep in mind, however, that even though we have found well over 200 Sears houses in the PA and NJ suburbs of Philadelphia, those are densely populated areas. "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. [8] By 1934, Sears had stopped offering mortgages. See that curled element at the hinge edge? 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. 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. Theres a whole checklist of signs to look for. 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. In the story, homeowner Alicia Dallago said she had no idea the home she bought in 1998 was built from a kit. 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. The first mail order for a Sears house was filled that year. [2] No comprehensive list of their locations exists.[3]. 181, and the early version of the. I think the reason the Sears house is so interesting is that most people associate them with the Wish Book catalog that came in the mail at Christmas. Data Portal - NASA If my house is not a kit, where did it come from? Buyers could hire a contractor to assemble their home or build it themselves following the detailed instructions that were included. 159 has two full stories on that non-porch side of the house. 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. 171 often has a full front porch that ends up extending all the way to the left side of the house. 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). On another block of W 11th Street, there is an example of the Sears Modern Home No. You usually just left with the clothes on your back and a few trunks, and that was it. Sears Modern Homes offered more than 370 designs in a wide range of architectural styles and sizes over the line's 34-year history. within a fe A very special, authenticated Aladdin home just hit the market in Takoma I grew up in a Sears house located in Keyport NJ. New York ranks fourth on the list with 1,679. of the original Sears homes built from kits are still standing today. 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. Sears Modern Homes - Wikipedia National Database: Sears Homes in the U.S. SHORT VIDEO: What It's Like to Live in a Sears Catalog Home, SHORT VIDEO: NBC Nightly News visits Andrew & Wendy Mutch, Sears No 137 In Mendham, New Jersey, Morris County. Because these homes were constructed using pre-cut lumber and plans provided by Sears, these homes can be considered to be "Sears Modern Homes". Designs may have been modified but generally should match in layout and dimensions. Sears houses can be identified or authenticated using the following methods. 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. Photo from Realtor site. But what if you want something bigger than a tiny house, but not as gargantuan as the average American single family home? In areas where the land is already mostly developed and zoned, its not that simple. BMO Celebrates Kickoff of the 2023 Soccer Season at 'BMO Stadium' in 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 I saw a recent article in The Star Ledger about Sears Homes that mentioned your blog. Here is one of the eleven examples in La Porte: This early version of the No. Weve got so much fucking housing just sitting there that NO ONE should be condemned to homelessness. Sales slowly recovered as the United States emerged from the Great Depression until 1940. The Sears Argyle was a small house, about 1,000 square feet, and many of them have been demolished. 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 most popular models appeared in the catalog for multiple years. contacting them by clicking on their name. All these years later it is still a fortress.. 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. when you switch jobs, buy a house, and go on an international trip, all
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