national database of sears homes national database of sears homes

Charleston, West Virginia is a hotspot for Sears model homes, in addition to Aladdin and Montgomery Ward homes. 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. But David Betcone told us what model was in first place as of 1931. See that curled element at the hinge edge? Where Are The Rest Of The Sears Houses In The U.S.? Homes built after 1916 can be identified as Sears kit homes by numbers stamped on the timbers. 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. This one, too, looks pretty much like just a taller version of the Greenview/115 and the Rossville/171, from the front and porch side of the house so, it was another mystery, as to what to look for on the other side of the house. Weve got so much fucking housing just sitting there that NO ONE should be condemned to homelessness. Thanks! The builder was W.L. Stamped lumber: Most easily found in unfinished spaces like a basement or attic, framing members were stamped with a letter and a number. Please contact me if you would like a free national database of sears homes. But what if you want something bigger than a tiny house, but not as gargantuan as the average American single family home? Also, homes in southern Ohio may have financing documents through the "Norwood Sash and Door Company" of Norwood, Ohio. We cannot be absolutely certain, but the numbers do not support it. 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. We thought it might be of interest to those readers to point out some more of the history of Sears houses in the greater Pittsburgh area, said Chabot, whose family still owns a Sears Silverdale model home in Northampton, Mass., that was built by her great-grandparents in 1911. But, as of this date in 2021, here are leading areas in the U.S. with high numbers of Sears houses. The mortgage program was also a PR disaster, as many of the families Sears foreclosed upon refused to do further business with the company. 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. We just can't say, because we can't access those records. houses that share a name also share either a number, a floor plan or had Measuring in at a roomy 3,500 square feet, the . Search crews have rescued Californians stranded for days in multiple feet of snow after back-to-back storms plastered the state's mountain communities and trapped many in their homes. Because the Modern Homes division sales records were destroyed, there is no way to definitively verify the number of Sears houses that still exist. 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. The house was in original condition and was never modified while we lived there - it was sold in 2003 or early 2004. [34], Like the Standard Addition in Carlinville, neighborhoods of Sears houses still hold a sense of identity and community. Rosemary Thornton Sears Modern Homes were catalog and kit houses sold primarily through mail order by Sears, Roebuck and Co., an American retailer. If you are a Historical Society interested in awarding plaques for specific homes understood to be Sears houses, please feel free to contact us to verify for you that the house does match a model offered in the Sears Modern Homes catalogs. It was built in 1917. However, these stamps were not used on lumber shipped before 1916, when Sears first started offering pre-cut lumber. You usually just left with the clothes on your back and a few trunks, and that was it. 1916 Sears Roebuck Modern Homes. Many of the smaller models are regularly torn down. As some areas begin to see population booms, such as the tech triangle region of Raleigh, Durham, and Cary as more companies and tech talent make exodus from California and New York based on what I hear from taxi drivers and my university contacts in the region at games conferences every year? Some of these homes were based on models offered in the Sears Modern Homes catalog. Referred to as a gable-front-and-wing, it was a national folk style that owed much of its heritage to the earlier Greek Revival style. But at the time, there was a housing boom taking place as people wanted to escape the crowds and disease of the cities. 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. The larger Victorian-style houses that were already there and scant in number were out of reach for working class first-time home buyers. Harbst said many of the original features in her home are intact and the exterior remains mostly unchanged. small-town America, 1920! Search. Original paperwork for the house including blueprints and letters of correspondence from Sears. We have not surveyed all areas of the country equally. 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. The American Lumberman article referred to this area where the houses were being built, as the Fairview neighborhood. You can contact Rose through her Facebook group, "Sears Kit Homes" or email: Magnolia2047@gmail.com. How Many Sears Houses Are Still Out There? The bulk order is the largest known order for Sears Modern Homes and led to Sears, Roebuck naming their "Carlin" model after the city. Others were not but were still pre-cut kit homes built from plans and materials from Sears. 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). *Sears Americus - Temple, PA*It's been about 3 months since the last update 110 (, 1524 2nd Street, La Porte, Indiana earliest version of the Sears No. The first mail order for a Sears house was filled that year. excited about this find and I really hope it is one: a Sears No. 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. 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. 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. Historic house: Built in 1911, this Sears home sits on a large, corner lot in a historic district, surrounded by antebellum homes. to you on Flickr or Pinterest. national database of sears homes. Modest half-timbering in the gables, exposed rafters, knee braces, and gable-end ridge finials combine to create an optimistic facade. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Sometimes the legal description is nice and straightforward, like, "lot 15, block C, Tanglewood Estates, in the town of Dunham". 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. PDF See the video of my interview on the St. Louis Business Journal's website. 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. This phrase is trademarked and cannot be used without permission of Ricky Bobby, Inc. 920 North Madison Avenue, Anderson, Indiana Asking: $379,900 Sears Roebuck Model: Elmhurst Year Built: 1932 Listing Agent: Julie Armington Listing Brokerage: F.C. I saw a recent article in The Star Ledger about Sears Homes that mentioned your blog. As its mail-order catalogs were already sent to millions of homes, Sears had a distinct advantage over other kit-home competitors. 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). But it was a different story when Sears began selling house building kits in 1908. 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. 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. Parts for the homes, which were sold between 1908 and 1940, were delivered to the nearest rail station. 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. Here is one at 17 Hill Street, Villa Park. 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 . We've found examples from the Wardway, Gordon-Van Tine, Harris Homes, and Ray H. Bennett companies. 1. Enjoy! It wasnt until she was in her 20s that Chabot learned about the homes history. PDF See the video of my interview on the St. Louis Business Journal's website. Chabot said while Sears wasnt the first or only company to sell mail-order homes, they were unique among the competition. Asbury Methodist Village Communications Dept. 172, later marketed as the. Because the various kit home companies often copied plan elements or designs from each other, there are a number of catalog and kit models from different manufacturers that look similar or identical to models offered by Sears. Sales peaked in 1929, just before the Great Depression. Because lets get real: those adorable and affordable ranchers were only for CERTAIN veterans and their families. Those are ridiculously difficult to pin down. Our home also resembles the Bedford Model # P3249, 1926 (this was not in your listings). This Sears mail-order house named The Crescent was built in Munhall in 1920, according to owner Molly Harbst. In real life, with its two full stories, the whole house is a much taller house than the Rossville/171 or the Greenview/115. Lara was joined by researcher Cindy Catanzaro, who researches especially in Ohio, and writes the blog. Thank you for visiting! 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. BMO, LAFC, and Angel City FC leaders were joined by special guests Earvin "Magic" Johnson and Mia Hamm for the . 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. But what if you want something bigger than a tiny house, but not as gargantuan as the average American single family home? Would you mind messaging me with an address, so that we can add your Sears house to our (private) national database? This is a complete list of Sears houses in Aurora (and two in Montgomery that were originally in Aurora). 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). Simply put, life was rougher. 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. She said she also didnt know it was a mail-order house when she bought it 14 years ago. Our list, in fact, began with 345 Sears houses that Mrs. Lask had found in the Cincinnati area, as part of a Masters Degree thesis project at the University of Cincinnati. 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. to share their names with others who might be interested in It even halted sales of houses themselves for a short time before restarting sales. We could make the assumption that the model we have located the most was, in fact, the top seller. 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. We have three on our list in Glenside -- one on Cedar, one on Tyson, and one on Edge Hill Rd. Sales slowly recovered as the United States emerged from the Great Depression until 1940. Tailor the data to your community to help preserve your local assets or explore national data to better understand the need for affordable housing and the dynamics of the publicly supported housing market. 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. Between 1908 and 1940, Sears Roebuck and Co. published specialty catalogs offering house plans and building materials. Kmart History | Search Archives | Sears Holdings Alumni | sears.com | kmart.com : Thursday, Mar. 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". . In some cases, Sears provided construction services to assemble the homes. 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. [5] The method was originally named in the sense that the structure was light and could be lifted away like a balloon. Capture from Google Streetview. 1232 click. 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 Posted by ; fort lincoln cemetery obituaries; 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. 159 has two full stories on that non-porch side of the house. Thats cheaper than many tiny houses and with space to actually breathe and have more than one person live with you without wanting to kill each other. I don't feel comfortable making that assumption. Tony LaRussa is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Run by experienced researcher Cindy Catanzaro (with a little help from yours truly). [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]. Betcone spoke of how housing styles were drastically changing and how many customers wanted more efficient, streamlined designs. 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. 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. Advertisements for Sears Modern Homes appeared through May 1942. These stamps are normally located on or near the ends of pieces of framing timber. 2023 Trib Total Media | All Rights Reserved. Welcome to Sears Homes! 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. Shipping label image from my mother's family's 1911 Sears No. homes for rent in laplace 70068. national database of sears homes. 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. Hi, Lauren! Following is a list of Sears Homes enthusiasts who have agreed 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. Here is one of the eleven examples in La Porte: This early version of the No. Lets find out! The kit was greatly modified by Lane's ambitious designs. Sears houses could also be ordered with reversed floor plans. website, which was published from Oct 2013 to Nov 2014. Documented Sears houses have been found across the United States and in a few locations in Canada. While financing through Sears helped many homeowners purchase homes, many of those purchasers defaulted during the ensuing Great Depression. 4120 Adams St., Gary, IN. A kick-off celebration was held March 3, 2023, for the newly renamed BMO Stadium. [18] National and regional competitors in the catalog and kit home market included Aladdin, Bennett, Gordon-Van Tine, Harris Brothers, Lewis, Pacific Ready Cut Homes, Sterling and Montgomery Ward (Wardway) Homes. However, in La Porte, we've also found five examples* of houses that look like a great match for the No. 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, models were probably the great-grandaddy of the modern McMansion, with the, model being its odd little cousin that sits in the potato salad at the family reunion, what with the odd arrangement of, True to the companys roots in selling to rural Midwesterners, they even had a catalog for farmhouses, barns, and other barn buildings. So Betcone gave us a huge clue as to what the top seller for Sears was. 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. Sears is estimated to have sold about 70,000 of their home building kits from 1908-1940 and its currently estimated that about 70% of the original Sears homes built from kits are still standing today. 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.