national database of sears homes

Beginning in 1916, the catalogs showed an additional floor plan that did have a bathroom: The rest of the examples of Sears houses in La Porte, that we have found to date, are one-off examples, so were probably individual purchases by the original homeowner, or a few spec houses by the realty company mentioned in the American Lumberman article. Sears houses can be identified or authenticated using the following methods. Sears Modern Homes are something we totally need to bring back from the past for this. It is unknown whether any were purchased or built. That's what happens But who knows, maybe well see tiny shipping container homes in a museum someday after we take back the rest of the real estate after the revolution. Would you mind messaging me with an address, so that we can add your Sears house to our (private) national database? Looks like Yoho probably bought plan #466 from H. L. Wilson, the actual designer. The house that would soon become the Argyle in one of Yoho's magazines, 1913. More than 100 years of stories, product and brand histories, photographs, catalog images and more are now available online. So this blog has been radio silent for a while now! In the story, homeowner Alicia Dallago said she had no idea the home she bought in 1998 was built from a kit. Many of the homes original features remain intact. 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. 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. How did Sears Modern Homes come to be? Because lets get real: affordable ranchers were only for CERTAIN veterans, 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. We found and listed about three houses, I think but didn't really focus on La Porte much more than that day in 2015. Photo from Lake County Assessor. Original paperwork for the house including blueprints and letters of correspondence from Sears. 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. [2] No comprehensive list of their locations exists.[3]. So, I've added an asterisk next to the addresses of these possible No. Their blueprints were based on what was popular at the time and while they werent the first or only company to do mail-order houses, theyre among the most memorable because you could buy damn near anything in their 500+ page catalogs. of "Where are the Sears Houses?" 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. 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. Chabot runs a national website dedicated to gathering and sharing information about Sears mail-order homes. city or state, or to find someone who owns the same model as you. He published the design as #466 in his 1912 "Craftsman Bungalows" catalog. Here is the Uriel or Conway at 408 Bond Street. The original "Sears Modern Homes" community page on Facebook, for those interested in Sears homes. I think that we had only a handful of houses already on the list a few. Local Sears house enthusiast Karen DeJeet, who owns a Hamilton model in Forest Hills and is a member of the Sears House Finder team, has already done much of the work identifying the mail-order homes still standing in the region. 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". 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. [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. Their blueprints were based on what was popular at the time and while they werent the first or only company to do mail-order houses, theyre among the most memorable because you could buy damn near anything in their 500+ page catalogs. 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). To see a variety of models similar to the Mitchell, that were offered during the kit-house era, see this article. 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. Im looking at this cute little Cape Cod that was $886 in 1940 dollars, about $16,000 today. Please contact me if you would like a free 3 in U.S. with, at today's count, 1,963 Sears homes. 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. Prefab homes arent exactly an exotic concept nowadays. 324 W Johnson Road Sears Jewel, Jewell, or Wilmore (depends on the year). In 1916, Sears began shipping pre-cut lumber in its mail-order kit homes that contained stamped numbers used to match pieces during construction. Lets find out! 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. The wild pursuit began with an a 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. I know of several other models in McCandless. the case of the Anstett family of Torrington, Connecticut. Once again true to the companys roots, youre more apt to find Sears catalog homes still standing in former factory towns of the Midwest. Because these homes were constructed using pre-cut lumber and plans provided by Sears, these homes can be considered to be "Sears Modern Homes". The houses, comprising eight models, were all built in a 12-block area known as the Standard Addition. small-town America even into the 1940 census). 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. Balloon frames could be built faster and generally only required one carpenter. . I have seen articles throughout the years about Sears homes in the Pittsburgh area, she wrote after reading the Trib story. 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. 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. I have the Farnum in New Brighton PA. 1929. 1232 click. 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. Argyles also tend to get messed up and hard to recognize like this one at 6818 N. Oriole, Chicago or this one at 1302 Edgewood, Lake Forest. houses that share a name also share either a number, a floor plan or had when you switch jobs, buy a house, and go on an international trip, all 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. Sears has opened the doors to its vast archival collection and invited the public to peek inside. Sears offered 370 models over the 32 years it sold houses by catalog. Several Sears Modern Homes are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Sears Modern Homes were sold between 1908 and 1942. website, which was published from Oct 2013 to Nov 2014. 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. People need move-in ready housing and they need it fast, whether single professionals are seeking apartments and luxury condos or families need affordable freestanding houses. within a fe A very special, authenticated Aladdin home just hit the market in Takoma 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. Many of the smaller models are regularly torn down. 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. Today, those marks can help prove that you have a kit home. Damn, it was like Stardew Valley! If any of you have ever been interested in coming to see me do a kit home In areas where the land is already mostly developed and zoned, its not that simple. Stamped lumber: Most easily found in unfinished spaces like a basement or attic, framing members were stamped with a letter and a number. Interested in hearing about Rose's near-death experience? Chabot focuses her research on scouring mortgages and deed records, old newspaper articles and other sources to identify kit homes sold by Sears. The nine easy signs follow: 1) Look for stamped lumber in the basement or attic. 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. Goodwall sheet plaster was an early drywall-like product offered by Sears and may be an indication of a Sears Modern Home. You'll also notice that the No. 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. Simply put, life was rougher. Wonderful, Malissa! 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. 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. 506 W 11th Street, La Porte, Indiana probable Sears No. They raised four kids in that house, Steel wrote. Its kind of exciting to learn that your home is unique because of the way it was bought and constructed, she said. Honor Bilt homes used the best quality materials that Sears could source and they were designed with what was then state of the art heating, plumbing, and electricity. The new owner was a Sears House fan - even produced a short doc film about the house and how she updated it. 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.. Ruth's Beauty Parlor: A Sears No. 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. In a second blog post, I'll show the several probable kit houses that we've found in LaPorte, Indiana, from other companies. It's highly improbable that any model could hit the 1,700 mark. Historic Homes Images of Sears Homes Click on the associated link for a collection of images and photographs of almost all 447 house designs sold through the Sears Modern Homes program. Sold for 12 years and discontinued in 1928. Looking at the sorry state of Americas rail infrastructure today, this also makes me weep although today theyd just be delivered via truck. | Sears Modern Homes", "Sears Houses in Arlington Virginia: A Comprehensive List", "How Sears built an entire local neighborhood", "Historic Structures Crystal Lake Historical Society", "Sears Houses in Elgin Illinois arranged according to model name", "Philadelphia Inquirer: Sears Homes in the Philly Suburbs and Sears House Hunters", "Where are the rest of the Sears houses in the U.S.? I now live in St. Louis, Missouri, and am sometimes asked if there are any Sears houses here. 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. 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. Another old model found predominantly in that Lakeview area, was the. Molly Harbst of Munhall sent along photos of her beautifully preserved Sears homes a 1920 model called The Crescent after reading the article. It even halted sales of houses themselves for a short time before restarting sales. How Many Sears Houses Are Still Out There? ), or streets that have houses with no designated house number (yes, again! sub 2:15 half marathon training plan; national database of sears homes. New models were introduced every year, and some only stuck around for a couple years. 1. 175 (in 1913). when you switch jobs, buy a house, and go on an international trip, all Rebecca lives in Elgin, Illinois, and undertook a huge research project, to find, and document, kit houses in that town. 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 are both of these models in the 1911/12 Sears Modern Homes catalog. 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. Argyles also have a tendency to hide. Our list, by the way, began in the early years of our research group. At Greenlawn Cemetery, near the Hampton Roads waterfront in the Newport News, Virginia, area, the cemetery office building is a 1936 Sears Modern Home. Damn, it was like. 920 North Madison Avenue, Anderson, Indiana Asking: $379,900 Sears Roebuck Model: Elmhurst Year Built: 1932 Listing Agent: Julie Armington Listing Brokerage: F.C. Because the Modern Homes division sales records were destroyed, there is no way to definitively verify the number of Sears houses that still exist. My home reminds me of that type of architecture.. According to Betcone, the two models that were the top sellers for Sears in 1930 totaled just over 100 houses a year. Telephone 847-697-4551. www.kithouse.org. 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. In late 1930, sales of Searshomes were starting to tank. We certainly imagine that the houses have been retro-fitted with one, at this point. That's what happens 171 examples in La Porte. Some of the most popular models were:[12], The largest and one of the most expensive Sears models was the Magnolia. [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]. Before 1916, the home builder had to cut their Sears-supplied lumber to appropriate lengths. Asbury Methodist Village Communications Dept. In real life, with its two full stories, the whole house is a much taller house than the Rossville/171 or the Greenview/115. 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. That's why we love seeking them out! [5] The method was originally named in the sense that the structure was light and could be lifted away like a balloon. 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. Hi, Lauren! Prefab homes arent exactly an exotic concept nowadays. small-town America, 1920! easier. Andrew Mutch ran across that same article in the American Lumberman, and posted in our group, asking if anyone was interested in looking for some of the old models that might be around. Michigan, Indiana, and New Jersey have large overall numbers, as well. The ability to mass-produce the materials used in Sears homes reduced manufacturing costs, which allowed Sears to pass along the savings in lower prices for customers. 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. excited about this find and I really hope it is one: a Sears No. 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. catalogs for all central and satellite halos down to 10^06 MSun. Sometimes the legal description is nice and straightforward, like, "lot 15, block C, Tanglewood Estates, in the town of Dunham". Researching Historic Kit and Plan Book Homes, We started looking around La Porte, Indiana, in 2015. 168 / Matoka: I am really (really!) Ha! One of the things that Marie has done for us, is to perfectly describe our search for Sears houses, as a "badass hobby" that is akin to a "huge historical treasure hunt". I'm sure it was Matthew who cleared up for me that the No. Statewide, about 1,900 Sears catalog homes have been identified. Some Home Club homes have deeds from the "Port Newark Lumber and Material Company". 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. When the. Normajean Moser of McCandless owns a Walton model that was purchased from the Sears Modern Home catalog. Another gabled ell farmhouse that we found quite a few of in La Porte, is the No. 1232, later marketed as the No. Years later, the sales records related to home sales were destroyed during a corporate house cleaning. Spatial information is available through GIS downloads or can be viewed in the BIOS Viewer.

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