And, to top it off, Gordon-Van Tine has a model almost the same. Chabot notes that Sears mail-order homes sold before 1916 did not use precut lumber that was stamped with numbers to guide construction. There was one snippet in the press release that only a couple newspapers reprinted: "Following twelve years of usefulness, one old design was removed from the home catalogue in 1928, as antiquated after having been constructed more than 1700 times, which probably constitutes the world's record for any construction duplication from a single house plan, he [Betcone] says.". 4120 Adams St., Gary, IN. [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]. Documented Sears houses have been found across the United States and in a few locations in Canada. , in addition to Aladdin and Montgomery Ward homes. However, these stamps were not used on lumber shipped before 1916, when Sears first started offering pre-cut lumber. ", "Sears Houses of Massapequa Park, New York", "Made to Order: Many American Dreams Came Out of the Sears Catalog, Including Do-It-Yourself Houses", "Yesterday's kit houses are today's sought-after properties", "The Story on Sears: Houses by rail and mail", "Syracuse house, which came from a Sears catalog, is one of only seven of its kind in U.S.", "The House Is in the Mail: 'Kit homes' from Sears and others were an affordable housing option", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sears_Modern_Homes&oldid=1142882633, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0. Damn, it was like Stardew Valley! Buyers could hire a contractor to assemble their home or build it themselves following the detailed instructions that were included. 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. Charleston, West Virginia is a hotspot for Sears model homes, in addition to Aladdin and Montgomery Ward homes. How do we know another house didn't outsell the Argyle after 1931? rebeccahunter1216@gmail.com. Sears Modern Homes were kit homes and the framing members were stamped with a letter and a number to help facilitate construction. Sears Modern Homes are something we totally need to bring back from the past for this. Those are ridiculously difficult to pin down. Then, we always get a chuckle when the legal description includes things like, "by a large Elm tree" or "100 feet past a stone marker". 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. They had. Balloon framing systems rely only on nails to make connections between joints, whereas previous methods used heavier members and pegs. some ch Don't miss this never before seen catalog from Sears. 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. 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. This system used precut timber of mostly standard sizes (2"x4" and 2"x8") for framing. According to Betcone, the two models that were the top sellers for Sears in 1930 totaled just over 100 houses a year. Chabot runs a national website dedicated to gathering and sharing information about Sears mail-order homes. 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! 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. 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. We loosely refer to ourselves by the name. You had the flexibility to swap out certain elements without causing the whole thing to collapse like one of those Instagrammable burgers thats way too tall. We just can't say, because we can't access those records. 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. Balloon frames could be built faster and generally only required one carpenter. My home reminds me of that type of architecture.. Homes Index 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. Sears's use of "balloon style" framing systems did not require a team of skilled carpenters, as did previous methods. Sears Magnolia was also known as Model #2089. Newport Beach home dangling on edge after cliff collapses A Gilded Mansion in Newport Beach, CA (Unreal), Fallen Titan that is Sears department stores. The Greenview/No. Sears Homes Enthusiasts 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. The windows, the kitchen and the bathroom were updated over the years, but it is still very much the house it was when it was built.. Im looking at this cute little Cape Cod that was $886 in 1940 dollars, about $16,000 today. Dover, Chateau, and Lexington models are particularly plentiful there! homes for rent in laplace 70068. national database of sears homes. I considered putting a full chart here, but, honestly, we have found hundreds through searching the suburban PA counties outside of Philadelphia. Photo from Realtor site. Parts for the homes, which were sold between 1908 and 1940, were delivered to the nearest rail station. Prefab homes arent exactly an exotic concept nowadays. Built around 1917 home resembles the Hazelton Model C2025,l 1915-1920 and the Vallonia Model P13049A or P13049B, 1927-1932. We found and listed about three houses, I think but didn't really focus on La Porte much more than that day in 2015. However, based on what the experts said in that Atlas Obscura piece, youre most likely to find Sears homes in places where railroad stations once stood (or are lucky to still have) and where Sears factories had a major role on the local economy, like Cincinnati. Or did we just go wrong somewhere when someone decided the house you live in should be treated like a bank? I have the Farnum in New Brighton PA. 1929. That is unique to Sears. Michigan, Indiana, and New Jersey have large overall numbers, as well. Interested in hearing about Rose's near-death experience? Some of the models are easier to identify visually and their counts may be disproportionately high. I'm currently working my way through the Burlington County records, but they are limited, and set up in a way that makes the process very time consuming. 168/Matoka, 301 Weller Avenue, La Porte, Indiana probable Sears Modern Home No. The house was in original condition and was never modified while we lived there - it was sold in 2003 or early 2004. 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. If any of you have ever been interested in coming to see me do a kit home 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. Sales slowly recovered as the United States emerged from the Great Depression until 1940. when you switch jobs, buy a house, and go on an international trip, all that ranged from simple and rustic to utterly decadent. Thanks for your interest! The bulk order is the largest known order for Sears Modern Homes and led to Sears, Roebuck naming their "Carlin" model after the city. In the companys own words, Sears didnt really innovate home building. So, they are likely from Sears. Modern Home 264B110 - Farmhouse style - 1916 Sears House Plans This table provides a Streetview link for each house (or, occasionally, a real estate listing link), and, for houses I've shown, but not provided a catalog image of, you'll find a link to a catalog image, as well. The first mail order for a Sears house was filled that year. Betcone spoke of how housing styles were drastically changing and how many customers wanted more efficient, streamlined designs. 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). 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. when you switch jobs, buy a house, and go on an international trip, all 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. Without facts and sales records, we can make an educated guess. 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. ", "How to Properly Identify a Sears Magnolia", "Have You Seen This Kit Schoolhouse? national database of sears homes42 ft gibson houseboat. 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. Construction of the houses took nine months which were completed in 1919. 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. 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. So Betcone gave us a huge clue as to what the top seller for Sears was. Instead, shipping labels were affixed to the backside of trim that identified properties. Some models of Sears homes were very similar in design to models offered by other kit home manufacturers or through plan books. Argyles also have a tendency to hide. Identifying Sears Homes | Sears Modern Homes According to Betcone, the two models that were the top sellers for Sears in 1930 totaled just over 100 houses a year. Species: 4,512; Preserves: 238; Sightings: 95,174 . Pre-cut lumber reduced construction time by up to 40%, according to Sears. This product offered the advantages of low price, ease of installation, and added fire protection. national database of sears homes - speedpackages.com 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. Welcome to the New NSCAA. to you on Flickr or Pinterest. In real life, with its two full stories, the whole house is a much taller house than the Rossville/171 or the Greenview/115. Sears Lewiston: A Sears Model Home in New Jersey Authenticated Sears Lewiston 261 N. Jackson St., North Plainfield, NJ 1929 This great-looking Sears Lewiston was built in 1929, and used as a model home for Sears after it was built by Anthony P. Raffaniello, and his wife, Helena. One of the most expensive models was the Magnolia, a 10-room Colonial-style house with. I thought it was very interesting when I learned that you could also buy a house from their catalogs.. Normajean Moser of McCandless owns a Walton model that was purchased from the Sears Modern Home catalog. And Sears Modern Homes werent a monolith. Sears Modern Homes - Wikipedia 181, and the early version of the. Sears houses can be identified or authenticated using the following methods. Here is a year-by-year list of houses as they were advertised in the Sears Modern Homes catalogs. While researching the property, Harbst learned it was among the first homes built in the boroughs Homestead Park neighborhood. Here is the Uriel or Conway at 408 Bond Street. TribLIVE's Daily and Weekly email newsletters deliver the news you want and information you need, right to your inbox. 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. Photo from Realtor site. If my house is not a kit, where did it come from? 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). 159 examples that have a closed pediment in the gable (and a porch style difference). 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. Images are available After all, future generations became more transient out of circumstance or in light of the digital nomad movement and taking advantage of technology in general, more mobile by choice. But what if you want something bigger than a tiny house, but not as gargantuan as the average American single family home? within a fe A very special, authenticated Aladdin home just hit the market in Takoma Where Are The Rest Of The Sears Houses In The U.S.? The larger Victorian-style houses that were already there and scant in number were out of reach for working class first-time home buyers. Simply put, life was rougher. Another key figure in the original research into Sears kit houses, was a woman named Beatrice Lask. In 1916, Sears began shipping pre-cut lumber in its mail-order kit homes that contained stamped numbers used to match pieces during construction. Between 1908 and 1940, Sears Roebuck and Co. published specialty catalogs offering house plans and building materials. 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. But what if you want something bigger than a tiny house, but not as gargantuan as the average American single family home? 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. 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. Sears could keep manufacturing costs down compared to standard builders and competing catalogs because they had their own manufacturing facilities by then and were able to mass-produce wood, asphalt, insulation material, hardware, and everything else needed to produce a home that wasnt a Habitat for Humanity hut. Please contact me if you would like a free Had the. Contains merger trees and halo . Shipping label image from my mother's family's 1911 Sears No. 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. Cindy's research in Delaware County, coupled with my research in Montgomery County, netted at least 200 hundred authenticated houses, but that research was preceded by many hours of searching the streets of Willow Grove, Glenside, and other suburbs, by Karen, Nigel, Sarah, Marie, and Andrew. [13] Only seven Magnolias are known to be still standing. Several Sears Modern Homes are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. 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. According to the catalog image, both models have only a partial porch at the front of the house. 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. Click on any of the linked house listings to view a picture .