national database of sears homes

Ive visited New Orleans several times and love the style of the buildings there. The Preservation Commission has identified a majority of the styles, but since many are modified it can be hard to tell. 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. 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. Lets find out! We have three on our list in Glenside -- one on Cedar, one on Tyson, and one on Edge Hill Rd. I'm sure it was Matthew who cleared up for me that the No. But what if you want something bigger than a tiny house, but not as gargantuan as the average American single family home? 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. 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. Chabot said while Sears wasnt the first or only company to sell mail-order homes, they were unique among the competition. rebeccahunter1216@gmail.com. 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. 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. Buyers could hire a contractor to assemble their home or build it themselves following the detailed instructions that were included. Despite this large number, Sears houses are still, actually, rare, and only make up about 2% of the houses built in their era. I see you posted about the origins of Hollywood three years ago! Sears Modern Homes were catalog and kit houses sold primarily through mail order by Sears, Roebuck and Co., an American retailer. Her parents did not care much for the house and eventually moved back into their original farmhouse. some ch Don't miss this never before seen catalog from Sears. Open to the public. 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. 3 in U.S. with, at todays count, 1,963 Sears homes found.. Simply put, life was rougher. 171 examples in La Porte. 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. 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. Measuring in at a roomy 3,500 square feet, the . 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. The house was in original condition and was never modified while we lived there - it was sold in 2003 or early 2004. Our national database of Sears houses in the U.S., is constantly growing, with over 13,600 homes currently listed. In 1906, Frank W. Kushel, a Sears manager, was given responsibility for the catalog company's unwieldy, unprofitable building-materials department. Species: 4,512; Preserves: 238; Sightings: 95,174 . Researching Historic Kit and Plan Book Homes. It's likely that other Sears models can be traced to him as well. New models were introduced every year, and some only stuck around for a couple years. 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? to share their names with others who might be interested in 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! 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. 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. If my house is not a kit, where did it come from? Sears, Roebuck and Company's Modern Homes program began in 1908 and ended in 1940. From 1908 to 1942, Sears sold more than 70,000 of these houses in North America, by the company's count. of the original Sears homes built from kits are still standing today. 920 North Madison Avenue, Anderson, Indiana Asking: $379,900 Sears Roebuck Model: Elmhurst Year Built: 1932 Listing Agent: Julie Armington Listing Brokerage: F.C. 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. Carrying on with Same Name, Different House topic we find that some of the The bulk order is the largest known order for Sears Modern Homes and led to Sears, Roebuck naming their "Carlin" model after the city. 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. In late 1930, sales of Searshomes were starting to tank. In a second blog post, I'll show the several probable kit houses that we've found in LaPorte, Indiana, from other companies. 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. 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. . Whatever Happened to Those Mail-Order Houses From the Sears Catalog? 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). By the time of the 1914 catalog, the model had been tweaked, to add the peak gable, closed pediment pop-up dormer over the upper bay windows. 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. Enjoy! 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. to you on Flickr or Pinterest. Please browse through and enjoy the 1,000+ posts and 5,000+ photos! Click to visit. Really, they couldn't find any space in there for the Modern Homes records? Telephone 847-697-4551. www.kithouse.org. Sears Modern Homes were sold between 1908 and 1942. [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. 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. That's not shown anywhere for this model, so we can't say for sure if these are examples of the No. Capture from Google Streetview. My father knew the local builder (Mr. Humphreys) who put the house together. Wonderful, Malissa! The group has identified 2,700 Sears homes in Ohio and 2,300 in Illinois. 126 and a Sears No. Not all Sears houses became private residences. My daughter and son-in-law have a 1924 Homeville in Abington! 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. This is a complete list of Sears houses in Aurora (and two in Montgomery that were originally in Aurora). [34], Like the Standard Addition in Carlinville, neighborhoods of Sears houses still hold a sense of identity and community. The. The American Lumberman article referred to this area where the houses were being built, as the Fairview neighborhood. In the companys own words, Sears didnt really innovate home building. 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. 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, Sears Wasnt an Innovator, but They Knew Quality and Efficiency. Because these homes were constructed using pre-cut lumber and plans provided by Sears, these homes can be considered to be "Sears Modern Homes". Camden County would be a great place to search, because we know that there are Sears houses in Collingswood, Haddon Township, Haddonfield, and Haddon Heights but, how many? Lara Solonickne, who writes the blog. 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. Damn, it was like Stardew Valley! 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. 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). 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. The houses made it as far as Alaska and Canada, as the parts were delivered by railroad. If you have any authenticating source for us, we'd love to hear about it (you can email me directly at SearsHouseSeeker@gmail.com). A kick-off celebration was held March 3, 2023, for the newly renamed BMO Stadium. We just can't say, because we can't access those records. These stamps are normally located on or near the ends of pieces of framing timber. 159, but it's likely especially because we have found interior views of a couple, and we think we see Sears staircase balusters and newel. By Posted on Mar 10, 2021. national database of sears homes. Some models were offered with variations, the most common of those being expanded floor plans and additional finished living spaces. Spatial information is available through GIS downloads or can be viewed in the BIOS Viewer. Thanks for giving me a new appreciation for the Argyle! You'll also notice that the No. Documented Sears houses have been found across the United States and in a few locations in Canada. There are two examples of this model, in La Porte. [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. [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]. Mrs. Lask had been a well-respected and well-known docent at the Cincinnati Historical Society, who led interesting bus tours and lectures about Cincinnati architectural history, when she embarked on this project in the 1990s (which she did while in her 70s-- a testament to the concept of life-long learning). presentation, nows your chance! Other companies such as Aladdin sold mail-order homes, but thats all they sold, Chabot said. Posted by ; fort lincoln cemetery obituaries; If your house was built between 1908-1940, theres a chance it might be an original Sears house. 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. The nine easy signs follow: 1) Look for stamped lumber in the basement or attic. Melissa Steel of Patterson Heights in Beaver County said the story about the Sears house in McCandless sparked fond memories of the family next door who lived in one for many years. 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. It's also possible that some local builder just put together a similar design, to compete with the Sears houses being built in town, but, some of these examples are on blocks of streets that are lined with Sears houses from this early spec offering by Sears. 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. 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. One Magnolia built in Lincoln, Nebraska, was demolished in 1985. If yours is not one of those, please let us know :) We are confident about all three being Sears houses, but have not been able to authenticate any of them (with mortgage or deed records, blueprints, shipping labels, letters from Sears, or marked lumber). 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). Also, homes in southern Ohio may have financing documents through the "Norwood Sash and Door Company" of Norwood, Ohio. Prefab homes arent exactly an exotic concept nowadays. Sometimes the legal description is nice and straightforward, like, "lot 15, block C, Tanglewood Estates, in the town of Dunham". 172, later marketed as the. Run by experienced researcher Cindy Catanzaro (with a little help from yours truly). Another key figure in the original research into Sears kit houses, was a woman named Beatrice Lask. Without complete sales records, we cannot say definitively that the Sears Argyle was the top seller. So, I put together a list, but I decided to provide some clarifying background information in that blog post, too-- it's especially intended to help those who might hear the term Craftsman, and think it means Sears House, or who see a 1920s bungalow and wonder if that means that the street is lined with Sears houses, or who find marked lumber in their house, but can't seem to find a match to a Sears model. [6] Plumbing, electrical fixtures, and heating systems were options that could be ordered at additional cost; they were many families' first steps to modern HVAC systems, kitchens, and bathrooms. Open to the public. Because lets get real: those adorable and affordable ranchers were only for CERTAIN veterans and their families. 264B155. 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". Many of the smaller models are regularly torn down. While researching the property, Harbst learned it was among the first homes built in the boroughs Homestead Park neighborhood. Parts for the homes, which were sold between 1908 and 1940, were delivered to the nearest rail station. According to the catalog image, both models have only a partial porch at the front of the house. Fast forward to this past summer --early August of 2022. We just love the Walton model! Some of the most popular models were:[12], The largest and one of the most expensive Sears models was the Magnolia. The suburbs of Philadelphia are not the only places where we find Sears houses, by the way. 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. [4] Other homeowners relied on local carpenters or contractors to assemble the houses. My home reminds me of that type of architecture.. . We soon realized that she had a keen eye for Sears houses (and a keen love for them, as her great-grandfather had built a Sears Martha Washington in Oakwood, Ohio), and she joined our research group. 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. Goodwall sheet plaster was an early drywall-like product offered by Sears and may be an indication of a Sears Modern Home. Sears Modern Homes are something we totally need to bring back from the past for this. Sure, your Wabash or Verona model 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. Here are a few: Andrew just today noticed this brick house with the Sears curlicue decorative iron strapping (only offered by Sears, and the only style of iron strapping ever offered by Sears). ", "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? But what if you want something bigger than a tiny house, but not as gargantuan as the average American single family home? This is the case for the southern New Jersey counties that are suburbs of Philadelphia. Another gabled ell farmhouse that we found quite a few of in La Porte, is the No. The Rossville/No. 159, except for a closed pediment up in the front and side gable. 1232 / No. Chuck Holtzen has joined up with Lara to do research in Illinois, and has been helpful in adding a number of authenticated houses to our list. 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. 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. of "Where are the Sears Houses?" within a fe A very special, authenticated Aladdin home just hit the market in Takoma [15] 1908 was the only year the schoolhouse appeared in the catalog. The mortgage program was also a PR disaster, as many of the families Sears foreclosed upon refused to do further business with the company. 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. 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. But at the time, there was a housing boom taking place as people wanted to escape the crowds and disease of the cities. Without facts and sales records, we can make an educated guess. According to the US Census, there were about 88.7 million people living in the United States. . Builders that already have both the funds and the skilled professionals in architecture, construction, and land use make it easier for the average person who only wants to worry about their career, move, and family. However, we are pretty much limited to counties which have online accessible historic records, and to counties which we are able to physically visit to search in person this means that there are some counties out there with lots of undiscovered Sears houses, because we can't get to the records. 02, 2023 : History: Catalogs: Homes: Products: Brands: Stores: People Historic Homes : . Many of the homes original features remain intact. ", "How to Properly Identify a Sears Magnolia", "Have You Seen This Kit Schoolhouse? Others were not but were still pre-cut kit homes built from plans and materials from Sears. Sears began offering financing plans around 1912. 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. 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. I love finding these houses and learning more about them, the different models that were sold and the people who bought them.. , there were about 88.7 million people living in the United States. | 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.? that ranged from simple and rustic to utterly decadent. Before 1916, the home builder had to cut their Sears-supplied lumber to appropriate lengths. One of the early Sears House researchers that our group still relies on for her expertise in the D.C. housing market, is D.C. realtor Catarina Bannier (Bannier & Sandalow). 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. Shipping label image from my mother's family's 1911 Sears No. 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. national database of sears homescalgary police organizational chart. 1227 Disston St, Oxford Circle neighborhood of Philadelphia. 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 Sears Tower is nearly finished. Despite being prefab, they got more character than the endless sea of suburban eyesores we got out there now. 172/ Hazelton, at 810 W 11th Street, La Porte, Indiana. 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. Its not like nowadays where you move, wait for your stuff to arrive, and if youre a work-at-home like me, youre pretty much unable to work while you wait for a technician to ensure you have Internet access. 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. Homes built after 1916 can be identified as Sears kit homes by numbers stamped on the timbers. Modest half-timbering in the gables, exposed rafters, knee braces, and gable-end ridge finials combine to create an optimistic facade. 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.. Sears houses can be identified or authenticated using the following methods. This means that information about the Modern Homes department is scarce. 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. Basic cross-gabled two-story farmhouses are to be found almost everywhere in towns and cities as well as many rural areas throughout the United States. houses that share a name also share either a number, a floor plan or had 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. 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. I learn all kinds of interesting stuff here; thanks! Would you mind messaging me with an address, so that we can add your Sears house to our (private) national database? And Sears Modern Homes werent a monolith. Designs may have been modified but generally should match in layout and dimensions. The HMS data portal is a collection of models, simulations and synthetic observations of the Sun. 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. This phrase is trademarked and cannot be used without permission of Ricky Bobby, Inc. marlon brando children; pete the cat and his four groovy buttons comprehension questions; nolin lake conditions; dan majerle hall of fame; dayton floor drill press,belt 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.