I-79 restrictions begin Wednesday night in Allegheny County, West Deer firefighters respond to bedroom fire, heavy smoke at Poplar Street home, Man shot dead in McKeesport the 4th slaying this week and 5th in a month, Medical examiner IDs man killed in McKeesport shooting, Report on Allegheny County Jail deaths finds no 'trends or common factors' that led to them, Historic Hempfield cemetery seeks volunteers, donors to help care for grounds, 2nd annual 'Restaurant Ramble' features 10 downtown New Kensington eateries, Tom Sizemore, Saving Private Ryan actor, dies after brain aneurysm, TV Talk: Mel Brooks History of the World, Part II belatedly arrives on Hulu, Western Pennsylvania's trusted news source, story about a 1922 Sears mail-order home in McCandless, number of those homes are featured on the organizations website. Lara and Cindy were joined by Andrew Mutch, who is based out of his own Sears house, in Novi, Michigan. 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. Sales peaked in 1929, just before the Great Depression. 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. Others were not but were still pre-cut kit homes built from plans and materials from Sears. The house that would soon become the Argyle in one of Yoho's magazines, 1913. The houses made it as far as Alaska and Canada, as the parts were delivered by railroad. Ohio and Illinois are still leading, though, with 2700+ and 2300+, respectively. Fast forward to this past summer --early August of 2022. If any of you have ever been interested in coming to see me do a kit home Tucker/Crossroads Ephemera can help identify a house as a Sears Home. Sadly, surviving Argyles do tend to be heavily altered there are probably lots more hiding in plain sight. Posted by ; fort lincoln cemetery obituaries; Harbst said it wasnt until after she bought the house that she learned homes were once sold through mail-order catalogs. 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. 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. Capture from Google Streetview. Despite being prefab, they got more character than the endless sea of suburban eyesores we got out there now. 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. 3 in U.S. with, at today's count, 1,963 Sears homes. , 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. Prefab homes arent exactly an exotic concept nowadays. 1916 Sears Roebuck Modern Homes. homes for rent in laplace 70068. national database of sears homes. 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. In some cases, homeowners used plans from original Sears homes to recreate a modern version of a Sears home. People always seemed surprised to learn that Sears sold home kits. Lets find out! Looking at the sorry state of Americas rail infrastructure today, this also makes me weep although today theyd just be delivered via truck. Today, those marks can help prove that you have a kit home. 1916 Sears Roebuck Modern Homes. Modest half-timbering in the gables, exposed rafters, knee braces, and gable-end ridge finials combine to create an optimistic facade. 159, except for a closed pediment up in the front and side gable. Once delivered, many of these houses were assembled by the new homeowner, relatives, friends and neighbors, in a fashion similar to the traditional barn-raisings of farming families. 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). 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). 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 . Simply put, life was rougher. The kit was greatly modified by Lane's ambitious designs. national database of sears homescalgary police organizational chart. Some builders and companies purchased houses directly from Sears to build as model homes, speculative homes, or homes for customers or employees. An open floor plan with sensible . presentation, nows your chance! 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. You can contact Rose through her Facebook group, "Sears Kit Homes" or email: Magnolia2047@gmail.com. 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? This Sears mail-order kit home in McCandless is owned by Normajean Moser. Other models only appeared for one year. And, to top it off, Gordon-Van Tine has a model almost the same. Following is a list of Sears Homes enthusiasts who have agreed I know of several other models in McCandless. 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. city or state, or to find someone who owns the same model as you. 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. The Preservation Commission has identified a majority of the styles, but since many are modified it can be hard to tell. Residential construction was drastically down nationwide due to the Great Depression. 126 and a Sears No. How do we know another house didn't outsell the Argyle after 1931? ", "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. No built examples have been found of some of the least popular models. Rosemary Thornton Sears houses can be identified or authenticated using the following methods. Balloon framing systems rely only on nails to make connections between joints, whereas previous methods used heavier members and pegs. But it was a different story when Sears began selling house building kits in 1908. Sears houses could also be ordered with reversed floor plans. Knowing the limitations of a newspaper article, I know that he will only be able to show one or two house photos, so I thought that I would highlight a few that we have found, through our research. 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. website, which was published from Oct 2013 to Nov 2014. national database of sears homes. Telephone 847-697-4551. www.kithouse.org. houses that share a name also share either a number, a floor plan or had Sales slowly recovered as the United States emerged from the Great Depression until 1940. Cities that have records of building permits may list Sears, Roebuck as the original architect. [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]. Welcome to the New NSCAA. Wonderful, Malissa! We love her for giving us this to quote over and over again and for the many Sears houses that she has added to our list. This system used precut timber of mostly standard sizes (2"x4" and 2"x8") for framing. So, Can We See Some Philly Suburbs Sears Houses? rebeccahunter1216@gmail.com. Before 1916, the home builder had to cut their Sears-supplied lumber to appropriate lengths. Sold for 12 years and discontinued in 1928. 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. What was up with this particular model of home building, and are there any original Sears houses left? Balloon frames could be built faster and generally only required one carpenter. She said she also didnt know it was a mail-order house when she bought it 14 years ago. 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. Powered by, Table of Sears Houses in La Porte, Indiana. Advertisements for Sears Modern Homes appeared through May 1942. of the original Sears homes built from kits are still standing today. Theres a whole checklist of signs to look for. 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. As its mail-order catalogs were already sent to millions of homes, Sears had a distinct advantage over other kit-home competitors. Welcome to Sears Homes! Excuse me while I openly weep thinking about how many vacation cottages today probably cost the same or even more than house houses in many parts of the country. [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. Normajean Moser of McCandless owns a Walton model that was purchased from the Sears Modern Home catalog. 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. . Please contact me if you would like a free In late 1930, sales of Searshomes were starting to tank. : Ohio is the state with the largest number, Pennsylvania is the third- highest-ranking state, Prince George's County, MD & Montgomery County, MD. 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. Not all Sears houses became private residences. 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. Lara was joined by researcher Cindy Catanzaro, who researches especially in Ohio, and writes the blog. Finally, if you really want to understand the basics of what a Sears Modern Homes kit house is, and what it is not, you might find this blog post of mine to be helpful and informative. Those kinds of topics are cleared up, in this blog post: When I chatted with Kevin Riordan, I also sent him a list of several nice Sears houses that he could consider photographing for his article in the Philadelphia Inquirer. Between 1908 and 1940, Sears Roebuck and Co. published specialty catalogs offering house plans and building materials. My home reminds me of that type of architecture.. some ch Don't miss this never before seen catalog from Sears. 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. 4120 Adams St., Gary, IN. If home is where the heart is, then those living in houses built from Sears mail-order kits may have fallen head-over-heels. 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. 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. That's not shown anywhere for this model, so we can't say for sure if these are examples of the No. 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. Rebecca lives in Elgin, Illinois, and undertook a huge research project, to find, and document, kit houses in that town. . Photo from Realtor site. Where Are The Rest Of The Sears Houses In The U.S.? I have the Farnum in New Brighton PA. 1929. within a fe A very special, authenticated Aladdin home just hit the market in Takoma 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. You'll also notice that the No. Its as sturdy as a house as Ive ever seen. excited about this find and I really hope it is one: a Sears No.
national database of sears homes
national database of sears homes
