4120 Adams St., Gary, IN. catalogs for all central and satellite halos down to 10^06 MSun. I thought it was very interesting when I learned that you could also buy a house from their catalogs.. Sears Modern Homes were sold between 1908 and 1942. So this blog has been radio silent for a while now! Sears discontinued its Modern Homes catalog after 1940, though sales through local sales offices continued into 1942. I hope you found this informative, and learned that Sears houses come in lots of shapes, sizes, and styles. Our team did some traveling around streets inside Philadelphia, in neighborhoods like Oxford Circle, Rhawnhurst, and Roxborough, to name a few, and added about 43 houses to our list, from these neighborhoods. 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 case of the Anstett family of Torrington, Connecticut. Other models only appeared for one year. You can search the house listings by clicking on a group of years ( 1908-1914 , 1915-1920 , 1921-1926 , 1927-1932 and 1933-1940 ). ", "How to Properly Identify a Sears Magnolia", "Have You Seen This Kit Schoolhouse? [2] No comprehensive list of their locations exists.[3]. Sears also offered a plasterboard product similar to modern drywall as an alternative to the plaster and lath wall-building techniques which required skilled carpenters and plasterers. Here is the Uriel or Conway at 408 Bond Street. BMO, LAFC, and Angel City FC leaders were joined by special guests Earvin "Magic" Johnson and Mia Hamm for the . 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. We just love the Walton model! In the companys own words, Sears didnt really innovate home building. Argyles also have a tendency to hide. In this case, the problem was that we couldn't see the left side of these models, just by looking at the catalog and the floor plans. national database of sears homes. Orders were placed by mail, the See more 5,581 people like this 5,890 people follow this https://www.searshouses.com/ cyn.catanzaro@gmail.com Prefab homes arent exactly an exotic concept nowadays. 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". We saw that on numerous Rossville/No. For this week's listing of the week, we decided to find seven charming Sears Catalog homes you can actually buy today. Shipped by railroad boxcar, and then usually trucked to a home site, the average Sears Modern Home kit had about 25 tons of materials, with more than 30,000 parts. The truth is out there, and I think you've found it! Lara Solonickne, who writes the blog. In late 1930, sales of Searshomes were starting to tank. Having just covered the Fallen Titan that is Sears department stores, something that piqued my interest was the idea that you could buy literal houses from the catalog. 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. Search. 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). 159 examples that have a closed pediment in the gable (and a porch style difference). At Greenlawn Cemetery, near the Hampton Roads waterfront in the Newport News, Virginia, area, the cemetery office building is a 1936 Sears Modern Home. I have seen articles throughout the years about Sears homes in the Pittsburgh area, she wrote after reading the Trib story. Chabot said while Sears wasnt the first or only company to sell mail-order homes, they were unique among the competition. Among those are: Sears Modern Homes can also be found in historic districts listed in the National Register of Historic Places: According to Carolyn Fraser's Pulitzer-winning book, Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder, the house that Rose Wilder Lane built for her parents, Laura Ingalls Wilder and Almanzo Wilder, at Rocky Ridge Farm in Missouri was from a Sears kit. 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. 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. But at the time, there was a housing boom taking place as people wanted to escape the crowds and disease of the cities. Early on, we were joined by Sarah Mullane, who lives in North Tonawanda, New York. Sometimes the legal description is nice and straightforward, like, "lot 15, block C, Tanglewood Estates, in the town of Dunham". Dover, Chateau, and Lexington models are particularly plentiful there! So, I'll just post a nice selection here. 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. Our list, by the way, began in the early years of our research group. Tasty Soft Garlic and Herb Bread Sticks Recipe How to Make it in 23 Simple Steps, Villa Faberge! | 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.? Marie's great-grandfather, Freeman Pretzinger, built this Sears. [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. Browse the list below to see if there are Modern Homes in your city or state, or to find someone who owns the same model as you. In some cases, homeowners used plans from original Sears homes to recreate a modern version of a Sears home. Spatial information is available through GIS downloads or can be viewed in the BIOS Viewer. Although it is sometimes claimed that no Sears kit homes were built after 1940, Sears continued to offer pre-cut kit homes through 1941 and into early 1942. But the houses don't match any of the designs that Sears sold in their catalogs. 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. Photo from Lake County Assessor. 1916 Sears Roebuck Modern Homes. Originally marketed as the. Here is one at 17 Hill Street, Villa Park. Jud Yoho may also have been the designer behind the popular Sears model called the Hollywood. 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 houses made it as far as Alaska and Canada, as the parts were delivered by railroad. 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. This is the case for the southern New Jersey counties that are suburbs of Philadelphia. If your house was built between 1908-1940, theres a chance it might be an original Sears house. 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). This product offered the advantages of low price, ease of installation, and added fire protection. 162 Sears houses still standing, including those in the city of Alexandria. 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. 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. excited about this find and I really hope it is one: a Sears No. 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. They had. Harbst said it wasnt until after she bought the house that she learned homes were once sold through mail-order catalogs. 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 Greenview/No. A kick-off celebration was held March 3, 2023, for the newly renamed BMO Stadium. I love finding these houses and learning more about them, the different models that were sold and the people who bought them.. Shipping label image from my mother's family's 1911 Sears No. TribLIVE's Daily and Weekly email newsletters deliver the news you want and information you need, right to your inbox. houses that share a name also share either a number, a floor plan or had Looking at the sorry state of Americas rail infrastructure today, this also makes me weep although today theyd just be delivered via truck. The houses, comprising eight models, were all built in a 12-block area known as the Standard Addition. sub 2:15 half marathon training plan; national database of sears homes. Before 1916, the home builder had to cut their Sears-supplied lumber to appropriate lengths. 920 North Madison Avenue, Anderson, Indiana Asking: $379,900 Sears Roebuck Model: Elmhurst Year Built: 1932 Listing Agent: Julie Armington Listing Brokerage: F.C. Ohio and Illinois are still leading, though, with 2700+ and 2300+, respectively. Sears, Roebuck and Company's Modern Homes program began in 1908 and ended in 1940. They kept up with it, of course, but it sure has good bones. 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. Weve got so much fucking housing just sitting there that NO ONE should be condemned to homelessness. 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. You'll also notice that the No. [5] The method was originally named in the sense that the structure was light and could be lifted away like a balloon. 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. Powered by, This September 2017 article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, this short video story by the Washington Post. *Sears Americus - Temple, PA*It's been about 3 months since the last update This Sears mail-order kit home in McCandless is owned by Normajean Moser. 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. [14], In addition to houses, the 1908 Sears catalog offered a kit schoolhouse with the model name "Schoolhouse No. 175, 1911/12 catalog image for the Sears Modern Home No. In 1916, Sears began shipping pre-cut lumber in its mail-order kit homes that contained stamped numbers used to match pieces during construction. So, each house that we find through these records, represents a great deal of digging, and lots of amassed knowledge in how to attack the task because each county's records system is a little different than others. 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. 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. The HMS data portal is a collection of models, simulations and synthetic observations of the Sun. Damn, it was like. Marie gives the perfect explanation of our Sears House hunt, in this. Were most Sears Houses built by the owners? 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. Rosemary Thornton 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. Posted by ; fort lincoln cemetery obituaries; 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. By Posted on Mar 10, 2021. national database of sears homes. 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. In areas where the land is already mostly developed and zoned, its not that simple. I think the reason the Sears house is so interesting is that most people associate them with the Wish Book catalog that came in the mail at Christmas. Many of the homes original features remain intact. This phrase is trademarked and cannot be used without permission of Ricky Bobby, Inc. 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. 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. How did Sears Modern Homes come to be? The nine easy signs follow: 1) Look for stamped lumber in the basement or attic. 115 cuts off abruptly, right in the middle of the front facade, even with the left side of the upper window, and it then has a straight slope porch roof jutting out. The larger Victorian-style houses that were already there and scant in number were out of reach for working class first-time home buyers. The original "Sears Modern Homes" community page on Facebook, for those interested in Sears homes. And Sears Modern Homes werent a monolith. 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. I have the Farnum in New Brighton PA. 1929. Documented Sears houses have been found across the United States and in a few locations in Canada. 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. Browse the list below to see if there are Modern Homes in your
What was up with this particular model of home building, and are there any original Sears houses left? However, as you can see in the photos above, that showed the sides of the house, the Rossville/No. Where Are The Rest Of The Sears Houses In The U.S.? In other cases, the home followed the general design of a Sears house without being an exact duplicate. Instead, shipping labels were affixed to the backside of trim that identified properties. [38][39], One well-known replica of a Sears house is at the "Farm at Prophetstown" museum in Battle Ground, Indiana, which features a replica of a Hillrose model. Sears Modern Homes are something we totally need to bring back from the past for this. 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). If home is where the heart is, then those living in houses built from Sears mail-order kits may have fallen head-over-heels. 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. Between 1908 and 1940, Sears Roebuck and Co. published specialty catalogs offering house plans and building materials. I grew up in a Sears house located in Keyport NJ. There were about 132 million people by the time Sears stopped selling Sears Modern Homes kits in 1940. [4] Other homeowners relied on local carpenters or contractors to assemble the houses. Our home also resembles the Bedford Model # P3249, 1926 (this was not in your listings). When we find a mortgage record, we're just given a buyer's name, and a legal description of a property. The Preservation Commission has identified a majority of the styles, but since many are modified it can be hard to tell. 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. Asbury Methodist Village Communications Dept. Square . 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. 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. There are examples of modern homes built based on the design of Sears Modern Home. While financing through Sears helped many homeowners purchase homes, many of those purchasers defaulted during the ensuing Great Depression. 217 was not shown with an in-house bathroom. That's why we love seeking them out! The house forms part of the farmstead at the museum.[40]. Chabot notes that Sears mail-order homes sold before 1916 did not use precut lumber that was stamped with numbers to guide construction. Thanks for your interest! Historic house: Built in 1911, this Sears home sits on a large, corner lot in a historic district, surrounded by antebellum homes. The most popular models appeared in the catalog for multiple years. 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. 4120 Adams St., Gary, IN. [17] Later on in the Modern Homes timeline, Sears had in-office designers but titled them as "experts" rather than actual architects.[17]. 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. Simply put, life was rougher. "The Sears Homes of Illinois" has more than 200 color photos of the most popular designs that Sears offered and can be very helpful in identifying Sears Homes. Primarily shipped via railroad boxcars, these kits included most of the materials needed to build a house. Sears mail-order house kits can often be identified by the shipping labels that were placed on the backside of trim. 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). Some models were offered with variations, the most common of those being expanded floor plans and additional finished living spaces.