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Some builders and companies purchased houses directly from Sears to build as model homes, speculative homes, or homes for customers or employees. This Sears mail-order kit home in McCandless is owned by Normajean Moser. Because the Modern Homes division sales records were destroyed, there is no way to definitively verify the number of Sears houses that still exist. Related: Floating Chairs and Texas McMansions | McMansions vs Really Big Houses | Strange Mansion in Carmel, Indiana | What is a Mansion. BMO Celebrates Kickoff of the 2023 Soccer Season at 'BMO Stadium' in Images are available The nine easy signs follow: 1) Look for stamped lumber in the basement or attic. In fact, the No. [7] Early mortgage loans were typically for 5 to 15 years at 6% to 7% interest. What was up with this particular model of home building, and are there any original Sears houses left? Images are available 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. Parts for the homes, which were sold between 1908 and 1940, were delivered to the nearest rail station. 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. 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. 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. 159. In areas where the land is already mostly developed and zoned, its not that simple. 199 models here in La Porte, are somewhat tweaked in their design, but we still do think that they are examples of that model. Statewide, about 1,900 Sears catalog homes have been identified. 159 was available with either clipped gables or peak gables, for the roof. 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. If your house was built between 1908-1940, theres a chance it might be an original Sears house. Damn, it was like. 1232 / No. Homes built after 1916 can be identified as Sears kit homes by numbers stamped on the timbers. Some models were offered in both wood siding and brick veneer versions with different names attributed to the same or almost identical home plan. We've found examples from the Wardway, Gordon-Van Tine, Harris Homes, and Ray H. Bennett companies. The Sears Argyle was a small house, about 1,000 square feet, and many of them have been demolished. 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 first mail order for a Sears house was filled that year. Species: 4,512; Preserves: 238; Sightings: 95,174 . 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 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. In 1916, Sears began shipping pre-cut lumber in its mail-order kit homes that contained stamped numbers used to match pieces during construction. 159, except for a closed pediment up in the front and side gable. Sears Modern Homes offered more than 370 designs in a wide range of architectural styles and sizes over the line's 34-year history. Fabricated houses sold primarily through mail order, Column detail from a Sears Vallonia house, pictured alongside its appearance in the catalog, Modern interpretations of Sears Modern Homes, "Did Sears, Roebuck Sell Homes 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. I know of several other models in McCandless. New York ranks fourth on the list with 1,679. Photo from Realtor site. , in addition to Aladdin and Montgomery Ward homes. contacting them by clicking on their name. Built around 1917 home resembles the Hazelton Model C2025,l 1915-1920 and the Vallonia Model P13049A or P13049B, 1927-1932. In some cases, Sears provided construction services to assemble the homes. Fast forward to this past summer --early August of 2022. Welcome to Sears Homes! Im looking at this cute little Cape Cod that was $886 in 1940 dollars, about $16,000 today. 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). Powered by, This September 2017 article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, this short video story by the Washington Post. But David Betcone told us what model was in first place as of 1931. national database of sears homes - thanhvi.net Once again true to the companys roots, youre more apt to find Sears catalog homes still standing in former factory towns of the Midwest. They had. 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. At one point, I realized that I needed to organize a list of online catalog resources, so I put together this blog post, which has links to catalogs not only from Daily Bungalow and AntiqueHome, but to the many catalogs uploaded on another key resource, Archive.org (have you donated lately?). sub 2:15 half marathon training plan; national database of sears homes. 181, Sears No. Balloon frames could be built faster and generally only required one carpenter. Some of the models are easier to identify visually and their counts may be disproportionately high. That is unique to Sears. 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. Architecturally, I'm really surprised by the two versions of the Cedars floor plan -- they are completely different, though only two feet were added to make the larger one. Primarily shipped via railroad boxcars, these kits included most of the materials needed to build a house. 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. This product offered the advantages of low price, ease of installation, and added fire protection. If any of you have ever been interested in coming to see me do a kit home 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. 172/ Hazelton, at 810 W 11th Street, La Porte, Indiana. Had the. 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. Were most Sears Houses built by the owners? I don't feel comfortable making that assumption. A Newport Beach home remains dangerously close to tumbling down a cliffside after the ground underneath gave way on Friday morning. Teen hikers rescued after days stuck in California snowstorm That year, the Aladdin Company of Bay City, Michigan, offered the first kit homes through mail order. 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. Original paperwork for the house including blueprints and letters of correspondence from Sears. 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. Posted by ; fort lincoln cemetery obituaries; The search for Sears Roebuck houses nationwide was launched in the mid-1970's when the, This was a case of unfortunate timing. I hope you found this informative, and learned that Sears houses come in lots of shapes, sizes, and styles. Sales peaked in 1929, just before the Great Depression. 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. If my house is not a kit, where did it come from? Our home also resembles the Bedford Model # P3249, 1926 (this was not in your listings). New models were introduced every year, and some only stuck around for a couple years. 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. Historic house: Built in 1911, this Sears home sits on a large, corner lot in a historic district, surrounded by antebellum homes. 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. We saw that on numerous Rossville/No. Chabot focuses her research on scouring mortgages and deed records, old newspaper articles and other sources to identify kit homes sold by Sears. I just loved the look of it, she said. 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. Sears Modern Homes - Wikipedia [35] Another homeowner, Erskine Hogue Stanberry, states that his Saratoga model was the "first house in Chelsea to have electric lights" and that they "are using the original plumbing and wiring".[35]. Were most Sears Houses built by the owners? While financing through Sears helped many homeowners purchase homes, many of those purchasers defaulted during the ensuing Great Depression. The iron strapping itself can be strait or curved, but the curlicue is always there, if it's iron strapping from Sears. Measuring in at a roomy 3,500 square feet, the . Tucker/Crossroads Advertisements for Sears Modern Homes appeared through May 1942. I have the Farnum in New Brighton PA. 1929. Hi, Lauren! 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. Carrying on with Same Name, Different House topic we find that some of the Weve got so much fucking housing just sitting there that NO ONE should be condemned to homelessness. She said she also didnt know it was a mail-order house when she bought it 14 years ago. Given the more disposable nature of shipping container homes and the portability granted by some tiny houses, its kind of sad in a way that this current crop of Internet-order homes is not only not as simple or affordable as it was yesteryear, but also carries less permanence compared to these mail-order houses. We cannot be absolutely certain, but the numbers do not support it. True to the companys roots in selling to rural Midwesterners, they even had a catalog for farmhouses, barns, and other barn buildings. No built examples have been found of some of the least popular models. In some cases, homeowners used plans from original Sears homes to recreate a modern version of a Sears home. [16], There was no single architect for the Sears designs. Our list, by the way, began in the early years of our research group. Shipping label image from my mother's family's 1911 Sears No. national database of sears homes. 2) Look for shipping labels. Please contact me if you would like a free 324 W Johnson Road Sears Jewel, Jewell, or Wilmore (depends on the year). I was intrigued by the concept of people picking out a house from a catalog, she said. [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. 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. Interested in hearing about Rose's near-death experience? [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. Compare that to about 330 million people today. I considered putting a full chart here, but, honestly, we have found hundreds through searching the suburban PA counties outside of Philadelphia. Molly Harbst of Munhall sent along photos of her beautifully preserved Sears homes a 1920 model called The Crescent after reading the article. 175, 1911/12 catalog image for the Sears Modern Home No. 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. You can contact Rose through her Facebook group, "Sears Kit Homes" or email: Magnolia2047@gmail.com. It wasnt until she was in her 20s that Chabot learned about the homes history. 175 (in 1913). 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). Whatever Happened to Those Mail-Order Houses From the Sears Catalog? All these years later it is still a fortress.. Park, MD. homes for rent in laplace 70068. national database of sears homes. 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. Sometimes the legal description is nice and straightforward, like, "lot 15, block C, Tanglewood Estates, in the town of Dunham". Construction of the houses took nine months which were completed in 1919. Precut framing timbers, an innovation pioneered by Aladdin, were first offered by Sears in 1916. 06/16/2022 . 3 in U.S. with, at todays count, 1,963 Sears homes found.. CNDDB Maps and Data. ", "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? I thought it was very interesting when I learned that you could also buy a house from their catalogs.. 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. 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. 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. Home Whatever Happened to Those Mail-Order Houses From the Sears Catalog? 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. During the Modern Homes program, large quantities of asphalt shingles became available. Precut lumber was cut to the appropriate lengths and angles based on where the framing timber would be used in the house. Not all Sears houses were mortgaged through Sears, but many were, so it's a great help for us to be able to access those records. *Sears Americus - Temple, PA*It's been about 3 months since the last update Early on, we were joined by Sarah Mullane, who lives in North Tonawanda, New York. If those were the top sellers, no model could catch the Argyle at that rate. Ruth's Beauty Parlor: A Sears No. Ohio, Michigan, and Illinois in particular are your best bet for finding Sears homes although Newark, New Jersey apparently still has a couple. *Sears Americus - Temple, PA*It's been about 3 months since the last update So, Can We See Some Philly Suburbs Sears Houses? The builder was W.L. During the later era of pre-cut houses, we don't usually put homes on our list, if they have these kinds of design differences. The House that Came in the Mail - 99% Invisible While seeing a bunch of Sears homes jammed together in a cookie cutter suburb wasnt a very common sight in the 1930s and 40s, they still got knocked together like IKEA furniture compared to building a home from scratch. It is unknown whether any were purchased or built. ", "How to Properly Identify a Sears Magnolia", "Have You Seen This Kit Schoolhouse? Thanks for your interest! : Ohio is the state with the largest number, Pennsylvania is the third- highest-ranking state, Prince George's County, MD & Montgomery County, MD. Price: $179,900. 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.