national database of sears homes

national database of sears homes

Really, they couldn't find any space in there for the Modern Homes records? The group has identified nearly 540 of the estimated 1,000 Sears mail-order homes that are believed to have been constructed in the region. Sears is estimated to have sold about 70,000 of their home building kits from 1908-1940 and its currently estimated that. Photo from Realtor site. Washington D.C. and its nearby suburbs have an unusually rich cache of kit houses stashed away in some of the leafy, well-tended neighborhoods where 1920s houses still shine. I considered putting a full chart here, but, honestly, we have found hundreds through searching the suburban PA counties outside of Philadelphia. 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. national database of sears homes. Click to visit. 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. Simple theme. But what if you want something bigger than a tiny house, but not as gargantuan as the average American single family home? Years later, the sales records related to home sales were destroyed during a corporate house cleaning. 171 examples in La Porte. 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. Despite this large number, Sears houses are still, actually, rare, and only make up about 2% of the houses built in their era. 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". The houses made it as far as Alaska and Canada, as the parts were delivered by railroad. 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. The American Lumberman article referred to this area where the houses were being built, as the Fairview neighborhood. | 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.? Photo from Realtor site. Whitehouse. Parts for the homes, which were sold between 1908 and 1940, were delivered to the nearest rail station. 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. Did materials and labor really get that much more expensive between now and then? How did Sears Modern Homes come to be? I saw a recent article in The Star Ledger about Sears Homes that mentioned your blog. That year, the Aladdin Company of Bay City, Michigan, offered the first kit homes through mail order. For this week's listing of the week, we decided to find seven charming Sears Catalog homes you can actually buy today. Checklist Search provides a simple and fast way to generate a pre-formatted checklist suitable for printing. 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. Residential construction was drastically down nationwide due to the Great Depression. Welcome to the New NSCAA. 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. TribLIVE's Daily and Weekly email newsletters deliver the news you want and information you need, right to your inbox. Once again true to the companys roots, youre more apt to find Sears catalog homes still standing in former factory towns of the Midwest. Many of the homes original features remain intact. by . However, as you can see in the photos above, that showed the sides of the house, the Rossville/No. houses that share a name also share either a number, a floor plan or had Sears Modern Homes were kit homes and the framing members were stamped with a letter and a number to help facilitate construction. Her parents did not care much for the house and eventually moved back into their original farmhouse. The two-story schoolhouse was priced at $11,500 and its design included six classrooms, a library, an auditorium, and a superintendent's office. 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. Please contact me if you would like a free If any of you have ever been interested in coming to see me do a kit home some ch Don't miss this never before seen catalog from Sears. Powered by, This September 2017 article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, this short video story by the Washington Post. From 1931-1942 Sears sold about 5,000 houses altogether. This label was discovered in a Sears Silverdale model home built in 1911 in Northhampton, Mass., by Judith Chabots grandparents. 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. Sears is estimated to have sold about 70,000 of their home building kits from 1908-1940 and it's currently estimated that about 70% of the original Sears homes built from kits are still standing today. 1227 Disston St, Oxford Circle neighborhood of Philadelphia. There havent been any major structural changes, she said. Between 1908 and 1940, Sears, Roebuck and Co. sold nearly 75,000 kit homes through its Modern Homes program, which featured 447 styles of houses, ranging from large multistory dwellings to tiny summer cottages with an optional outhouse. 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. : Ohio is the state with the largest number, Pennsylvania is the third- highest-ranking state, Prince George's County, MD & Montgomery County, MD. Because the Modern Homes division sales records were destroyed, there is no way to definitively verify the number of Sears houses that still exist. 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. 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. These pre-1916 houses are generally considered "catalog houses", not "kit houses". Compare that to about 330 million people today. Ruth's Beauty Parlor: A Sears No. 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. 06/16/2022 . But at the time, there was a housing boom taking place as people wanted to escape the crowds and disease of the cities. 110 (, 1524 2nd Street, La Porte, Indiana earliest version of the Sears No. If your house was built between 1908-1940, theres a chance it might be an original Sears house. Some models were offered in both wood siding and brick veneer versions with different names attributed to the same or almost identical home plan. 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. While the bathroom and kitchen of this 1920 Sears mail-order house in Munhall called The Crescent have been updated, most of the homes original features remain unchanged, said owner Molly Harbst, who learned it was among the first homes built in her Homestead Park neighborhood. Simply put, life was rougher. Cities that have records of building permits may list Sears, Roebuck as the original architect. 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. [37] Similiar references are made to boyhood homes of Richard Nixon and Warren Buffett. Sears, Roebuck and Company's Modern Homes program began in 1908 and ended in 1940. In some cases, homeowners used plans from original Sears homes to recreate a modern version of a Sears home. 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. This picture came from an original set of Sears "Honor Bilt" blueprints. Beginning in 1916, the catalogs showed an additional floor plan that did have a bathroom: The rest of the examples of Sears houses in La Porte, that we have found to date, are one-off examples, so were probably individual purchases by the original homeowner, or a few spec houses by the realty company mentioned in the American Lumberman article. 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". The houses, comprising eight models, were all built in a 12-block area known as the Standard Addition. 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. The suburbs of Philadelphia are not the only places where we find Sears houses, by the way. It wasnt until she was in her 20s that Chabot learned about the homes history. Sold for 12 years and discontinued in 1928. 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. Welcome to Sears Homes! 159 examples that have a closed pediment in the gable (and a porch style difference). 126 and a Sears No. As its mail-order catalogs were already sent to millions of homes, Sears had a distinct advantage over other kit-home competitors. According to a review written by Mary Ann O'Boyle of Takoma Park, Maryland, her Sears home feels "unabashedly American, the kind of house you see in movies about the good old days" and "allows me to connect with the past". city or state, or to find someone who owns the same model as you. The. easier. Where Are The Rest Of The Sears Houses In The U.S.? [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]. According to the catalog image, both models have only a partial porch at the front of the house. Other models only appeared for one year. 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. Im looking at this cute little Cape Cod that was $886 in 1940 dollars, about $16,000 today. When the tiny house movement took off, many builders started offering everything from ready-made prehab homes to foundations and blueprints. Please contact me if you would like a free Our list, by the way, began in the early years of our research group. 5008". 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. I hope you found this informative, and learned that Sears houses come in lots of shapes, sizes, and styles. BMO, LAFC, and Angel City FC leaders were joined by special guests Earvin "Magic" Johnson and Mia Hamm for the . This system used precut timber of mostly standard sizes (2"x4" and 2"x8") for framing. She said she didnt know the house was built from a kit ordered from a catalog until after she bought it. 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. Like this page to learn about homes purchased as kits through mail order catalogs. 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. A kick-off celebration was held March 3, 2023, for the newly renamed BMO Stadium. [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. Call me a cynic, but I often wonder why kit houses were not stolen. Argyles also tend to get messed up and hard to recognize like this one at 6818 N. Oriole, Chicago or this one at 1302 Edgewood, Lake Forest. We have a database of all the models that have been identified nationwide to date. 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. And it led me to dig a little deeper into the history of my community.. Another key figure in the original research into Sears kit houses, was a woman named Beatrice Lask. 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. 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. , 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. Simply put, life was rougher. 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. Other Sears houses were found dotting other areas of La Porte, but the biggest concentration of the early models, probably all from 1912, were in that Lakeview area. However, these stamps were not used on lumber shipped before 1916, when Sears first started offering pre-cut lumber. Our research team especially loves searching Pennsylvania for Sears houses because there are so many there, Chabot said. Not all Sears houses became private residences. 118 In Columbia, 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. 168 / Matoka: I am really (really!) We have not surveyed all areas of the country equally. The house forms part of the farmstead at the museum.[40]. Depending on where you live, the thought of just building a small or medium sized house can sound totally bizarre or perhaps totally doable if youve got miles and miles of wide open space to work with. Ohio and Illinois are still leading, though, with 2700+ and 2300+, respectively. Freestanding suburban or rural homes were more likely to stand alone in undeveloped lots instead of planned tracts that were set aside by federal and state governments and/or builders that had uniformity in mind. [8] By 1934, Sears had stopped offering mortgages. Damn, it was like Stardew Valley! The search for Sears Roebuck houses nationwide was launched in the mid-1970's when the, This was a case of unfortunate timing. The larger Victorian-style houses that were already there and scant in number were out of reach for working class first-time home buyers. Tasty Soft Garlic and Herb Bread Sticks Recipe How to Make it in 23 Simple Steps, Villa Faberge! ", "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? Before 1916, the home builder had to cut their Sears-supplied lumber to appropriate lengths. ", "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. 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. Marie gives the perfect explanation of our Sears House hunt, in this. Sears has opened the doors to its vast archival collection and invited the public to peek inside. What was up with this particular model of home building, and are there any original Sears houses left? You usually just left with the clothes on your back and a few trunks, and that was it. 1916 Sears Roebuck Modern Homes. 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. that ranged from simple and rustic to utterly decadent. Tony LaRussa is a Tribune-Review staff writer. 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. Lara and Cindy were joined by Andrew Mutch, who is based out of his own Sears house, in Novi, Michigan.

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