Sears kit houses were built from 1908-1942 (see this blog post for substantiation of the 1942 date, and this follow up article), and the models offered by Sears followed the design trends of those decades. New York ranks fourth on the list with 1,679. Though we don't search for them as diligently as we do Sears Modern Homes kit houses, we have found some kits from other kit-house companies of the same era, in the St. Louis area. 12 Shocking Real Estate Facts: FREE Social Media Posts [Download]. The clues you already have seem to indicate that it may very well be the Elsmore model - age, interior and exterior designs, and 'provenance' confirmation from previous owner. Sears kit houses were built from 1908-1942. , and the models offered by Sears followed the design trends of those decades. @Jessica, after 1940. Also note how the large shed dormer comes off the ridge of the roof. by Inspectapedia Com Moderator. ), This is a fantastic post! They were hoping to meet the needs and desires of the same folks who were buying from the lumber companies. I havent found any other obvious stamps. Robinson Company, Providence, Rhode Island. @inspectapedia.com.moderator, The reason these companies want to work with us is that they know our readers represent the most engaged, professional, and committed real estate agents online today. . Are you able to tell me the model name is of the kit? the trains didn't stop at the homeowner's lot, and let them unload, there, just because their lot happened to have rail lines near it, or behind it. 8/9. The thickness dimensions do not include field-applied top coat layers of finished plaster. Fiberboard could be used as a plaster base or painted, or simply left in its tan-brown color. Asking: $484,500 Sears Modern Homes Model: The Glen Falls Year Built: 1928 Listing Agent: Markus Cross Listing Brokerage: Keller Williams Bluegrass. now, this woman was the head of facilities for the company and knew her stuff, but looking at the . I've searched many catalogs with no luck. Above is the original catalog Additional keys for identifying kit homes are given on the page above. Architect Frank Lloyd Wright's Brief but Doomed Foray Into Kit Homes. The house has been expanded and modified. You're welcome to post your photos - one per comment - on that page or on any of the recommended article pages you'll find at the end of that page. Details on the first floor indicate original to 1925 as the deed says. Sears Roebuck company began selling buildings or components of buildings in 1895. There are towns all over America that have railroads running through them, but in which we don't find any Sears houses. sometimes we do find Sears houses in those towns, but also, absolutely, in other towns far away from the railroad line. To fully appreciate the impact of the Sears kit homes, it's important to understand the reach of the company's famous catalog. The Sears Modern Homes catalog from 1930. I'm in search of the floor plan that goes with this old house that we believe is an old Sears Kit house. Do look carefully for a stencil marks and do look at some of the hardware details that we give in the articles that I recommended to you. We did not examine the mechanicals closely in this house, as they were not provided by Sears and Roebuck and were obtained locally. While Sears no longer has records of where each of the nearly 75,000. The best procedure would be to go through the Sears Kit House identification steps and details given above on this page. As the need for suburban housing grew, construction of neighborhoods of modest homes was needed. @Carlyn, Rosemary Thornton's two books There . I purchased a home in Keokuk County, Iowa one year ago . The Close has a policy of fierce editorial independence. A Sears house is: every Craftsman, bungalow, or Dutch Colonial style house you come across (though Sears did offer many Craftsman, bungalow, English cottage, Dutch Colonial, and Colonial style houses as did every other house company), a house built after 1942 (or before 1908), the only brand of kit house that existed (other companies include Gordon-Van Tine, Aladdin Homes, Bennett Homes, Wardway homes, and others), The answer to this question can be found on. On 2021-05-27 Look for additional clues besides lumber stamping, such as hardware, windows, etc. 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. 1924. Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Could this be a Sears Elsemore home? If the house at 35 Point St., New Hamburg, NY, was "shipped by Gordon Van Tine" It is more likely a Montgomery Ward "Wardway" structure, or perhaps one of the Van Tine company's own. Tucker/Crossroads. It helps to narrow that search through Sears home catalogs if you can find the year that your home was constructed. Post a photo of what you find. It helps to narrow that search through Sears home catalogs if you can find the year that your home was constructed. Love these homes. Hello! Sears, Roebuck and Company, Chicago, Illinois. I hope Sears has the common sense to donate those materials rather than throw them away.Thanks for this! I'll try to post something. BOOKS ON SEARS AND OTHER KIT OR CATALOG HOUSES. 1910. Used within a coal room door handle. it has a small enclosed front porch. 1 story, 2 br, chimney In middle. Also see this Sears Milford Kit home from the same 1933-1940 period: (Model No. Nor do I include the collection of homes in Wood River, Illinois (both towns had neighborhoods of Sears Modern Homes kits built by the Standard Oil Company, around 1918). By downloading, youll automatically subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Any ideas out there?? I am about to sell and would love any help in finding out more to pass on to the next buyer. a company which sold it as a kit house in the early 1940's. - Keystone homes (50 y.o. NTL FOLIO TH4819.P7S435 1920, A Plan Book of Harris Homes. After which it was relocated to Aurora, IL. Rock lath plaster systems like the Goodwall sheet plaster product are detailed. As you've indicated, you already have some helpful information from your home. Thank you so much. I believe we own one of the original sears homes. 1935. Here are some tips for how to make this career choice work for you. Ssrah. NTL Stacks: TH4840.S43 1935, Modern Homes. Thank you for the resources. The article above gives both lists of Sears kit home identification points or details and also lists of plan books and catalogs that one can leaf through. 1925. Rosemary Thornton, a recognized expert on Sears kit homes, offers several tips to verify a homes Sears lineage. sears osborn, sears wilmore, sears jewel, sears jewell, sears hillsboro, sears houses in Pennsylvania, Sears houses in Pittsburgh, national database of sears houses, sears houses in the u.s., sears house seeker, 5242 towers terrace, 1213 fairmont avenue, 118 poplar street, sears modern homes, sears home construction division, sears house catalogs, antiquehome.org, kit houses, mail order houses . Number 37. It was a Sears, Roebuck and Co. kit home, the Martha Washington, advertised in. Want even more free resources? with the KETC reporter, walks past and identifies several Sears home models. as we describe above on this page. Continue reading at KIT HOMES, ALADDIN, SEARS, WARDS, OTHERS or select a topic from closely-related articles below, or select a topic from the closely-related articles below, or see the complete ARTICLE INDEX. and this 1941 ALADDIN KIT HOME CATALOG (see for example the Brentwood, Brewser, Bristol, and Norfolk model Aladdin homes) with a few candidates with an expert like Thornton might see immediately as probable or improbable Sears Catalog Houses. Any help is appreciated! Once again, Sears has made history. Download Our Free E-book. Item #1 is a great reference catalog of home designs, I appreciate the additional detail on lath that I had forgotten. ). NTL Stacks: NA8480.N61, Aladdin Homes. We know that there are two purported Sears kit homes on Route 302 in Bridgton, a Sears house in Saco, and there are likely more kit homes that have not yet been surveyed and identified in subdivisions from the 20s, 30s, and 40s in our communities. COMMENT:Here's is a photo of the Sears ready-cut house that my grandfather build. Geoffrey's Toy Box - toys, video games, videos (Revival of Toys R Us) Harvey Norman - furniture, housewares, electronics; Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, Ireland, United Kingdom (Northern Ireland), Slovenia and Croatia. 613.3K . 217 Dutchess Turnpike, in Poughkeepsie, NY, a (1917) 7-room cape which used a basement cistern for its water supply and a fieldstone fireplace. That last house in Boulder, Colorado is a perfect example of the 1920s version of the Sears Oakdale, not the Clyde. Price: $569,000 Bungalow beauty: This beauty of a bungalow is tucked in the historic Westside neighborhood and has a newly remodeled kitchen and other modern upgrades. she offers a Sears house identification service. On 2021-05-13 Price: $374,900 Burlington beauty:According to the listing, this catalog home is the Vallonig model. In 1952, my grandfather put up a Cape Cod style kit house in Wilton, CTModel # NM2137-4. For more information on who we are, and what we do, visit our website: This question was recently posed in a FaceBook group that focuses on St. Louis history. Only one image can be added per comment but you can post as many comments, and therefore images, as you like. I always thought it was a Sears kit house, but the work Keystone sits in my memory, as well. Only seven Magnolias are known to exist, including one at 1500 James St., Syracuse. It was said to be in the original Chicago worlds fair. But we can't rule out traditional plaster lath. Learn all about these mail-ordered, catalog homes as we explore their unique history i. Sold under the Sears Modern Homes brand, the kits soon became a huge hit; selling thousands of homes all across the country in the company's 33-year history. it's a house whose blueprints and building supplies were ordered from a specialty Sears catalog, and all of these supplies were shipped, by rail (primarily), to the homeowner (who either chose to build the house himself, or use a contractor to arrange the construction). The kit was dropped at a depot, not at a lot. Ohio and Illinois are still leading, though, with 2700+ and 2300+, respectively. Why not sell houses in kit form through his already ubiquitous Sears & Roebuck catalog? This Sears Sunbeam is a lovely example and in original condition. The Ohio bungalow as it looks today. As you've indicated, you already have some helpful information from your home. 1931. The family has owned the Sears kit house ever since. This home was built from a Sears & Roebuck kit delivered by rail & moved from the train depot to its current location in 1914. We just bought a 1929 Vallonia and now Im obsessed! Sure, the windows are modernized along with a few skylights and what looks like an addition with vaulted ceilings, but the facade has largely stayed true to its architectural vision. Americans anywhere could flip through the four-pound, 1,400-page . had become more complex, detailed, and demanding, including stricter requirements for electrical wiring and plumbing, and Sears abandoned The best place to start would be see Sears Goodwall was touted as more fire-resistant than alternative plant-based fiberboard sheathing products. The best place to start would be see which lacks the Sears identifying stencils on framing and other key details. Sears Houses: This article series provides detailed photographic and historic clues to assist in Stamps or marks will tell you which supplier supplied Sears with the millwork, Norwood Sash and Door of Ohio. Enthusiasts call the Magnolia the "holy grail of kit houses." (Photo: Courtesy Andrew and Wendy Mutch) This past . Fully renovated in 2011, the home won the Moore Country Home Builders Associations Excellence Award for the Best Historic Renovation. We also provide an ARTICLE INDEX for this topic, or you can try the page top or bottom SEARCH BOX as a quick way to find information you need. The homes were sold through the Sears Roebuck catalog from 1908 to 1940. Of course, the home has been heavily modified from what we think its roots were as an Elmhurst model Sears catalog home, but that just adds to the charm, not to mention the square footage. Aladdin Homes. Sears Whitehall, also located in the Mordecai area of Raleigh Mordecai has several Sears Homes, including this Sears Sunbeam. Daniel Friedman has inspected and identified Sears catalog homes in the Hudson Valley of New York, and has included additional identification 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. On 2022-09-16 Thornton rattles off some statistics about Sears Catalog homes and . homes have been much modified or expanded since their original construction. This is a great resource for people in the St. Louis area. The problem starts out front, where the place is just oozing Sears Modern Homes, but the sheer size of the place and unorthodox design left us a bit puzzled as to what exactly we were looking at. 239 W. Russell Street, Barrington, $949,000. Yes Mary; Rather than trying to include all the information from the above article, the best procedure would be to go through the Sears Kit House identification steps and details given above on this page. Cairo had access to five railroad lines, and the Illinois Central line abutted the Sears plant. Sears offered these houses from 1908-1940 and there were 370 different designs. [Click to enlarge any image]. Sears heavily promoted these large sales in their advertising materials. Benefiting from Hunter's work as well as our own search we list a number of kit or catalog home manufacturers here. Price: $489,000 Livability in Lexington: Built in 1928 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, this four-bedroom home has been meticulously maintained over the years. Sears, Roebuck and Company, Chicago, Illinois. In the 1930s, during the Depression, the housing market took a sharp downturn, and by 1940, Sears stopped selling kit homes, as many people had lost their jobs and defaulted on their loans. Thornton cites a Sears house which was completed around 1944. Sears, Roebuck and Company, Chicago, Illinois. Sears opened Modern Homes sales centers in several cities, including two inMissouri - one in St. Louis and one in Kansas City. I'm doubtful we can confirm the Sears kit origin from a photo alone; as you note there were Sears kits for popular home designs built stick by stick as well as copycat kits; You'd want to find stamps on lumber, hardware details or other details given above on this page. Sears Archives Home Page The houses made it as far as Alaska and Canada, as the parts were delivered by railroad. Thank You, Marsha Blankenship, Your email address will not be published. I love the video from Chicago. Any ideas about the model of this home? The Aladdin Company, Bay City, Michigan. A 1925 Colonial-style home in Washington, D.C., that sold last year for $1.06 million had humble beginnings. See full bio. You will not receive a notification when a response to your question has been posted. Tell us about you so we know what to send. Sears Modern Homes, Sears Roebuck, Sears Kit Homes, Sears Catalog, Home Plans, Vintage Homes, Bungalow Plans, Sears Honor Bilt, . For readers whose Sears Kit home used Sears Goodwall plasterboard as a plaster base (in stead of wood or wire lath) you might be able to find a "Goodwall Sheet Plaster" stamped on the wall-cavity side of the rock lath and you might notice that the rock-lath sections were usually 4' x 4' - unlike modern drywall and fiberboard products that were and are more-often 4' x 8' or longer. Sears homes came in all shapes and sizes, and this Colonial hits a sweet spot with four bedrooms and three and a half bathrooms spanning nearly 4,000 . Price: $239,000 Converse Heights: Built in 1925, this three-bedroom, Arts and Craftsstyle home shines. I own a home in Prattville, AL that Ive been told by surrounding neighbors was purchased from Sears and Roebuck. Apartment in Munich, Upper Bavaria. Homes offers a wide variety of energy efficient homes ranging in size from 950 to over 2300 square feet with prices starting as low as fifty dollars per square foot depending on style & size. These easy-to-assemble, mail-order homes were shipped across the United States and Canada, according to the Sears archives. It's also helpful that you clarified what a not-a-Sears-house could be. this house in near Novato California in Marin County. The Anderson, Indiana house is a custom design as are quite a few Sears houses in Anderson, some of which were featured in the Modern Homes catalog in the early 1930s.