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. Researching Historic Kit and Plan Book Homes. Lara Solonickne, who writes the blog. Our home also resembles the Bedford Model # P3249, 1926 (this was not in your listings). Instead, shipping labels were affixed to the backside of trim that identified properties. Photo from Realtor site. Its kind of exciting to learn that your home is unique because of the way it was bought and constructed, she said. Simple theme. 159. Your comment will appear after it has been previewed and approved by the blog author. The two-story schoolhouse was priced at $11,500 and its design included six classrooms, a library, an auditorium, and a superintendent's office. Interested in hearing about Rose's near-death experience? In areas where the land is already mostly developed and zoned, its not that simple. Ohio and Illinois are still leading, though, with 2700+ and 2300+, respectively. Tony LaRussa is a Tribune-Review staff writer. [37] Similiar references are made to boyhood homes of Richard Nixon and Warren Buffett. The search for Sears Roebuck houses nationwide was launched in the mid-1970's when the, This was a case of unfortunate timing. Run by experienced researcher Cindy Catanzaro (with a little help from yours truly). You can contact Tony by email at tlarussa@triblive.com or via Twitter . 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. presentation, nows your chance! According to Betcone, the two models that were the top sellers for Sears in 1930 totaled just over 100 houses a year. Some models were offered in both wood siding and brick veneer versions with different names attributed to the same or almost identical home plan. Homes built after 1916 can be identified as Sears kit homes by numbers stamped on the timbers. You can see that La Porte, Indiana is mentioned as one of the "built at" locations: We found four examples of what we believe to be the model No. 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. We also find street names that have changed (without our knowing that), or, especially for folks who bought their house in 1930-32 (the waning years of the mortgage program), we find that folks lost their homes during the depression, so we can't pin them down using the 1930 or 1940 census records. PDF See the video of my interview on the St. Louis Business Journal's website. 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. The article explained that Sears had already sold five houses that were in the midst of construction, and these first houses were all of three different models, and at least 50 more would be built with the possibility that a total of 200 might find their way to the streets of La Porte (it doesn't look like that happened). Historic house: Built in 1911, this Sears home sits on a large, corner lot in a historic district, surrounded by antebellum homes. Capture from Google Streetview. Local Sears house enthusiast Karen DeJeet, who owns a Hamilton model in Forest Hills and is a member of the Sears House Finder team, has already done much of the work identifying the mail-order homes still standing in the region. If yours is not one of those, please let us know :) We are confident about all three being Sears houses, but have not been able to authenticate any of them (with mortgage or deed records, blueprints, shipping labels, letters from Sears, or marked lumber). 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. The CNDDB is comprised of two data components: Text information and spatial information. Residential construction was drastically down nationwide due to 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. You usually just left with the clothes on your back and a few trunks, and that was it. Measuring in at a roomy 3,500 square feet, the . Tucker/Crossroads How do we know another house didn't outsell the Argyle after 1931? After all, future generations became more transient out of circumstance or in light of the digital nomad movement and taking advantage of technology in general, more mobile by choice. You'll also notice that the No. Parts for the homes, which were sold between 1908 and 1940, were delivered to the nearest rail station. 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. Thanks for your interest! Some builders and companies purchased houses directly from Sears to build as model homes, speculative homes, or homes for customers or employees. 2023 Trib Total Media | All Rights Reserved. Text information is available through RareFind 5 and provides essential information about special status species and occurrences. Moreover, it was just more feasible to plunk down a house somewhere because there just werent as many homes on account of a smaller population. Precut framing timbers, an innovation pioneered by Aladdin, were first offered by Sears in 1916. 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. marlon brando children; pete the cat and his four groovy buttons comprehension questions; nolin lake conditions; dan majerle hall of fame; dayton floor drill press,belt 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. 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. Not all Sears houses became private residences. When we find a mortgage record, we're just given a buyer's name, and a legal description of a property. Sears Magnolia was also known as Model #2089. So, they are likely from Sears. Images are available Michigan, Indiana, and New Jersey have large overall numbers, as well. Sadly, surviving Argyles do tend to be heavily altered there are probably lots more hiding in plain sight. If any of you have ever been interested in coming to see me do a kit home Because the various kit home companies often copied plan elements or designs from each other, there are a number of catalog and kit models from different manufacturers that look similar or identical to models offered by Sears. 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. Compare that to about 330 million people today. Weve got so much fucking housing just sitting there that NO ONE should be condemned to homelessness. New models were introduced every year, and some only stuck around for a couple years. One final note about our list: as I've mentioned, our list includes, for the most part, homes that we have located, ourselves, but also those that we have learned about from other people. One of the most expensive models was the Magnolia, a 10-room Colonial-style house with. 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. 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. If your house was built between 1908-1940, theres a chance it might be an original Sears house. In 1916, Sears began shipping pre-cut lumber in its mail-order kit homes that contained stamped numbers used to match pieces during construction. homes for rent in laplace 70068. national database of sears homes. Chabot notes that Sears mail-order homes sold before 1916 did not use precut lumber that was stamped with numbers to guide construction. . We just can't say, because we can't access those records. 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). Sears is estimated to have sold about 70,000 of their home building kits from 1908-1940 and its currently estimated that. Hi, Lauren! In real life, with its two full stories, the whole house is a much taller house than the Rossville/171 or the Greenview/115. 264B155. of "Where are the Sears Houses?" Other companies such as Aladdin sold mail-order homes, but thats all they sold, Chabot said. Posted by ; fort lincoln cemetery obituaries; I now live in St. Louis, Missouri, and am sometimes asked if there are any Sears houses here. 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? We maintain the National Database of Sears Houses in the U.S., where we add new finds, almost daily. 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. This table provides a Streetview link for each house (or, occasionally, a real estate listing link), and, for houses I've shown, but not provided a catalog image of, you'll find a link to a catalog image, as well. 168 (Matoka): Here is the catalog image of the No. And Sears Modern Homes werent a monolith. They had 447 different styles that ranged from simple and rustic to utterly decadent. 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. Prefab homes arent exactly an exotic concept nowadays. 171's porch roof (when it is a partial porch) connects to the house far to the right side of that upper window and then has a wedge-shape side part to that roof, so that both models end the porch just to the edge of the front door, but with a very different treatment to the shape of the porch roof there. The most popular models appeared in the catalog for multiple years. small-town America, 1920! Moreover, it was just more feasible to plunk down a house somewhere because there just werent as many homes on account of a smaller population. 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. 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. Simply put, life was rougher. 920 North Madison Avenue, Anderson, Indiana Asking: $379,900 Sears Roebuck Model: Elmhurst Year Built: 1932 Listing Agent: Julie Armington Listing Brokerage: F.C. I believe my parents were the 3rd owners purchasing the house in 1965 or 1966. While researching the property, Harbst learned it was among the first homes built in the boroughs Homestead Park neighborhood. Ohio, Michigan, and Illinois in particular are your best bet for finding Sears homes although Newark, New Jersey apparently still has a couple. 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. Precut lumber was cut to the appropriate lengths and angles based on where the framing timber would be used in the house. That's what happens [16], There was no single architect for the Sears designs. The Sears Argyle was a small house, about 1,000 square feet, and many of them have been demolished. Please browse through and enjoy the 1,000+ posts and 5,000+ photos! Sales slowly recovered as the United States emerged from the Great Depression until 1940. He published the design as #466 in his 1912 "Craftsman Bungalows" catalog. Several Sears Modern Homes are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. However, the streets that are lined with these farmhouse models (and many other houses), are actually in the Lakeview neighborhood so, we imagine that was a mistake in the article. My home reminds me of that type of architecture.. Or did we just go wrong somewhere when someone decided the house you live in should be treated like a bank? One of the biggest questions that researchers have been wanting to answer is: What is the Top-Selling Sears House of All Time? New York ranks fourth on the list with 1,679. Damn, it was like. Like this page to learn about homes purchased as kits through mail order catalogs. [34], Like the Standard Addition in Carlinville, neighborhoods of Sears houses still hold a sense of identity and community. We've found examples from the Wardway, Gordon-Van Tine, Harris Homes, and Ray H. Bennett companies. Due to reviews by homeowners then and now, it would appear that Sears Modern Homes are just as appreciated now as they were then. 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. If those were the top sellers, no model could catch the Argyle at that rate. 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. Im looking at this cute little. Please contact me if you would like a free As I detailed in the account of the rise and fall of the Sears empire, this literally led them to become the largest retailer in America because they had so many burners going at onceand their Modern Homes kits, and even the home buying process itself, were part of that in addition to catalog and retail sales. national database of sears homes. Our research team especially loves searching Pennsylvania for Sears houses because there are so many there, Chabot said. Rockstar, Consistent Trees, and Baryon Mass data from the Generation 3 and Generation 6 VELA Simulations. 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. As sales grew, Sears expanded its production, shipping, and sales offices to locations across the U.S. To provide the materials needed for the Modern Homes division, Sears operated a lumber mill in Cairo, Illinois. This is just the top of the blog page you'll find dozens of links to online catalogs here, a link to the excellent Pinterest resource made for us by Sears-house owner Dale Haynes, and a list of hard-copy book resources that are both interesting and informative.