national database of sears homes

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. Simple theme. Sears Modern Homes It is unknown whether any were purchased or built. Parts for the homes, which were sold between 1908 and 1940, were delivered to the nearest rail station. Here is a year-by-year list of houses as they were advertised in the Sears Modern Homes catalogs. Basic cross-gabled two-story farmhouses are to be found almost everywhere in towns and cities as well as many rural areas throughout the United States. Photo from Realtor site. Theres a whole checklist of signs to look for, 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. Our list, by the way, began in the early years of our research group. 181, Sears No. In their own way, houses with Craftsman-style design elements often managed their own form of ebullient excess such as Modern Home No. 159 examples that have a closed pediment in the gable (and a porch style difference). Thats cheaper than many tiny houses and with space to actually breathe and have more than one person live with you without wanting to kill each other. Once again true to the companys roots, youre more apt to find Sears catalog homes still standing in former factory towns of the Midwest. 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. Despite this large number, Sears houses are still, actually, rare, and only make up about 2% of the houses built in their era. took off, many builders started offering everything from ready-made prehab homes to foundations and blueprints. Rebecca lives in Elgin, Illinois, and undertook a huge research project, to find, and document, kit houses in that town. Many of these homes were built in Sears planned "Home Club Plan" developments in New Jersey, New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania.[9][10][11]. Researching Historic Kit and Plan Book Homes, We started looking around La Porte, Indiana, in 2015. We have three on our list in Glenside -- one on Cedar, one on Tyson, and one on Edge Hill Rd. Spatial information is available through GIS downloads or can be viewed in the BIOS Viewer. We just can't say, because we can't access those records. 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. Sears mail-order house kits can often be identified by the shipping labels that were placed on the backside of trim. Sears Houses In the U.S. Sears licensed the plans for the Argyle from a. real estate builder/developer named Jud Yoho. June 1, 2022. by etc north vernon covid testing. After several years, Sears also began assigning names to the various models. 1232, later marketed as the No. 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, models were probably the great-grandaddy of the modern McMansion, with the, model being its odd little cousin that sits in the potato salad at the family reunion, what with the odd arrangement of, True to the companys roots in selling to rural Midwesterners, they even had a catalog for farmhouses, barns, and other barn buildings. Did materials and labor really get that much more expensive between now and then? 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. Philadelphia Inquirer: Sears Homes In the Philly S 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. You can contact Tony by email at tlarussa@triblive.com or via Twitter . 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. In some cases, Sears provided construction services to assemble the homes. The last Sears Modern Homes catalog was issued in 1940. If you are a Historical Society interested in awarding plaques for specific homes understood to be Sears houses, please feel free to contact us to verify for you that the house does match a model offered in the Sears Modern Homes catalogs. If you don't know what that means, look at these two examples, and note where the orange arrow points that little extra strip of roofing that makes a sort of closed triangle. Contains merger trees and halo . 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. During the Modern Homes program, large quantities of asphalt shingles became available. 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. As its mail-order catalogs were already sent to millions of homes, Sears had a distinct advantage over other kit-home competitors. 306 Highland, Madison, WI. Price: $179,900. Tailor the data to your community to help preserve your local assets or explore national data to better understand the need for affordable housing and the dynamics of the publicly supported housing market. 1916 Sears Roebuck Modern Homes. 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. . Years later, the sales records related to home sales were destroyed during a corporate house cleaning. | 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.? Shipping label image from my mother's family's 1911 Sears No. How did Sears Modern Homes come to be? Sales were down, and there was excess inventory languishing in warehouses. Powered by, Table of Sears Houses in La Porte, Indiana. Sears Homes Enthusiasts Data Portal - NASA national database of sears homes national database of sears homescalgary police organizational chart. Modest half-timbering in the gables, exposed rafters, knee braces, and gable-end ridge finials combine to create an optimistic facade. 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. So this blog has been radio silent for a while now! The Sears Argyle was named after Argyle Street in Chicago. Thanks for your interest! We have not surveyed all areas of the country equally. They raised four kids in that house, Steel wrote. 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. My uncle mentioned that he had found some shipping labels from Sears in the house and when we asked my grandmother about it, she said: Oh, yes, we ordered it from the Sears catalog, Chabot said. Rockstar, Consistent Trees, and Baryon Mass data from the Generation 3 and Generation 6 VELA Simulations. In the early years, the models were identified with numbers. 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. Lara was joined by researcher Cindy Catanzaro, who researches especially in Ohio, and writes the blog. Some builders and companies purchased houses directly from Sears to build as model homes, speculative homes, or homes for customers or employees. According to Betcone, the two models that were the top sellers for Sears in 1930 totaled just over 100 houses a year. Wonderful, Malissa! The. 5008". Sears Is Crumbling, but These 9 Sears Catalog Homes Stand Tall 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. Asbury Methodist Village Communications Dept. In other cases, the home followed the general design of a Sears house without being an exact duplicate. 1232 / No. Also, homes in southern Ohio may have financing documents through the "Norwood Sash and Door Company" of Norwood, Ohio. The two-story schoolhouse was priced at $11,500 and its design included six classrooms, a library, an auditorium, and a superintendent's office. 506 W 11th Street, La Porte, Indiana probable Sears No. From 1931-1942 Sears sold about 5,000 houses altogether. 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. 920 North Madison Avenue, Anderson, Indiana Asking: $379,900 Sears Roebuck Model: Elmhurst Year Built: 1932 Listing Agent: Julie Armington Listing Brokerage: F.C. Early on, we were joined by Sarah Mullane, who lives in North Tonawanda, New York. Thanks! Sears Modern Homes were sold between 1908 and 1942. 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. 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. That year, the Aladdin Company of Bay City, Michigan, offered the first kit homes through mail order. 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. She searched the Sears Home archive until she found a catalog with a photo and description of her home. 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. These stamps are normally located on or near the ends of pieces of framing timber. The house was in original condition and was never modified while we lived there - it was sold in 2003 or early 2004. Keep in mind, however, that even though we have found well over 200 Sears houses in the PA and NJ suburbs of Philadelphia, those are densely populated areas. The first mail order for a Sears house was filled that year. Compare that to about 330 million people today. Really, they couldn't find any space in there for the Modern Homes records? Search. Our national database of Sears houses in the U.S. has over 13,500 homes on it, and, after Ohio and Illinois, Pennsylvania is No. Ohio and Illinois are still leading, though, with 2700+ and 2300+, respectively. , 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. It was just recently sold again earlier this year. 175 (in 1913). Photo from Realtor site. national database of sears homes - nyomkovetes-blog.hu Sears mail-order homes prove plentiful in Western Pennsylvania 217 (early Starlight), Sears Modern Home No, 126, on the left, at 808 W 11th Street, La Porte, Indiana, On the right, Sears Modern Home No. Sears provided "capital and materials", on the condition that lots and foundations were already in place. 199 (the predecessor to the Sears, We've put eleven houses on our list that we are pretty confident are the early version of the. There were about 132 million people by the time Sears stopped selling Sears Modern Homes kits in 1940. Images are available Sears Homes 1908-1914 The multi-million-dollar home has been red-tagged while two other 2) Look for shipping labels. Sears Modern Homes - Wikipedia Car culture hadnt yet arrived, but trains and trolleys began extending to these greener areas that were still pretty empty so you could visit or work in the city. 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. My daughter and son-in-law have a 1924 Homeville in Abington! From 1908 to 1940, the Sears Modern Homes Program offered complete mail-order houses to the would-be homeowner what would come to be called "kit homes." Customers could select from dozens of different models in Sears Modern Homes Catalog, order blueprints, send in a check, and a few weeks later everything they needed would arrive in a train car, its door secured with a small red wax . I thought it was very interesting when I learned that you could also buy a house from their catalogs.. Stamped lumber: Most easily found in unfinished spaces like a basement or attic, framing members were stamped with a letter and a number. [16], There was no single architect for the Sears designs. But before all this, having to get your own home built was more common instead of getting on a waitlist for a HUD-subsidized tract home or buying one secondhand from the current occupant. 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. This means that information about the Modern Homes department is scarce. , in addition to Aladdin and Montgomery Ward homes. 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. Several Sears Modern Homes are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Damn, it was like. 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, Sears No 137 In Mendham, New Jersey, Morris County. Your comment will appear after it has been previewed and approved by the blog author. I know of several other models in McCandless. See that curled element at the hinge edge? She said she didnt know the house was built from a kit ordered from a catalog until after she bought it. One of the biggest questions that researchers have been wanting to answer is: What is the Top-Selling Sears House of All Time? By Posted on Mar 10, 2021. national database of sears homes. 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. Click to visit. However, these stamps were not used on lumber shipped before 1916, when Sears first started offering pre-cut lumber. [15] 1908 was the only year the schoolhouse appeared in the catalog. : Ohio is the state with the largest number, Pennsylvania is the third- highest-ranking state, Prince George's County, MD & Montgomery County, MD. There was one snippet in the press release that only a couple newspapers reprinted: "Following twelve years of usefulness, one old design was removed from the home catalogue in 1928, as antiquated after having been constructed more than 1700 times, which probably constitutes the world's record for any construction duplication from a single house plan, he [Betcone] says.". sub 2:15 half marathon training plan; national database of sears homes. Without complete sales records, we cannot say definitively that the Sears Argyle was the top seller. This site is a tribute to the original Sears Houses in Cincinnati national database of sears homes - thenscaa.com 159. We soon realized that she had a keen eye for Sears houses (and a keen love for them, as her great-grandfather had built a Sears Martha Washington in Oakwood, Ohio), and she joined our research group. Harbst said many of the original features in her home are intact and the exterior remains mostly unchanged. Ha! Interested in hearing about Rose's near-death experience? 168 / Matoka: I am really (really!) rebeccahunter1216@gmail.com. Authorities shoot, wound carjacking suspect who fired at officers within a fe A very special, authenticated Aladdin home just hit the market in Takoma Thank you for visiting! Sears houses can be identified or authenticated using the following methods. to you on Flickr or Pinterest. Finally, if you really want to understand the basics of what a Sears Modern Homes kit house is, and what it is not, you might find this blog post of mine to be helpful and informative.

How To Thicken Crawfish Etouffee, Anderson County Tn Obituaries, Articles N