national database of sears homes

Sears' first kit houses sold for $650 to $2,500, or approximately $16,500 to $63,700 in today's dollars. In some cases, homeowners used plans from original Sears homes to recreate a modern version of a Sears home. 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. 506 W 11th Street, La Porte, Indiana probable Sears No. 199 models here in La Porte, are somewhat tweaked in their design, but we still do think that they are examples of that model. 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. However, as you can see in the photos above, that showed the sides of the house, the Rossville/No. How Many Sears Houses Are Still Out There? 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. Powered by, This September 2017 article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, this short video story by the Washington Post. This Sears mail-order house named The Crescent was built in Munhall in 1920, according to owner Molly Harbst. Before 1916, the home builder had to cut their Sears-supplied lumber to appropriate lengths. Rockstar, Consistent Trees, and Baryon Mass data from the Generation 3 and Generation 6 VELA Simulations. But, as of this date in 2021, here are leading areas in the U.S. with high numbers of Sears houses. Sears houses could also be ordered with reversed floor plans. 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. Parts for the homes, which were sold between 1908 and 1940, were delivered to the nearest rail station. Hi, Lauren! Posted by ; fort lincoln cemetery obituaries; 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. Sears also offered mortgages to home buyers and was pretty liberal with their lending terms, which made them an attractive option for widows, the self-employed, and people in marginalized groups who otherwise had trouble qualifying for traditional bank loansa problem that still persists today. Because these homes were constructed using pre-cut lumber and plans provided by Sears, these homes can be considered to be "Sears Modern Homes". This was the case with most of the compact pre-1920 Sears houses. We cannot be absolutely certain, but the numbers do not support it. Some Home Club homes have deeds from the "Port Newark Lumber and Material Company". On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. 162 Sears houses still standing, including those in the city of Alexandria. Betcone spoke of how housing styles were drastically changing and how many customers wanted more efficient, streamlined designs. Were most Sears Houses built by the owners? We could make the assumption that the model we have located the most was, in fact, the top seller. 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.". But, in the case of the early, non pre-cut houses, when we know that a large number of houses were bought by a company (or offered up on spec, by Sears), we sometimes see that special versions were created for these neighborhoods, specifically. You'll also notice that the No. Text information is available through RareFind 5 and provides essential information about special status species and occurrences. CNDDB Maps and Data. 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". Click to visit. The new owner was a Sears House fan - even produced a short doc film about the house and how she updated it. 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". As some areas begin to see population booms, such as the tech triangle region of Raleigh, Durham, and Cary as more companies and tech talent make exodus from California and New York based on what I hear from taxi drivers and my university contacts in the region at games conferences every year? 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. This Sears mail-order kit home in McCandless is owned by Normajean Moser. 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). Modest half-timbering in the gables, exposed rafters, knee braces, and gable-end ridge finials combine to create an optimistic facade. That's not shown anywhere for this model, so we can't say for sure if these are examples of the No. 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. Ive visited New Orleans several times and love the style of the buildings there. I think that we had only a handful of houses already on the list a few. The Sears Argyle was a small house, about 1,000 square feet, and many of them have been demolished. I just loved the look of it, she said. If those were the top sellers, no model could catch the Argyle at that rate. 115 cuts off abruptly, right in the middle of the front facade, even with the left side of the upper window, and it then has a straight slope porch roof jutting out. In the companys own words, Sears didnt really innovate home building. Molly Harbst of Munhall sent along photos of her beautifully preserved Sears homes a 1920 model called The Crescent after reading the article. My home reminds me of that type of architecture.. Among those chiming in about the article was Judith Chabot of St. Louis, Mo., who runs SearsHouseSeekers.com, which serves as a depository for information gathered by Sears home enthusiasts across the country. Stamped lumber: Most easily found in unfinished spaces like a basement or attic, framing members were stamped with a letter and a number. Marie's great-grandfather, Freeman Pretzinger, built this Sears. The builder was W.L. 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. We have not surveyed all areas of the country equally. 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. Weve got so much fucking housing just sitting there that NO ONE should be condemned to homelessness. One key set of homes that we are fortunate to have on our list, comes from the research of noted Architectural Historian, Rebecca L. Hunter. BMO, LAFC, and Angel City FC leaders were joined by special guests Earvin "Magic" Johnson and Mia Hamm for the . That's what happens 172, later marketed as the. Compare house designs to original catalog images. The article mentioned Sears having sold 50 houses in La Porte, Indiana but, interestingly, Sears had actually provided the funding and the houses, knowing that the area was in need of housing right away, and offered to have the houses paid for on time. The bulk order is the largest known order for Sears Modern Homes and led to Sears, Roebuck naming their "Carlin" model after the city. Tony LaRussa is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Run by experienced researcher Cindy Catanzaro (with a little help from yours truly). The suburbs of Philadelphia are not the only places where we find Sears houses, by the way. Our national database of Sears houses in the U.S., is constantly growing, with over 13,600 homes currently listed. Cities that have records of building permits may list Sears, Roebuck as the original architect. Tucker/Crossroads On another block of W 11th Street, there is an example of the Sears Modern Home No. 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. And it led me to dig a little deeper into the history of my community.. *Sears Americus - Temple, PA*It's been about 3 months since the last update Advertisements for Sears Modern Homes appeared through May 1942. This is the case for the southern New Jersey counties that are suburbs of Philadelphia. The truth is out there, and I think you've found it! Contains merger trees and halo . Sears offered 370 models over the 32 years it sold houses by catalog. 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. From 1908 to 1942, Sears sold more than 70,000 of these houses in North America, by the company's count. That's what happens presentation, nows your chance! Really, they couldn't find any space in there for the Modern Homes records? 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. Andrew Mutch ran across that same article in the American Lumberman, and posted in our group, asking if anyone was interested in looking for some of the old models that might be around. Here is a year-by-year list of houses as they were advertised in the Sears Modern Homes catalogs. By Posted on Mar 10, 2021. national database of sears homes. Looking at the sorry state of Americas rail infrastructure today, this also makes me weep although today theyd just be delivered via truck. Simply put, life was rougher. [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. The mortgage program was also a PR disaster, as many of the families Sears foreclosed upon refused to do further business with the company. 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. If any of you have ever been interested in coming to see me do a kit home Sales slowly recovered as the United States emerged from the Great Depression until 1940. None of these houses are authenticated through mortgage or deed research, but they are spot-on matches for the models, and we feel certain enough of their origin, to add them to our database. 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. Sold for 12 years and discontinued in 1928. In it, they included excerpts from an interview with David S. Betcone, who was the chief architect for Sears at the time. Some of these homes were based on models offered in the Sears Modern Homes catalog. of "Where are the Sears Houses?" But what if you want something bigger than a tiny house, but not as gargantuan as the average American single family home? sub 2:15 half marathon training plan; national database of sears homes. 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). Ruth's Beauty Parlor: A Sears No. 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. Photo from Lake County Assessor. Our list, by the way, began in the early years of our research group. Precut lumber was cut to the appropriate lengths and angles based on where the framing timber would be used in the house. Sears discontinued its Modern Homes catalog after 1940, though sales through local sales offices continued into 1942. 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. I don't know the model, but it was a 2 story - 6 room house - 3 bedrooms, 1 bath, living room, dining room, and very small galley type kitchen. This label was discovered in a Sears Silverdale model home built in 1911 in Northhampton, Mass., by Judith Chabots grandparents. 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. The NHPD is the only de-duplicated source for comprehensive data on the publicly supported housing property inventory. She said she also didnt know it was a mail-order house when she bought it 14 years ago. [5] The method was originally named in the sense that the structure was light and could be lifted away like a balloon. 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. Walker O. Lewis (primarily before early 1930), William C. Reed (primarily from 1922 - 1929), Nicholas Wieland (sometimes spelled Weiland), Shipping labels: Often found on the back of. Price: $179,900. of the original Sears homes built from kits are still standing today. You can search the house listings by clicking on a group of years ( 1908-1914 , 1915-1920 , 1921-1926 , 1927-1932 and 1933-1940 ). Researching Historic Kit and Plan Book Homes, We started looking around La Porte, Indiana, in 2015. Additionally, at this point in the Sears Modern Homes program, the homes were sold/packaged only with standard-length wood, so none of the framing lumber would have been pre-cut (and, therefore, there would be no alpha-numeric stamps on the wood pieces in the house). These stamps are normally located on or near the ends of pieces of framing timber. A Newport Beach home remains dangerously close to tumbling down a cliffside after the ground underneath gave way on Friday morning. Also, homes in southern Ohio may have financing documents through the "Norwood Sash and Door Company" of Norwood, Ohio. But at the time, there was a housing boom taking place as people wanted to escape the crowds and disease of the cities. Built around 1917 home resembles the Hazelton Model C2025,l 1915-1920 and the Vallonia Model P13049A or P13049B, 1927-1932. 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. Sales were down, and there was excess inventory languishing in warehouses. Determining which company manufactured a particular catalog and kit home may require additional research to determine the origin of that home. Homes built after 1916 can be identified as Sears kit homes by numbers stamped on the timbers. It was just recently sold again earlier this year. You can contact Tony by email at tlarussa@triblive.com or via Twitter . 159 examples that have a closed pediment in the gable (and a porch style difference). Ephemera can help identify a house as a Sears Home. The house forms part of the farmstead at the museum.[40]. Looks like Yoho probably bought plan #466 from H. L. Wilson, the actual designer. 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. Sears Modern Homes built in the 1930s may have a small circled "SR" cast into the bathtub in the lower corner (furthest from the tub spout and near the floor) and on the underside of the kitchen or bathroom sink. I love finding these houses and learning more about them, the different models that were sold and the people who bought them.. Another key figure in the original research into Sears kit houses, was a woman named Beatrice Lask. 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. 159 has two full stories on that non-porch side of the house. Also, considering that the article was published in April of 1912, all of these models would have been marketed only with their number, as no word names were given to the models until 1916. 159, except for a closed pediment up in the front and side gable. Im looking at this cute little Cape Cod that was $886 in 1940 dollars, about $16,000 today. Historic house: Built in 1911, this Sears home sits on a large, corner lot in a historic district, surrounded by antebellum homes. One of the most expensive models was the Magnolia, a 10-room Colonial-style house with. I learn all kinds of interesting stuff here; thanks! Here are both of these models in the 1911/12 Sears Modern Homes catalog. Many of these homes were built in Sears planned "Home Club Plan" developments in New Jersey, New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania.[9][10][11]. 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. city or state, or to find someone who owns the same model as you. Sears Modern Homes were kit homes and the framing members were stamped with a letter and a number to help facilitate construction. The original "Sears Modern Homes" community page on Facebook, for those interested in Sears homes. 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. I grew up in a Sears house located in Keyport NJ. While Sears no longer has records of where each of the nearly 75,000 mail-order homes it sold were built, it does main an extensive archive of the models that were available as well as the history of its Modern Homes division. 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. Search. The group has identified 2,700 Sears homes in Ohio and 2,300 in Illinois. Open to the public. While researching the property, Harbst learned it was among the first homes built in the boroughs Homestead Park neighborhood. Primarily shipped via railroad boxcars, these kits included most of the materials needed to build a house. It wasnt until she was in her 20s that Chabot learned about the homes history. Because of the economics after 1931, I can say I am. national database of sears homes42 ft gibson houseboat. Sarah is especially interested in searching the kit homes of Western New York State, and has found us some beautiful Sears houses, but she is especially revered by all of us for her extensive knowledge of kits from the Ray H. Bennett kit homes company, which was based out of North Tonawanda. 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. Harbst said it wasnt until after she bought the house that she learned homes were once sold through mail-order catalogs. Lara and Cindy were joined by Andrew Mutch, who is based out of his own Sears house, in Novi, Michigan. You usually just left with the clothes on your back and a few trunks, and that was it. 5 Jun. 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. 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. Chabot said while Sears wasnt the first or only company to sell mail-order homes, they were unique among the competition. In other cases, the home followed the general design of a Sears house without being an exact duplicate. Photo from Realtor site. As its mail-order catalogs were already sent to millions of homes, Sears had a distinct advantage over other kit-home competitors. Another gabled ell farmhouse that we found quite a few of in La Porte, is the No. If any of you have ever been interested in coming to see me do a kit home While these features werent in every single Sears home, they still set the stage for home builders to realize what people wanted in their new digs because of how much their quality of life was improved. Click on any of the linked house listings to view a picture . Your comment will appear after it has been previewed and approved by the blog author. 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 Modern Homes are something we totally need to bring back from the past for this. In the early years, the models were identified with numbers. Her parents did not care much for the house and eventually moved back into their original farmhouse. Welcome to the New NSCAA. The HMS data portal is a collection of models, simulations and synthetic observations of the Sun. 3 in U.S. with, at todays count, 1,963 Sears homes found.. Compare that to about 330 million people today. Due to reviews by homeowners then and now, it would appear that Sears Modern Homes are just as appreciated now as they were then. 171 examples in La Porte. Through those two resources, we can see not only kit-house catalogs, but also lumber-yard plan books, which offered house plans to those who were building their homes, in the 19-teens through 1930s, in the traditional method, of hiring a contractor, and buying the building resources locally. 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. 2023 Trib Total Media | All Rights Reserved. Sears's use of "balloon style" framing systems did not require a team of skilled carpenters, as did previous methods. 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. 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? They had 447 different styles that ranged from simple and rustic to utterly decadent. Wonderful, Malissa! From 1931-1942 Sears sold about 5,000 houses altogether. For this week's listing of the week, we decided to find seven charming Sears Catalog homes you can actually buy today. Michigan, Indiana, and New Jersey have large overall numbers, as well. You can clearly see a major difference on this side of the houses. 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. Jud Yoho may also have been the designer behind the popular Sears model called the Hollywood. Cindy's research in Delaware County, coupled with my research in Montgomery County, netted at least 200 hundred authenticated houses, but that research was preceded by many hours of searching the streets of Willow Grove, Glenside, and other suburbs, by Karen, Nigel, Sarah, Marie, and Andrew. According to the catalog image, both models have only a partial porch at the front of the house. It looks almost like a Sears, And, finally, we have this pretty rare model, the Sears. Sales peaked in 1929, just before the Great Depression. national database of sears homes. presentation, nows your chance! There were about 132 million people by the time Sears stopped selling Sears Modern Homes kits in 1940. New York ranks fourth on the list with 1,679. contacting them by clicking on their name. Asphalt shingles were cheap to manufacture and ship, and easy and inexpensive to install. I see you posted about the origins of Hollywood three years ago! Related: Floating Chairs and Texas McMansions | McMansions vs Really Big Houses | Strange Mansion in Carmel, Indiana | What is a Mansion. website, which was published from Oct 2013 to Nov 2014. 110 (, 1524 2nd Street, La Porte, Indiana earliest version of the Sears No. 159, but it's likely especially because we have found interior views of a couple, and we think we see Sears staircase balusters and newel. This means that information about the Modern Homes department is scarce. In some cases, Sears provided construction services to assemble the homes. I have seen articles throughout the years about Sears homes in the Pittsburgh area, she wrote after reading the Trib story. Were most Sears Houses built by the owners? The CNDDB is comprised of two data components: Text information and spatial information. Another old model found predominantly in that Lakeview area, was the. 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. We have just over 200 Sears houses on our list, that came from Rebecca's research project in Elgin (it also included kit houses from other companies, that she was able to identify -- we've added those to our lists for those companies, as well). We love her for giving us this to quote over and over again and for the many Sears houses that she has added to our list. The company was forced to liquidate $11 million in defaulted debt. We just can't say, because we can't access those records. 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. My daughter and son-in-law have a 1924 Homeville in Abington! Local building requirements sometimes dictated that certain elements of the house construction be done professionally and varied depending on where the house was constructed. that ranged from simple and rustic to utterly decadent. Because lets get real: those adorable and affordable ranchers were only for CERTAIN veterans and their families. But David Betcone told us what model was in first place as of 1931. The Sears Argyle was named after Argyle Street in Chicago. 126 and a Sears No. within a fe A very special, authenticated Aladdin home just hit the market in Takoma They had. [5] Early balloon structures were very basic, to enable home buyers to assemble them independently and also because designers had yet to see the implications the method held.[5]. The houses, comprising eight models, were all built in a 12-block area known as the Standard Addition. 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. Stevenson, Katherine Cole, and Jandl, H. Ward, (1995), Davis, Michael W.R. and Schweitzer, Robert (1990), This page was last edited on 4 March 2023, at 21:18. took off, many builders started offering everything from ready-made prehab homes to foundations and blueprints. Sears licensed the plans for the Argyle from a. real estate builder/developer named Jud Yoho. 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). Home Whatever Happened to Those Mail-Order Houses From the Sears Catalog? We've found examples from the Wardway, Gordon-Van Tine, Harris Homes, and Ray H. Bennett companies. 324 W Johnson Road Sears Jewel, Jewell, or Wilmore (depends on the year). I saw a recent article in The Star Ledger about Sears Homes that mentioned your blog. Species: 4,512; Preserves: 238; Sightings: 95,174 .

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