national database of sears homes

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national database of sears homes

Fast forward to this past summer --early August of 2022. Kushel is credited with suggesting to Richard Sears that the company assemble kits of all the parts needed and sell entire houses through mail order. 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. 171 often has a full front porch that ends up extending all the way to the left side of the house. I know of several other models in McCandless. Later, Sears constructed a second mill in Port Newark, New Jersey and purchased the Norwood Sash and Door Company in Norwood, Ohio. 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. There is some debate about whether some homes from Sears that were built in 1941 and 1942 qualify as Sears Modern Homes. national database of sears homes42 ft gibson houseboat. 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. 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. 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. Welcome to Sears Homes! Tony LaRussa is a Tribune-Review staff writer. The most popular models appeared in the catalog for multiple years. Buyers could hire a contractor to assemble their home or build it themselves following the detailed instructions that were included. Sears Modern Homes were sold between 1908 and 1942. But, as of this date in 2021, here are leading areas in the U.S. with high numbers of Sears houses. 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. This system used precut timber of mostly standard sizes (2"x4" and 2"x8") for framing. Thank you for visiting! We found and listed about three houses, I think but didn't really focus on La Porte much more than that day in 2015. 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. Modern Home 264B155 - Two-story Craftsman-style Bungalow - 1916 Sears national database of sears homes - thenscaa.com 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's great-grandfather, Freeman Pretzinger, built this Sears. Other times, the legal description refers to a house being on "a road leading from York to Millville", and maybe the lot bordering "the land of Joseph Craws" usually, that road, if we can figure out which one it is, is miles and miles long, and there's no way to find "the land of Joseph Craws", so that's of no help at all. That year, the Aladdin Company of Bay City, Michigan, offered the first kit homes through mail order. You roughed it until you found a new place and if you wanted a FOREVER home, you stayed put until it was done being built. 168 (Matoka): Here is the catalog image of the No. The kit was greatly modified by Lane's ambitious designs. The NHPD is the only de-duplicated source for comprehensive data on the publicly supported housing property inventory. From 1931-1942 Sears sold about 5,000 houses altogether. An open floor plan with sensible . 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. national database of sears homescalgary police organizational chart. Chuck Holtzen has joined up with Lara to do research in Illinois, and has been helpful in adding a number of authenticated houses to our list. In 1916, Sears began shipping pre-cut lumber in its mail-order kit homes that contained stamped numbers used to match pieces during construction. According to the US Census, there were about 88.7 million people living in the United States. [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]. The original "Sears Modern Homes" community page on Facebook, for those interested in Sears homes. 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. Shipped by railroad boxcar, and then usually trucked to a home site, the average Sears Modern Home kit had about 25 tons of materials, with more than 30,000 parts. Not all Sears houses became private residences. Looking at the sorry state of Americas rail infrastructure today, this also makes me weep although today theyd just be delivered via truck. Sears houses can be identified or authenticated using the following methods. To drum up business, Sears issued a press release to newspapers across the United States. Enjoy! Between 1908 and 1940, Sears Roebuck and Co. published specialty catalogs offering house plans and building materials. 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've found examples from the Wardway, Gordon-Van Tine, Harris Homes, and Ray H. Bennett companies. We just can't say, because we can't access those records. In other cases, the home followed the general design of a Sears house without being an exact duplicate. Pre-cut lumber reduced construction time by up to 40%, according to Sears. 159. The House that Came in the Mail - 99% Invisible 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. 162 Sears houses still standing, including those in the city of Alexandria. It was built in 1917. Another gabled ell farmhouse that we found quite a few of in La Porte, is the No. Knowing the limitations of a newspaper article, I know that he will only be able to show one or two house photos, so I thought that I would highlight a few that we have found, through our research. "The Sears Homes of Illinois" has more than 200 color photos of the most popular designs that Sears offered and can be very helpful in identifying Sears Homes. [34], Like the Standard Addition in Carlinville, neighborhoods of Sears houses still hold a sense of identity and community. Without complete sales records, we cannot say definitively that the Sears Argyle was the top seller. Its kind of exciting to learn that your home is unique because of the way it was bought and constructed, she said. I see you posted about the origins of Hollywood three years ago! Home Whatever Happened to Those Mail-Order Houses From the Sears Catalog? The house was in original condition and was never modified while we lived there - it was sold in 2003 or early 2004. Michigan, Indiana, and New Jersey have large overall numbers, as well. From 1908 to 1942, Sears sold more than 70,000 of these houses in North America, by the company's count. website, which was published from Oct 2013 to Nov 2014. Whatever Happened to Those Mail-Order Houses From the Sears Catalog? 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. Remember when Sears sold houses? See some of Ann Arbor's kit homes - mlive The two-story schoolhouse was priced at $11,500 and its design included six classrooms, a library, an auditorium, and a superintendent's office. Images of Sears Homes On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. If you have any authenticating source for us, we'd love to hear about it (you can email me directly at SearsHouseSeeker@gmail.com). 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. Identifying Sears Homes has become a pastime among history enthusiasts because of their sturdy structure, the do-it-yourself nature of construction, and the popular architectural design concepts. 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? Ohio, Michigan, and Illinois in particular are your best bet for finding Sears homes although Newark, New Jersey apparently still has a couple. However, as you can see in the photos above, that showed the sides of the house, the Rossville/No. It's likely that other Sears models can be traced to him as well. Our national database of Sears houses in the U.S., is constantly growing, with over 13,600 homes currently listed. Chabot notes that Sears mail-order homes sold before 1916 did not use precut lumber that was stamped with numbers to guide construction. Sears mail-order homes prove plentiful in Western Pennsylvania Before 1916, the home builder had to cut their Sears-supplied lumber to appropriate lengths. Sales peaked in 1929, just before the Great Depression. We've seen this in Carlinville, Illinois, and we've seen this with large orders of homes bought from Aladdin and from Gordon-Van Tine. The CNDDB is comprised of two data components: Text information and spatial information. One Magnolia built in Lincoln, Nebraska, was demolished in 1985. A number of those homes are featured on the organizations website. 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. I'm sure it was Matthew who cleared up for me that the No. This phrase is trademarked and cannot be used without permission of Ricky Bobby, Inc. I thought it was very interesting when I learned that you could also buy a house from their catalogs.. 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. Its not like nowadays where you move, wait for your stuff to arrive, and if youre a. like me, youre pretty much unable to work while you wait for a technician to ensure you have Internet access. I'm currently working my way through the Burlington County records, but they are limited, and set up in a way that makes the process very time consuming. of "Where are the Sears Houses?" Chabot can help people identify if their home was built from a Sears kit if they provide her with an address of the property through the House Seekers website, which also has links to catalogs produced by the company and other sellers. BMO Celebrates Kickoff of the 2023 Soccer Season at 'BMO Stadium' in Call me a cynic, but I often wonder why kit houses were not stolen. It is unknown whether any were purchased or built. The rest of these models are singletons, from the mid 1920s to early 1930s. 171 examples in La Porte. . For this week's listing of the week, we decided to find seven charming Sears Catalog homes you can actually buy today. There were about 132 million people by the time Sears stopped selling Sears Modern Homes kits in 1940. . small-town America, 1920! 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. Search. R.L. Hunter Press: Mail Order House Research The. Originally marketed as the. Philadelphia Inquirer: Sears Homes In the Philly Suburbs and Sears In late 1930, sales of Searshomes were starting to tank. 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. 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. Thanks to Ancestry.com, we are often able to get a street name from a census record, but we run into problems there, when we find a town that has no street names (yes! 168/Matoka, 301 Weller Avenue, La Porte, Indiana probable Sears Modern Home No. Please contact me if you would like a free 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. 159 was available with either clipped gables or peak gables, for the roof. Images are available Sears Modern Homes - Home | Facebook 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. Sears offered 370 models over the 32 years it sold houses by catalog. when you switch jobs, buy a house, and go on an international trip, all If those were the top sellers, no model could catch the Argyle at that rate. Images are available 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. Without facts and sales records, we can make an educated guess. In some cases, homeowners used plans from original Sears homes to recreate a modern version of a Sears home. You can contact Rose through her Facebook group, "Sears Kit Homes" or email: Magnolia2047@gmail.com. 306 Highland, Madison, WI. The Sears Argyle was a small house, about 1,000 square feet, and many of them have been demolished. small-town America even into the 1940 census). 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 . 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). Run by experienced researcher Cindy Catanzaro (with a little help from yours truly). 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. Posted by ; fort lincoln cemetery obituaries; Prefab homes arent exactly an exotic concept nowadays. In a second blog post, I'll show the several probable kit houses that we've found in LaPorte, Indiana, from other companies. The bulk order is the largest known order for Sears Modern Homes and led to Sears, Roebuck naming their "Carlin" model after the city. 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. 110 (, 1524 2nd Street, La Porte, Indiana earliest version of the Sears No. So, they are likely from Sears. Price: $179,900. According to Betcone, the two models that were the top sellers for Sears in 1930 totaled just over 100 houses a year. contacting them by clicking on their name. the case of the Anstett family of Torrington, Connecticut. muhammad ali i am the greatest speech transcript . The builder was W.L. Thank you for visiting! 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. ", "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? 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. This Sears mail-order kit home in McCandless is owned by Normajean Moser. As its mail-order catalogs were already sent to millions of homes, Sears had a distinct advantage over other kit-home competitors. Some models were offered with variations, the most common of those being expanded floor plans and additional finished living spaces. [14], In addition to houses, the 1908 Sears catalog offered a kit schoolhouse with the model name "Schoolhouse No. In the story, homeowner Alicia Dallago said she had no idea the home she bought in 1998 was built from a kit. House was moved to Carbondale, CO in about 1972, Still trying to find more info.. Photo from Lake County Assessor. One of the early Sears House researchers that our group still relies on for her expertise in the D.C. housing market, is D.C. realtor Catarina Bannier (Bannier & Sandalow). Lara was joined by researcher Cindy Catanzaro, who researches especially in Ohio, and writes the blog. According to Betcone, the two models that were the top sellers for Sears in 1930 totaled just over 100 houses a year. Its not like nowadays where you move, wait for your stuff to arrive, and if youre a work-at-home like me, youre pretty much unable to work while you wait for a technician to ensure you have Internet access. New York state is 4th, with 1,679 houses found. We cannot be absolutely certain, but the numbers do not support it. Or did we just go wrong somewhere when someone decided the house you live in should be treated like a bank? 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. Carrying on with Same Name, Different House topic we find that some of the 159 examples that have a closed pediment in the gable (and a porch style difference). Lara Solonickne, who writes the blog. 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. Capture from Google Streetview. In the companys own words, Sears didnt really innovate home building. In their own way, houses with Craftsman-style design elements often managed their own form of ebullient excess such as Modern Home No. PDF See the video of my interview on the St. Louis Business Journal's website. 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). You usually just left with the clothes on your back and a few trunks, and that was it. You can contact Tony by email at tlarussa@triblive.com or via Twitter . In it, they included excerpts from an interview with David S. Betcone, who was the chief architect for Sears at the time. 217 was not shown with an in-house bathroom. 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. Checklist Search provides a simple and fast way to generate a pre-formatted checklist suitable for printing. 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). 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. 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. 159 has two full stories on that non-porch side of the house. At Greenlawn Cemetery, near the Hampton Roads waterfront in the Newport News, Virginia, area, the cemetery office building is a 1936 Sears Modern Home. The house that would soon become the Argyle in one of Yoho's magazines, 1913. 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. Stamped lumber: Most easily found in unfinished spaces like a basement or attic, framing members were stamped with a letter and a number. Whitehouse. Although it is sometimes claimed that no Sears kit homes were built after 1940, Sears continued to offer pre-cut kit homes through 1941 and into early 1942. [16], There was no single architect for the Sears designs. Many of the smaller models are regularly torn down. homes for rent in laplace 70068. national database of sears homes. We thought it might be of interest to those readers to point out some more of the history of Sears houses in the greater Pittsburgh area, said Chabot, whose family still owns a Sears Silverdale model home in Northampton, Mass., that was built by her great-grandparents in 1911. Boxabl is selling shipping container homes for about $50,000 a pop and Amazon is also selling prefab tiny houses at a variety of sizes and price points. The houses, comprising eight models, were all built in a 12-block area known as the Standard Addition. 199 models here in La Porte, are somewhat tweaked in their design, but we still do think that they are examples of that model. *Sears Americus - Temple, PA*It's been about 3 months since the last update She said she also didnt know it was a mail-order house when she bought it 14 years ago. If your house was built between 1908-1940, theres a chance it might be an original Sears house. Whatever Happened to Those Mail-Order Houses From the Sears Catalog? Parts for the homes, which were sold between 1908 and 1940, were delivered to the nearest rail station. The original "Sears Modern Homes" community page on Facebook, for those interested in Sears homes. The truth is out there, and I think you've found it! Sears discontinued its Modern Homes catalog after 1940, though sales through local sales offices continued into 1942. How did Sears Modern Homes come to be? 7 Charming Sears Catalog Homes You Can Buy Today Despite this large number, Sears houses are still, actually, rare, and only make up about 2% of the houses built in their era. Ohio and Illinois are still leading, though, with 2700+ and 2300+, respectively. national database of sears homes - nyomkovetes-blog.hu Here is one of the eleven examples in La Porte: This early version of the No. 1916 Sears Roebuck Modern Homes. to you on Flickr or Pinterest. Here is one at 17 Hill Street, Villa Park. Im looking at this cute little Cape Cod that was $886 in 1940 dollars, about $16,000 today. Catalogs Online: Sears, Radford, Gordon-Van Tine, Sears Starlight (Sears Homes of Chicagoland), Sears Door Hardware: La Tosca, Shefton, Rhythmic, ONLINE CATALOGS on Archive.org: Sears, GVT, Radford +more. 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. Asbury Methodist Village Communications Dept. 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. This picture came from an original set of Sears "Honor Bilt" blueprints. So, Can We See Some Philly Suburbs Sears Houses? 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. Sears Modern Homes Our goal is always to authenticate these houses through mortgage and deed research, or other primary sources, but, when that is not possible, we apply a careful, team approach to analyzing each house that goes on our national list. 172/ Hazelton, at 810 W 11th Street, La Porte, Indiana. website, which was published from Oct 2013 to Nov 2014. 175 (in 1913). Lets find out! Many of the homes original features remain intact. 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. Those are ridiculously difficult to pin down. . Sears is estimated to have sold about 70,000 of their home building kits from 1908-1940 and its currently estimated that. Early on, we were joined by Sarah Mullane, who lives in North Tonawanda, New York. Sadly, surviving Argyles do tend to be heavily altered there are probably lots more hiding in plain sight. [13] Only seven Magnolias are known to be still standing. The larger Victorian-style houses that were already there and scant in number were out of reach for working class first-time home buyers. 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. took off, many builders started offering everything from ready-made prehab homes to foundations and blueprints. The suburbs of Philadelphia are not the only places where we find Sears houses, by the way. 1227 Disston St, Oxford Circle neighborhood of Philadelphia. It was just recently sold again earlier this year. Simply put, life was rougher. presentation, nows your chance! some ch Don't miss this never before seen catalog from Sears.