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). ", "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? If your house was built between 1908-1940, theres a chance it might be an original Sears house. There were about 132 million people by the time Sears stopped selling Sears Modern Homes kits in 1940. . The two-story schoolhouse was priced at $11,500 and its design included six classrooms, a library, an auditorium, and a superintendent's office. Orders were placed by mail, the See more 5,581 people like this 5,890 people follow this https://www.searshouses.com/ cyn.catanzaro@gmail.com By Posted on Mar 10, 2021. national database of sears homes. I believe my parents were the 3rd owners purchasing the house in 1965 or 1966. I'm not surprised that the Argyle is likely the best seller; it had a long run and was as good-looking as it was practical. 162 Sears houses still standing, including those in the city of Alexandria. 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. I think that maybe Google maps Streetview wasn't great quality on many of the streets. Precut framing timbers, an innovation pioneered by Aladdin, were first offered by Sears in 1916. How did Sears Modern Homes come to be? Ohio and Illinois are still leading, though, with 2700+ and 2300+, respectively. Please contact me if you would like a free Charleston, West Virginia is a hotspot for Sears model homes, in addition to Aladdin and Montgomery Ward homes. But Matthew has a way of pulling everything together and spitting out a coherent comparative analysis with visuals that helps us see what we hadn't noticed previously. 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. 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". Many of the famous designs were commandeered from other sources and/or purchased from architects but given just enough change to be advertised as their own. Other models only appeared for one year. Local building requirements sometimes dictated that certain elements of the house construction be done professionally and varied depending on where the house was constructed. From 1931-1942 Sears sold about 5,000 houses altogether. 264B155. This picture came from an original set of Sears "Honor Bilt" blueprints. The mortgage program was also a PR disaster, as many of the families Sears foreclosed upon refused to do further business with the company. "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. And, shortly after me, came Karen DeJeet, a Pittsburgh resident who learned of Sears houses when she found out that she lived in one (the. 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. True to the companys roots in selling to rural Midwesterners, they even had a catalog for farmhouses, barns, and other barn buildings. Tasty Soft Garlic and Herb Bread Sticks Recipe How to Make it in 23 Simple Steps, Villa Faberge! Welcome to the New NSCAA. Photo from Realtor site. We scour real estate listings, we "drive" around streets (using Google maps Streetview) in towns with a concentration of homes of the era, and we especially love researching, using primary sources such as historic newspapers and the old mortgage and deed resources held in each town's Register of Deeds office, looking for houses that were financed through Sears. 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. So Betcone gave us a huge clue as to what the top seller for Sears was. 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. So, each house that we find through these records, represents a great deal of digging, and lots of amassed knowledge in how to attack the task because each county's records system is a little different than others. Chabot said while Sears wasnt the first or only company to sell mail-order homes, they were unique among the competition. In some cases, Sears provided construction services to assemble the homes. of "Where are the Sears Houses?" presentation, nows your chance! 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. Despite being prefab, they got more character than the endless sea of suburban eyesores we got out there now. In 1908, Sears issued its first specialty catalog for houses, Book of Modern Homes and Building Plans, featuring 44 house styles ranging in price from US $360$2,890. The original "Sears Modern Homes" community page on Facebook, for those interested in Sears homes. 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. Instead, shipping labels were affixed to the backside of trim that identified properties. This phrase is trademarked and cannot be used without permission of Ricky Bobby, Inc. Fast forward to this past summer --early August of 2022. Original paperwork for the house including blueprints and letters of correspondence from Sears. The suburbs of Philadelphia are not the only places where we find Sears houses, by the way. Ha! 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. Spatial information is available through GIS downloads or can be viewed in the BIOS Viewer. Or did we just go wrong somewhere when someone decided the house you live in should be treated like a bank? . I have the Farnum in New Brighton PA. 1929. Its kind of exciting to learn that your home is unique because of the way it was bought and constructed, she said. The CNDDB is comprised of two data components: Text information and spatial information. We are a team of about 10 researchers who work together to hunt around the U.S. for Sears kit houses built during the era of the Sears Modern Homes program (1908-1942). The houses, comprising eight models, were all built in a 12-block area known as the Standard Addition. The group has identified 2,700 Sears homes in Ohio and 2,300 in Illinois. She said she also didnt know it was a mail-order house when she bought it 14 years ago. Browse the list below to see if there are Modern Homes in your city or state, or to find someone who owns the same model as you. 4120 Adams St., Gary, IN. And, to top it off, Gordon-Van Tine has a model almost the same. Did materials and labor really get that much more expensive between now and then? That's not shown anywhere for this model, so we can't say for sure if these are examples of the No. Sears's use of "balloon style" framing systems did not require a team of skilled carpenters, as did previous methods. 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 also offered a plasterboard product similar to modern drywall as an alternative to the plaster and lath wall-building techniques which required skilled carpenters and plasterers. when you switch jobs, buy a house, and go on an international trip, all Dover, Chateau, and Lexington models are particularly plentiful there! Sears Modern Homes are something we totally need to bring back from the past for this. The Sears Tower is nearly finished. [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]. 168 (Matoka): Here is the catalog image of the No. 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. 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. Simply put, life was rougher. hennessy privilege limited edition / what is mc hammer doing now 2020 / national database of sears homes. Sears Modern Homes offered more than 370 designs in a wide range of architectural styles and sizes over the line's 34-year history. Had the. More than 100 years of stories, product and brand histories, photographs, catalog images and more are now available online. The Sears Argyle was a small house, about 1,000 square feet, and many of them have been demolished. We could make the assumption that the model we have located the most was, in fact, the top seller. This product offered the advantages of low price, ease of installation, and added fire protection. We have a database of all the models that have been identified nationwide to date. Some models were offered with variations, the most common of those being expanded floor plans and additional finished living spaces. Following is a list of Sears Homes enthusiasts who have agreed
House was moved to Carbondale, CO in about 1972, Still trying to find more info.. Some models were offered in both wood siding and brick veneer versions with different names attributed to the same or almost identical home plan. Prefab homes arent exactly an exotic concept nowadays. 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. 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. 181, Sears No. If any of you have ever been interested in coming to see me do a kit home Welcome to Sears Homes! The last Sears Modern Homes catalog was issued in 1940. Click to visit. In late 1930, sales of Searshomes were starting to tank. Thank you for visiting! Thanks for giving me a new appreciation for the Argyle! 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. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. 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. I now live in St. Louis, Missouri, and am sometimes asked if there are any Sears houses here. Michigan, Indiana, and New Jersey have large overall numbers, as well. But at the time, there was a housing boom taking place as people wanted to escape the crowds and disease of the cities. national database of sears homes. 02, 2023 : History: Catalogs: Homes: Products: Brands: Stores: People Historic Homes : . Call me a cynic, but I often wonder why kit houses were not stolen. Sears mail-order house kits can often be identified by the shipping labels that were placed on the backside of trim. 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. Argyles also tend to get messed up and hard to recognize like this one at 6818 N. Oriole, Chicago or this one at 1302 Edgewood, Lake Forest. Photo from Realtor site. 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. Advertisements for Sears Modern Homes appeared through May 1942. I thought it was very interesting when I learned that you could also buy a house from their catalogs.. Ohio, Michigan, and Illinois in particular are your best bet for finding Sears homes although Newark, New Jersey apparently still has a couple. This system used precut timber of mostly standard sizes (2"x4" and 2"x8") for framing. Sears Modern Homes were kit homes and the framing members were stamped with a letter and a number to help facilitate construction. Our research team especially loves searching Pennsylvania for Sears houses because there are so many there, Chabot said. [16], There was no single architect for the Sears designs. There is some debate about whether some homes from Sears that were built in 1941 and 1942 qualify as Sears Modern Homes.