Easily identified by its hanging bay window on the side (which extends up to the roof line) and its distinctive Castleton dormer with 3 windows. Have you gotten your home sold yet? Here are some tips for how to make this career choice work for you. We settled on Vallonia, because of the awning, but the porch and columns are all wrong. by Adrian McCullough. 1931. in the Kit House Identification article above we cite Thornton's books describing Sears kit homes, but you may want to step through the definitive list of key Sears Kit Home identification points given in the article above right here; This was the norm in the era of kit houses kit houses were not the norm. It was said to be in the original Chicago worlds fair. @Dee, Sears promised that this sheet plaster was superior to lath and plaster for many reasons, including its fire resistant qualities. On 2021-05-27 I wonder what else is in those archives! No matter where the depot was, to which the kit was delivered, homeowners found a way to haul the materials to their lot. Sears Manufactured Homes More than 100 years of history now available online.Sears has a rich, long history to tell dating back to 1886 when Richard Sears sold the first batch of watches. The fact that there was a railroad in the town, or running behind a house, does not really make it any more likely to have Sears houses in the town. the identification of Sears Catalog or Kit homes and including references to other expert books and resources on Sears kit homes were shipped via boxcar and came with a 75-page instruction book. It's also helpful that you clarified what a not-a-Sears-house could be. Fully renovated in 2011, the home won the Moore Country Home Builders Associations Excellence Award for the Best Historic Renovation. Number 32. We did not photograph the kitchen and bath as they had been remodeled leaving no obvious original materials. Offices Locations.jpg download. We've had less success finding details about other kit home companies selling in the United States and Canada, though Rebecca Hunter has compiled a list of a variety of kit house companies. The Anderson, Indiana house is a custom design as are quite a few Sears houses in Anderson, some of which were featured in the Modern Homes catalog in the early 1930s. Specially prepared plaster was also sold in bags of the hard plaster and top coat hard plaster to be applied over this Sears plasterboard. For example, Sears sold only, Rose and I have communicated recently about these houses, and she very graciously agreed to update her blog post to reflect that we now know that these are not actually Sears houses, as she is a strong believer in the importance of the accuracy of historic records (. If you look at an old Sears catalog, youll find that while kit houses did not include plaster (due to shipping weight), your 12,000-piece kit house did come with good quality lath. There is no list of homes sold by Sears, as all of their records were discarded. Located in the desirable Converse Heights neighborhood, the home greets visitors with a large front porch. In 1908, when Sears began selling homes by mail, one-fifth of the country subscribed, according to a 99 Percent Invisible podcast about the program. On 2022-09-16 Not every house in a community of 1920s-era houses, is a Sears house, for example far, far from it, in fact, as only about 2% of houses built in the kit era, were built with kits from Sears. Hi Wizards, Download Our Free E-book. Your comment will appear after it has been previewed and approved by the blog author. Bill and Diana Zoeller's dog Bear stands on the original flooring inside their Craftsman home. on what time and labor the buyer had available to build their house. 8 September 2005. If My House Is Not A Kit, Where Did It Come From? What year and style home? ALADDIN KIT HOUSES https://inspectapedia.com/Design/Aladdin_Kit_Houses.php Sears kit homes weathered decades, now quite valuable - SFGATE She says from 1908 to 1942, Sears sold more than 70,000 kits nationwide, and more than 3,000 in the Cincinnati area. With so many of these homes sold, many still come up for sale. Number 44. it's a house whose blueprints and building supplies were ordered from a specialty Sears catalog, and all of these supplies were shipped, by rail (primarily), to the homeowner (who either chose to build the house himself, or use a contractor to arrange the construction). Homes Sears Homes Enthusiasts Following is a list of Sears Homes enthusiasts who have agreed to share their names with others who might be interested in contacting them by clicking on their name. 12 Shocking Real Estate Facts: FREE Social Media Posts [Download]. Aladdin Homes. On 2022-01-26 And give us the country and city of location of the home. If the house at 35 Point St., New Hamburg, NY, was "shipped by Gordon Van Tine" It is more likely a Montgomery Ward "Wardway" structure, or perhaps one of the Van Tine company's own. More than 30 readers responded, with stories about how much they loved their Sears homes. modular home company) - https://www.homesbykeystone.com/ Starting in 1916 [? This article I'd like to be able to answer your question but as there were over 100 kit home models made over quite a few decades, with just your description I cannot. Are there old catalogs we can view to know whether this is a Sears Kit home? Please use the add image button to post a photo or two of the home - one per comment. Most real estate company names are boring at best. The materials were reportedly shipped in via railroad as a package. Please bookmark this page to make it easy for you to check back for our response. @Sara, we'll look through our references to see what we can add to the Sears kit home notes above for those earlier models and will follow up here. We do not accept money, services, or products in exchange for positive reviews or product placement. Kit homes used drywall, asphalt shingles, and "balloon" style. For nearly 100 years the home has been meticulously cared for and features hardwood flooring, enclosed front porch, and renovated kitchen. cit. As shown here in September, 2005 this charming house was listed for sale by its owners for $299,000. 7 Charming Sears Catalog Homes You Can Buy Today Asking: $374,900 Sears Modern Homes Model: The Sunbeam Year Built: 1924 Listing Agent: Robin Donovan Listing Brokerage: Coldwell Banker West Shell Northern Kentucky. Between 1908 and 1940, Sears provided house kits. Get actionable real estate strategy in your inbox. The group has identified 2,700 Sears homes in Ohio and 2,300 in Illinois. Included in the overall purchase, were all elements needed for the house, from lumber to roofing; wiring and plumbing; windows and door knobs, and hinges and nails and screws; staircases and all of their parts, pre-mitered; flooring, bath tubs and sinks and faucets; kitchen cabinets and ironing boards; window screens, window shades, and light fixtures. Oddly, there is no sales blurb included in the Sears Modern Homes catalog for this one. We also provide an ARTICLE INDEX for this topic, or you can try the page top or bottom SEARCH BOX as a quick way to find information you need. List of kit home catalogs available at National Trust Library: Log Cabins. Rosemary Thornton, a recognized expert on Sears kit homes, offers several tips to verify a homes Sears lineage. and this 1941 ALADDIN KIT HOME CATALOG (see for example the Brentwood, Brewser, Bristol, and Norfolk model Aladdin homes) Researching Historic Kit and Plan Book Homes, 2) Unless you can recognize the many models offered in the Sears Modern Homes catalogs, houses built from kits are indistinguishable from those built through the standard process using a construction company. Sears reported that more than 70,000 of these homes were sold in North America between 1908 and 1940. 73 m 1 2. Try looking through the Sears kit home ID tips and photos and catalogs given on this page above. Sears opened Modern Homes sales centers in several cities, including two inMissouri - one in St. Louis and one in Kansas City. Continue to look for the kit house identification clues discussed above on this page and in this article series. Some early experiments by Sears included selling a kit to build ], Sears began offering Goodwall sheet plaster as a replacement for the more labor-intensive wood lath plaster systems used in older homes. Sears homes came in all shapes and sizes, and this Colonial hits a sweet spot with four bedrooms and three and a half bathrooms spanning nearly 4,000 . The Madeira Historical Society has this Sears home kit catalog from 1932. Sears, Roebuck and Co. sold about 100,000 kit houses from catalogs between 1908 and 1942. In some inspections you will find a few rafters or beams which show, Framing marks on other kit house brands and their framing lumber are discussed below at, Labels may be present on the back of millwork (baseboard, window, door trim, staircase) as Sears used a common supplier, "Sears, Roebuck and Company," or "925 Homan Ave. Chicago" may be present on shipping labels. History of Sears Kit Homes - The Housing Hour The house was shipped by Gordon Van Tine Co. of Davenport IA, and delivered by railroad box car to the New Hamburg freight yard. Any suggestions on where to start looking? Daniel Friedman, Rosemary Thornton. The following excerpt is from Rosemary Thornton's book cited on this page: In 1915, Sears offered Wood Fiber Wall Board, an early sheetrock-type alternative to lath and plaster. Many original featuresincluding built-in cabinets and hardwood floorshave been maintained and add heaps of character to the four-bedroom home. by Inspectapedia Com Moderator. Six Sears Houses - New England Historical Society It comes with a 10-year-old garage, garden house in the backyard, an unfinished basement, and a floored attic. Also lovingly renovated with lots of lovely original details like picture frame mouldings and french doors, 5953 Jefferson in Burlington, Kentucky looks like the perfect place to while away a summer afternoon with a mint julep and a great book. Between 1908 and 1940, more than 70,000 of these Sears Kit Homes were built across America. Only the very wealthy would have hired their own architect to design their home. NTL Stacks: NA8480.N61, Aladdin Homes. 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. On 2022-04-20 by Inspectapedia Com Moderator. We recommend those books for any owner or serious investigator of Sears Catalog homes. The elegant archways and what looks like the coziest home office south of the Mason Dixon gave us an excuse to linger and wonder if running the site from Lexington, Kentucky would make sense, Asking: $1,150,000 Sears Modern Homes Model: Oakdale Year Built: 1923 Listing Agent: John McElveen Listing Brokerage: RE/MAX of Boulder. On 2021-09-09 Thornton cites a Sears house which was completed around 1944. I have researched over th years trying to find the original plan or any information on the floor plan. Included in the overall purchase, were all elements needed for the house, from lumber to roofing; wiring and plumbing; windows and door knobs, and hinges and nails and screws; staircases and all of their parts, pre-mitered; flooring, bath tubs and sinks and faucets; kitchen cabinets and ironing boards; window screens, window shades, and light fixtures. by Inspectapedia Com Moderator. The family has owned the Sears kit house ever since. List of superstores - Wikipedia An April 1955 photo of the Zoeller home shows the siding now painted white instead of the original wood color. Ssrah. by danjoefriedman (mod). Historic house: Built in 1911, this Sears home sits on a large, corner lot in a historic district, surrounded by antebellum homes. In 1952, my grandfather put up a Cape Cod style kit house in Wilton, CTModel # NM2137-4. Details on the first floor indicate original to 1925 as the deed says. More than 100 years of stories, product and brand histories, photographs, catalog images and more are now available online. Description. It would be worthwhile to gain visual access to the next rafter or stud bay to the left of that shown in your photo where you may see a kit number or manufacturer's name. The closest I found was in the list of Sears kit homes sold between 1933 and 1942, the Cape Cod (Sears Kit Home Model No. The Journal article (1/7/1990 F1-2), also identified other Sears There are two truths to understand about Sears kit houses: 1) They are actually pretty rare, making up only about 2% of the homes constructed during their era, So, if you come upon a neighborhood full of wonderful bungalows, or full of Craftsman-style houses, or full of Dutch Colonials, dont jump to the conclusion that they are Sears houses (some people, weve noticed, confuse the name of the Sears tool line , with the architectural style by that name, and think that a Craftsman style house is what we mean when we say. In Alabama, dozens of historic homes are rumored to be kit houses but only a small percentage have been certified as . catalog homes in Dutchess County, NY. That was the way our American towns were built. That includes both finding specific stamps, lumber marks, or hardware in your particular house that confirm it as a Sears kit home and also paging through the Sears kit home catalogs we list to match that hipped gable roof design and entry porch. Homes has been a family owned & operated home center. The Home Depot - hardware. 1936. Yes Mary; Sears Homes 1908-1914 But the observation of stencil marks on some framing visible in the interior of the home and research by the owners turned up the original plans for this Aladdin home. Or use the SEARCH BOX found below to Ask a Question or Search InspectApedia, Questions & answers or comments about Sears kit homes: sources, history, identification, repair, inspection. These type of details in addition to what we've noted in our earlier response may help with identification. Buyers of a Sears Kit home saved about one third of the typical construction costs of their era. Sears Kit Homes: A History - Cotswold-Homes now, this woman was the head of facilities for the company and knew her stuff, but looking at the . I should have known. - Keystone house plans (modern prefab construction) from Nelson Homes - https://nelson-homes.com/home-plans/keystone/ Sears Houses: This article series provides detailed photographic and historic clues to assist in Scroll down to the section with that title, to learn more about plans-only companies. Small Prefab Homes: 'The Best-Kept Secret in America'? NTL Stacks: NA8480.N6, Thanks to Ralph & Elizabeth Arlyck for information regarding Aladdin Kit homes - June 2010, Aladdin House Catalog, in reprint form, is available from Amazon.com, Aladdin Houses are cataloged by the Arts & Crafts Society at http://64.66.180.31/archive/aladdin.shtml, More information including a description of the Aladdin model. In 1940 the last "official" Sears kit house was sold and shipped to its owner. How can you spot a Sears Catalog Home? Sears Kit Homes: How bungalows in a box changed housing - Curbed Sears prefabricated almost all of these homes in giant mills situated across the country. The total cost for this house was $1500. Note: appearance of your Comment below may be delayed: if your comment contains an image, photograph, web link, or text that looks to the software as if it might be a web link, your posting will appear after it has been approved by a moderator. Whatever Happened to Those Mail-Order Houses From the Sears Catalog? There are towns all over America that have railroads running through them, but in which we don't find any Sears houses. sometimes we do find Sears houses in those towns, but also, absolutely, in other towns far away from the railroad line. @Carlyn, A review of some of our inspection photos came up inspectapedia.com/Design/Kit_Houses.php If My House Is Not A Kit, Then Where Did It Come From?? Most folks turned to their local lumberyard or a local contractor, who would have offered booklets of modest-to-elaborate house plans for American home buyers to choose from (we call these, simply. The list, below, gives you model names and addresses of 80 houses that we have located in the St. Louis area. Want even more free resources? R.R. The Story on Sears Houses - Old House Journal Magazine the trains didn't stop at the homeowner's lot, and let them unload, there, just because their lot happened to have rail lines near it, or behind it. (Plumbing and electrical systems, however, did not come with the kits.). I'm trying to find the plans for a Sears house that we're buying, but it was built in 1906. GUIDE TO KIT HOUSES AND HOMES Sears Houses in Cincinnati | A re-creation of a website by Laraine Shape @Gail Minthorn, So it's probably true that most of these They are classic. Sears Archives Home Page Beginning in 1929, and not by coincidence, the volume of Sears Catalog houses sold dropped dramatically. This Is the House That Sears Built: Historic Sears Kit Homes One of the surviving Sears kit homes stands along Oak Springs Road in Chartiers Township. Sears Houses In the U.S. Sears homes can be found across the continental United States. We have encountered such a home in northern Dutchess County in New York State, one which looks just like a Sears model but Sears Roebuck company began selling buildings or components of buildings in 1895. And, boy, did that post get some answers 743 comments, last I saw (of course, probably 50 or more of those, are my comments, trying to clarify and correct some of the answers that were, So, I thought maybe it's time to do a definitive blog post about where, in fact, the, Sears Modern Homes kits were sold from 1908 through about 1942, There were other major kit-house companies, (only a "possible"very likely NOT Sears, but a "lookalike"--possibly an Aladdin), The Back Story Of Kit Houses vs Non-Kit Houses. The first complete Sears Kit homes, that is, residences, were marketed Built in 1930, and the grandson of the original owner/builder told us it was a Sears house. this house in near Novato California in Marin County. homes were sold and built before that year, but it is certainly the case that the sale of some models continued to 1940. Galeries Lafayette - department store; France. , that's just not really part of the equation. The Sears Homes of St. Louis (Kirkwood) | Sears Modern Homes I am about to sell and would love any help in finding out more to pass on to the next buyer. The first mail order for a Sears house was filled that year. North American Construction Company, Bay City, Michigan. The renovation expanded the homes footprint to four bedrooms, three bathrooms, and more than 2,000 square feet. Long before Amazon Prime, shoppers across America turned to the Sears catalog to purchase all kinds of consumer goodsnot just products for the home, but also the homes themselves. A consummate salesman, Ford even joked that the Model T was available in any color his customers wanted, as long as it was black. Thanks!! They reportedly sold around 70,000 houses, and an estimated 70 percent of them are still standing. It was a Sears, Roebuck and Co. kit home, the Martha Washington, advertised in. C.H. See full bio. Sears Is Crumbling, but These 9 Sears Catalog Homes Stand Tall Thank you again for the response, On 2022-03-06 by Inspectapedia Com Moderator. I'll be interested if you find any indication of just how widely plaster-lath construction was used in kit homes; our rock-lath article cited above gives some history, though not specific to kit homes; we need authoritative sources on the extent to which rock-lath or sheet-plaster systems were in wide use in North America before the 1940s. Ohio and Illinois are still leading, though, with 2700+ and 2300+, respectively. The Crescent in Des Plaines is correctly identified. 562.0K . @inspectapedia.com.moderator, In . as we describe above on this page. The big thinkers at Sears Roebuck took ready-to-build homes one step further. Sears Catalog 'Kit Homes' From the Early 20th Century - themindcircle For more information on who we are, and what we do, visit our website: This question was recently posed in a FaceBook group that focuses on St. Louis history. 239 W. Russell Street, Barrington, $949,000. 870,000. Do You Live in a Mail-Order Sears Kit Home? These House Hunters Will Detailed in her book entitled, The Houses That Sears Built , Rosemary Thornton writes: "Between 1908 - 1940, more than 75,000 Sears's homes were built. Sears Modern Homes typically arrived with a detailed instruction manual and two boxcars worth of building materials. 1918. 1924. More than 70,000 Sears Modern Homes were sold between 1908 and 1940. I'm omitting the famous Wilton gingerbread house and Wilton gingerbread house kits sold by Sears as that's a food product not an actual house. The reason these companies want to work with us is that they know our readers represent the most engaged, professional, and committed real estate agents online today. Take a look at the kit house identification clues discussed above on this page and in this article series. I have included an image of it. However, we've boiled Sears history down to a short narrative and event timeline for you: Sears narrative history tells the story of the founding of Sears and the Sears chronology is an up-to-date primer of Sears milestones and events. GUIDE TO KIT HOUSES AND HOMES "It's the most perfect Sears Magnolia . There are part number stenciled on the boards. In 1915 Sears kit homes included fiberboard panels used for ceilings and walls. A Sears house is: every Craftsman, bungalow, or Dutch Colonial style house you come across (though Sears did offer many Craftsman, bungalow, English cottage, Dutch Colonial, and Colonial style houses as did every other house company), a house built after 1942 (or before 1908), the only brand of kit house that existed (other companies include Gordon-Van Tine, Aladdin Homes, Bennett Homes, Wardway homes, and others), The answer to this question can be found on. The original 1926 Sears & Roebuck label identifying the house at 115 Belleclaire Avenue in Longmeadow as a Sears kit house. Tucker/Crossroads. The kit was dropped at a depot, not at a lot. For some of these items, there were options (type of wiring, heating, plumbing fixtures, for example, or upgrades for flooring and trim wood), and any masonry items were purchased through Sears, but obtained through a local supplier, rather than being shipped by Sears. by Inspectapedia Com Moderator. The label includes the name of the recipient of the Sears kit house, the . The Aladdin Company, Bay City, Michigan. The updated five-bedroom home is zoned for residential and commercial use, which makes it a great opportunity for a bed-and-breakfast or live-work space. These easy-to-assemble, mail-order homes were shipped across the United States and Canada, according to the Sears archives. They were shipped by rail, with pre-cut lumber stamped for assembly. NTL Stacks: NA8480.N6, Aladdin Houses. Rather than trying to include all the information from the above article, the best procedure would be to go through the Sears Kit House identification steps and details given above on this page. In 2005, a high-end Sears home sold for $900,000. A handful of Sears homes have been identified in Canada. @Cathy, Some Vintage Kit Homes Now Sell for Over $1 Million. 10+ American Foursquare Sears Kit House Plans [Part 1] by Jen July 27, 2022. For this weeks listing of the week, we decided to find seven charming Sears Catalog homes you can actually buy today. Enthusiasts call the Magnolia the "holy grail of kit houses." (Photo: Courtesy Andrew and Wendy Mutch) This past . Were All Sears Houses Delivered by Train? 5 stars for john, the appliance guy. Here, then, is a list of all of the Sears Modern Homes kit houses that we have found, in the broad area of the city of St. Louis, and St. Louis County (and those two examples in St. Charles County). Asking: $475,000 Sears Modern Homes Model: Vallonia (?) Sears recommended that wood molding be installed over the joints for superior results. The house was financed through Sears which along with interior details helped authenticate that its from Sears. 1920. We believe it might be a Sears Elsemore model, as it has the exact same floor plan, including the "reception room" in the front entrance, which was apparently unique to that model. After which it was relocated to Aurora, IL. 1915. Hello! 3 Sears 'Kit Homes' Known To Still Exist In - WJCT News provides examples of clues useful in identifying Sears Catalog Kit Homes. How Common Are Sears Houses? Later volumes offered up to 370 designs. You might want to try a copy of Rosemary Thornton's more-exhaustive book of photos of Sears Kit homes (cited and linked above in this article). NTL Stacks TH4819.P7C22 1914, Wardway Homes, Montgomery Ward, Chicago, Illinois. What is a Sears kit house? NTL Stacks: NA8480.N61, Aladdin Houses. This photo is of an Aladdin kit home constructed in Tivoli, New York. Sears Goodwall was touted as more fire-resistant than alternative plant-based fiberboard sheathing products. Any ideas out there?? Sears estimated that the average carpenter would charge $450 to . The thickness dimensions do not include field-applied top coat layers of finished plaster. They also sold an economy grade wallboard made of cardboard and asphalt, which sold for 42 cents per sheet. All Locations for Home Improvement & Repair National team, Local service We serve all major metropolitan areas and more, with over 6,800 technicians in the field every day. If you read about a product or service on this website, its because we genuinely think its great. Used within a coal room door handle. In the 19-teens, 1920s, and 1930s, American suburban neighborhoods were growing. NTL Stacks TH4819.P7M66 1924, Our recommended books about building & mechanical systems design, inspection, problem diagnosis, and repair, and about indoor environment and IAQ testing, diagnosis, and cleanup are at the. I did find some blue grease pencil numbers but they are hard to make out. Sears prefab homes still standing in region, across the country We have affiliate partnerships with these companies and make money when we feature their products on the site. And, like all of the companies, Sears offered homes of many sizes and styles. was so identified and its history written in a Poughkeepsie Journal article in 1990. Not every house in a community of 1920s-era houses, is a Sears house, for example far, far from it, in fact, as only about 2% of houses built in the kit era, were built with kits from Sears. Sears has opened the doors to its vast archival collection and invited the public to peek inside. If you can find other details such as finding specific stamps, lumber marks, or hardware in your particular house that confirm it as a particular company's kit home and also paging through the kit home catalogs we list to match that roof design and entry porch, for example. I would love an opinion. As I live in this part of St. Louis, I have been inside some of these houses, have spoken to owners of some of these houses, and have been able to notice details, from the exterior, that show elements on the house that are from other companies. $165,900 USD: First time on the market in 57 years. Rosemary Thornton, whose work is referenced in this document, is a leading expert on Sears catalog homes.
Dog Cataract Surgery Pros And Cons,
Is Donny O'malley Married,
Rent To Own Homes In Alamogordo, Nm,
Articles H