national database of sears homes

Like this page to learn about homes purchased as kits through mail order catalogs. The Sears Argyle was a small house, about 1,000 square feet, and many of them have been demolished. Sears mail-order house kits can often be identified by the shipping labels that were placed on the backside of trim. 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. From 1931-1942 Sears sold about 5,000 houses altogether. Following is a list of Sears Homes enthusiasts who have agreed Another key figure in the original research into Sears kit houses, was a woman named Beatrice Lask. In 1916, Sears began shipping pre-cut lumber in its mail-order kit homes that contained stamped numbers used to match pieces during construction. 168/Matoka, 301 Weller Avenue, La Porte, Indiana probable Sears Modern Home 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 case of the Anstett family of Torrington, Connecticut. 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. Rosemary Thornton 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? [18] National and regional competitors in the catalog and kit home market included Aladdin, Bennett, Gordon-Van Tine, Harris Brothers, Lewis, Pacific Ready Cut Homes, Sterling and Montgomery Ward (Wardway) Homes. The Sears Argyle was named after Argyle Street in Chicago. Our team did some traveling around streets inside Philadelphia, in neighborhoods like Oxford Circle, Rhawnhurst, and Roxborough, to name a few, and added about 43 houses to our list, from these neighborhoods. You can search the house listings by clicking on a group of years ( 1908-1914 , 1915-1920 , 1921-1926 , 1927-1932 and 1933-1940 ). excited about this find and I really hope it is one: a Sears No. The houses made it as far as Alaska and Canada, as the parts were delivered by railroad. It is unknown whether any were purchased or built. Enjoy! We soon realized that she had a keen eye for Sears houses (and a keen love for them, as her great-grandfather had built a Sears Martha Washington in Oakwood, Ohio), and she joined our research group. I didn't have very many leads for Kevin Riordan, for the NJ suburbs but, for the PA side of the Philadelphia suburbs that's a different matter, indeed! The original "Sears Modern Homes" community page on Facebook, for those interested in Sears homes. 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. 1232, later marketed as the No. Run by experienced researcher Cindy Catanzaro (with a little help from yours truly). Chabot runs a national website dedicated to gathering and sharing information about Sears mail-order homes. Tony LaRussa is a Tribune-Review staff writer. 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). houses that share a name also share either a number, a floor plan or had 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. ), or streets that have houses with no designated house number (yes, again! Harbst said many of the original features in her home are intact and the exterior remains mostly unchanged. Here is a year-by-year list of houses as they were advertised in the Sears Modern Homes catalogs. that ranged from simple and rustic to utterly decadent. This site is a tribute to the original Sears Houses in Cincinnati [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]. This phrase is trademarked and cannot be used without permission of Ricky Bobby, Inc. There is some debate about whether some homes from Sears that were built in 1941 and 1942 qualify as Sears Modern Homes. If those were the top sellers, no model could catch the Argyle at that rate. Fast forward to this past summer --early August of 2022. 168 (Matoka): Here is the catalog image of the No. The. 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. . Either way, these houses offered variety and quality even if they werent necessarily innovative. And it led me to dig a little deeper into the history of my community.. [1] Sears Modern Homes were purchased primarily by customers in East Coast and Midwest states, but have been located as far south as Florida, as far west as California, and as far north as Alaska and Canada. Compare house designs to original catalog images. Our list, in fact, began with 345 Sears houses that Mrs. Lask had found in the Cincinnati area, as part of a Masters Degree thesis project at the University of Cincinnati. People need move-in ready housing and they need it fast, whether single professionals are seeking apartments and luxury condos or families need affordable freestanding houses. 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? You'll notice that most are in states east of the Mississippi River, with highest overall state totals in Ohio, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and New York. BMO, LAFC, and Angel City FC leaders were joined by special guests Earvin "Magic" Johnson and Mia Hamm for the . Instead, shipping labels were affixed to the backside of trim that identified properties. I love finding these houses and learning more about them, the different models that were sold and the people who bought them.. I considered putting a full chart here, but, honestly, we have found hundreds through searching the suburban PA counties outside of Philadelphia. 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. 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. Primarily shipped via railroad boxcars, these kits included most of the materials needed to build a house. 4120 Adams St., Gary, IN. New models were introduced every year, and some only stuck around for a couple years. House was moved to Carbondale, CO in about 1972, Still trying to find more info.. The company was forced to liquidate $11 million in defaulted debt. Dover, Chateau, and Lexington models are particularly plentiful there! Photo from Lake County Assessor. So, I put together a list, but I decided to provide some clarifying background information in that blog post, too-- it's especially intended to help those who might hear the term Craftsman, and think it means Sears House, or who see a 1920s bungalow and wonder if that means that the street is lined with Sears houses, or who find marked lumber in their house, but can't seem to find a match to a Sears model. I think the reason the Sears house is so interesting is that most people associate them with the Wish Book catalog that came in the mail at Christmas. Because the various kit home companies often copied plan elements or designs from each other, there are a number of catalog and kit models from different manufacturers that look similar or identical to models offered by Sears. Residential construction was drastically down nationwide due to the Great Depression. 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. 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. Original paperwork for the house including blueprints and letters of correspondence from Sears. For more information on who we are, and what we do, visit our website: All photos in these blog posts are the property of the author of this blog- link to this blog. 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. 126 and a Sears No. I now live in St. Louis, Missouri, and am sometimes asked if there are any Sears houses here. [13] Only seven Magnolias are known to be still standing. 168 / Matoka: I am really (really!) Lets find out! Carrying on with Same Name, Different House topic we find that some of the How did Sears Modern Homes come to be? My father knew the local builder (Mr. Humphreys) who put the house together. When the tiny house movement took off, many builders started offering everything from ready-made prehab homes to foundations and blueprints. This product offered the advantages of low price, ease of installation, and added fire protection. But what if you want something bigger than a tiny house, but not as gargantuan as the average American single family home? 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. So, I'll just post a nice selection here. But articles are so scattered by time, date and location that it is difficult to realize the scope and number of Sears homes here in the Pittsburgh area.. Ohio, Michigan, and Illinois in particular are your best bet for finding Sears homes although Newark, New Jersey apparently still has a couple. Sears began offering financing plans around 1912.

How To Edit Rejection Email In Indeed, Mother In Law Suite For Rent Dallas Texas, Do Daffodils Reproduce Sexually Or Asexually, Sur Beach House, Cabo Lisa Vanderpump, Grambling Football Roster 1991, Articles N