national database of sears homes national database of sears homes

While financing through Sears helped many homeowners purchase homes, many of those purchasers defaulted during the ensuing Great Depression. I was intrigued by the concept of people picking out a house from a catalog, she said. Compare that to about 330 million people today. And it led me to dig a little deeper into the history of my community.. 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. However, in La Porte, we've also found five examples* of houses that look like a great match for the No. My daughter and son-in-law have a 1924 Homeville in Abington! We've found examples from the Wardway, Gordon-Van Tine, Harris Homes, and Ray H. Bennett companies. That, still, is only helpful if we can find a plat map online for a subdivision called Tanglewood Estates! Local building requirements sometimes dictated that certain elements of the house construction be done professionally and varied depending on where the house was constructed. People always seemed surprised to learn that Sears sold home kits. 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. Sears Modern Homes offered more than 370 designs in a wide range of architectural styles and sizes over the line's 34-year history. 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. 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. Ohio and Illinois are still leading, though, with 2700+ and 2300+, respectively. Public records: From 1911 to 1933, Sears offered home mortgages and Sears company officials or the Sears, Roebuck corporation may be named on the mortgage or deed associated with the property where the home was constructed. You can clearly see a major difference on this side of the houses. 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. Photo from Lake County Assessor. So, I've added an asterisk next to the addresses of these possible No. Ruth's Beauty Parlor: A Sears No. to share their names with others who might be interested in The truth is out there, and I think you've found it! 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. 264B155. *Sears Americus - Temple, PA*It's been about 3 months since the last update A kick-off celebration was held March 3, 2023, for the newly renamed BMO Stadium. Or, perhaps we have background information about it to share with you!Judith. Sales were down, and there was excess inventory languishing in warehouses. Compare house designs to original catalog images. But at the time, there was a housing boom taking place as people wanted to escape the crowds and disease of the cities. 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. Sadly, surviving Argyles do tend to be heavily altered there are probably lots more hiding in plain sight. Primarily shipped via railroad boxcars, these kits included most of the materials needed to build a house. 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). 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. Those are ridiculously difficult to pin down. 3 in U.S. with, at todays count, 1,963 Sears homes found.. If you have any information on a Sears house or a style that is not identified, please notify the Preservation Commission. 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. There were about 132 million people by the time Sears stopped selling Sears Modern Homes kits in 1940. . The Sears Argyle was a small house, about 1,000 square feet, and many of them have been demolished. Built around 1917 home resembles the Hazelton Model C2025,l 1915-1920 and the Vallonia Model P13049A or P13049B, 1927-1932. Andrew is responsible for adding hundreds (and hundreds) of Sears houses to our database, especially in the Maryland suburbs of D.C., in numerous counties in Michigan, and a gold mine of houses in Westchester County, New York, especially in Yonkers. Sears could keep manufacturing costs down compared to standard builders and competing catalogs because they had their own manufacturing facilities by then and were able to mass-produce wood, asphalt, insulation material, hardware, and everything else needed to produce a home that wasnt a Habitat for Humanity hut. The original "Sears Modern Homes" community page on Facebook, for those interested in Sears homes. It is unknown whether any were purchased or built. 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. 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). Stamped lumber: Most easily found in unfinished spaces like a basement or attic, framing members were stamped with a letter and a number. 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. The houses made it as far as Alaska and Canada, as the parts were delivered by railroad. But, as of this date in 2021, here are leading areas in the U.S. with high numbers of Sears houses. So this blog has been radio silent for a while now! 3 in U.S. with, at today's count, 1,963 Sears homes. Contains merger trees and halo . 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. Sears began offering financing plans around 1912. 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. Open to the public. Sears Modern Homes were sold between 1908 and 1942. Damn, it was like. . 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. BMO, LAFC, and Angel City FC leaders were joined by special guests Earvin "Magic" Johnson and Mia Hamm for the . Because lets get real: affordable ranchers were only for CERTAIN veterans, Government spending was dedicated to housing in an unprecedented manner as the mantra was driven home that the ideal was a nuclear family in a 3-bedroom. In some cases, homeowners used plans from original Sears homes to recreate a modern version of a Sears home. 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? From 1908 to 1942, Sears sold more than 70,000 of these houses in North America, by the company's count. 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. 118 In Columbia, Where are the Sears Houses - February 2023 Edition, The Strange Case of the Wandering Bungalow, DC House Cat Chiming In - Historic Mail-Order Homes, Same Name, Different House Part 2 - From Aurora to the Elmwood, 1926 Sears Special Supplement from AntiqueHome.org. 02, 2023 : History: Catalogs: Homes: Products: Brands: Stores: People Historic Homes : . small-town America even into the 1940 census). 1916 Sears Roebuck Modern Homes. When the tiny house movement took off, many builders started offering everything from ready-made prehab homes to foundations and blueprints. Advertisements for Sears Modern Homes appeared through May 1942. 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. houses that share a name also share either a number, a floor plan or had . Rebecca lives in Elgin, Illinois, and undertook a huge research project, to find, and document, kit houses in that town. That's not shown anywhere for this model, so we can't say for sure if these are examples of the No. that ranged from simple and rustic to utterly decadent. Dover, Chateau, and Lexington models are particularly plentiful there! Before 1916, the home builder had to cut their Sears-supplied lumber to appropriate lengths. Pre-cut lumber reduced construction time by up to 40%, according to Sears. Los Angeles Modern Stilt Home Featured in Heat (Listed for $1.599 Million), International House Flipper Alex Camacho Makes $80k Profit on One House Flip, Bugsy Siegel Murder Mansion in Beverly Hills Flats (Listed for $17 Million), Zsa Zsa Gabors Pink Palm Springs Palace (Listed for $3.8 Million), 35 Kitchen Breakfast Bars The Latest In Casual Kitchen Dining. 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". 1227 Disston St, Oxford Circle neighborhood of Philadelphia. , something that piqued my interest was the idea that you could buy literal houses from the catalog. The last Sears Modern Homes catalog was issued in 1940. When the. 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. national database of sears homes. Sears provided "capital and materials", on the condition that lots and foundations were already in place. Moreover, it was just more feasible to plunk down a house somewhere because there just werent as many homes on account of a smaller population. of "Where are the Sears Houses?" By the time of the 1914 catalog, the model had been tweaked, to add the peak gable, closed pediment pop-up dormer over the upper bay windows. Welcome to Sears Homes! The houses made it as far as Alaska and Canada, as the parts were delivered by railroad. In other cases, the home followed the general design of a Sears house without being an exact duplicate. But what if you want something bigger than a tiny house, but not as gargantuan as the average American single family home? Click on any of the linked house listings to view a picture . Melissa Steel of Patterson Heights in Beaver County said the story about the Sears house in McCandless sparked fond memories of the family next door who lived in one for many years. Balloon frames could be built faster and generally only required one carpenter. Here is the catalog image, from the 1911/12 catalog: And here are two examples in La Porte. 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. We maintain the National Database of Sears Houses in the U.S., where we add new finds, almost daily. 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. 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. Chabot runs a national website dedicated to gathering and sharing information about Sears mail-order homes. 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 thought it was very interesting when I learned that you could also buy a house from their 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). Its kind of exciting to learn that your home is unique because of the way it was bought and constructed, she said. hennessy privilege limited edition / what is mc hammer doing now 2020 / national database of sears homes. national database of sears homes42 ft gibson houseboat. Here are both of these models in the 1911/12 Sears Modern Homes catalog. Early on, we were joined by Sarah Mullane, who lives in North Tonawanda, New York. Like this page to learn about homes purchased as kits through mail order catalogs. Sears's use of "balloon style" framing systems did not require a team of skilled carpenters, as did previous methods. There is some debate about whether some homes from Sears that were built in 1941 and 1942 qualify as Sears Modern Homes. 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. Harbst said it wasnt until after she bought the house that she learned homes were once sold through mail-order catalogs. 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. I just loved the look of it, she said. Not all Sears houses became private residences. 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. to you on Flickr or Pinterest. 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. What was up with this particular model of home building, and are there any original Sears houses left? New York ranks fourth on the list with 1,679. To drum up business, Sears issued a press release to newspapers across the United States. But what if you want something bigger than a tiny house, but not as gargantuan as the average American single family home? Telephone 847-697-4551. www.kithouse.org. 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). 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. You can search the house listings by clicking on a group of years ( 1908-1914 , 1915-1920 , 1921-1926 , 1927-1932 and 1933-1940 ). I grew up in a Sears house located in Keyport NJ. Later, Sears constructed a second mill in Port Newark, New Jersey and purchased the Norwood Sash and Door Company in Norwood, Ohio. House was moved to Carbondale, CO in about 1972, Still trying to find more info.. Thanks to the Santa Clara Valley Chapter of the California Native Plant Society, the NRDB will continue to be updated and available at least through 2023, and in some form, beyond that. 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. These stamps are normally located on or near the ends of pieces of framing timber. [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]. But David Betcone told us what model was in first place as of 1931. Without facts and sales records, we can make an educated guess. 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. We just love the Walton model!