It helps to narrow that search through Sears home catalogs if you can find the year that your home was constructed. Rosemary Thornton, a recognized expert on Sears kit homes, offers several tips to verify a homes Sears lineage. 1 story, 2 br, chimney In middle. NTL Stacks TH4819.P7C22 1914, Wardway Homes, Montgomery Ward, Chicago, Illinois. A couple of years ago I became more interested in catalog and kit houses as Chicagoland is full of them, many coming from local companies like Sears, Montgomery Ward, and the Harris Brothers. That was the way our American towns were built. Here are those we know of from Lewis Homes, Gordon-Van Tine, Wardway (Montgomery Ward), and Aladdin: . Price: $421,000 Waterfront wonder: Sitting just a few steps from the waters edge on Triangle Pond, this 898-square-foot cottage was delivered in 1954 and assembled on-site. Between 1908 and 1940, Sears provided house kits. It helps to narrow that search through Sears home catalogs if you can find the year that your home was constructed. They included location specifics and many photos. There are part number stenciled on the boards. One of many Sears houses built in 1912 by a realty company. 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. I always thought it was a Sears kit house, but the work Keystone sits in my memory, as well. Located in the desirable Converse Heights neighborhood, the home greets visitors with a large front porch. What seems likely here is that the original structure might have been modified after 1908 with heavily modified plans from a Sears Modern. Are there old catalogs we can view to know whether this is a Sears Kit home? 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. Could this be a Sears Elsemore home? The Aladdin Company, Bay City, Michigan. at $500. with the KETC reporter, walks past and identifies several Sears home models. In Detroit, The Ford Model T, the first car built using Henry Fords revolutionary assembly line, sputtered into life and changed the world. I know New Hamburg well, having spent a lifetime nearby in Poughkeepsie. description of this home at 15 N. Remsen, Wappingers Falls, NY. 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. Beds/Baths: 2 bedrooms and 1 full bath. The Aladdin Company, Bay City, Michigan. Framing is square-cut douglas-fir(Doug Fir) or southern yellow pine (SYP) (usually) free of knots and splits. Thank you Rus, that's helpful detail. @Amy, Apartment in Munich, Upper Bavaria. For nearly 100 years the home has been meticulously cared for and features hardwood flooring, enclosed front porch, and renovated kitchen. Corona is derived from the Latin word for crown. As you've indicated, you already have some helpful information from your home. Year Built: 1902 Listing Agent: Wally Kerr Listing Brokerage: Kerr Team Real Estate, Admittedly, this next listing gave us a fun puzzle to solve while we were trying to figure out its provenance. I purchased a home in Keokuk County, Iowa one year ago . The list, below, gives you model names and addresses of 80 houses that we have located in the St. Louis area. We recommend those books for any owner or serious investigator of Sears Catalog homes. Our home in Orofino, idaho was built about 1913. Beginning in 1929, and not by coincidence, the volume of Sears Catalog houses sold dropped dramatically. For most of its years in operation, the Sears Modern Homes department served its customers from three locations: In Cairo, Illinois, Sears had a 40-acre lumber and millwork plant. Note how the rear roof is much shorter than the front side of the roof. Another uber charming craftsmen with a tasteful renovation and original details, 1315 9th Street had us lingering on our open Zillow tabs for a few more minutes than a team under deadline should. the dwindling "do it yourself" home market. True Bungalow Effect. Scroll down to the section with that title, to learn more about plans-only companies. Thank You, Marsha Blankenship, Your email address will not be published. One of the surviving Sears kit homes stands along Oak Springs Road in Chartiers Township. Sears, Roebuck and Company, Chicago, Illinois. And, like all of the companies, Sears offered homes of many sizes and styles. 1. Wagon loads of house materials were brought wagon-by-wagon in the proper order for construction while the boxcar sat on a siding. The Ohio bungalow as it looks today. St. Louis is home to a small neighborhood of pre-fab kit homes made by the Gunnison homes company, in 1949. Love these homes. 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. @Judy Gehrlich, Keep it classy, please. What almost no one thinks of is Don Corleones house from the first Godfather movie. I should have known. Real Estate. One of the best known Sears house locations is in Carlinville, Illinois, where Standard Oil of Indiana built a million-dollar development of 192 Honor Bilt houses for employees of Schoper coal mine (156 intended for miners and other workers, an additional 28 nearby and somewhat more deluxe meant for supervisors). Number18. It comes with a 10-year-old garage, garden house in the backyard, an unfinished basement, and a floored attic. Details on the first floor indicate original to 1925 as the deed says. Examples have also been found in Alaska. @Em H, Sears Houses: This article series provides detailed photographic and historic clues to assist in Sears Mfg. NTL Stacks: TH4840.S43 1935, Modern Homes. 2. Sears kit homes contained 30,000 pieces, including 750 pounds of nails, 27 gallons of paint, and a 75-page instruction book. A local example of this is LaPorte, Indiana, where Sears sold 50 houses in one subdivision. Each of the links in this section shows a photo with additional details of the interior of a Sears Kit Home. 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. Thornton cites a Sears house which was completed around 1944. There we list the manufacturers of kit or catalog homes sold in the United States and provide links to additional references, kit home identification, kit or catalog home restoration and repairs, and kit home architectural and hardware details, markings, and stencils. Realtors love to include Sears in their listing of old houses but many of those are incorrectly identified including the others that are on your list. With so many of these homes sold, many still come up for sale. homes were sold and built before that year, but it is certainly the case that the sale of some models continued to 1940. - Thornton, op. The problem starts out front, where the place is just oozing Sears Modern Homes, but the sheer size of the place and unorthodox design left us a bit puzzled as to what exactly we were looking at. They are classic. Try the search box just below, or if you prefer, post a question or comment in the Comments box below and we will respond promptly. We know that there are two purported Sears kit homes on Route 302 in Bridgton, a Sears house in Saco, and there are likely more kit homes that have not yet been surveyed and identified in subdivisions from the 20s, 30s, and 40s in our communities. we own a sears home..We are interested in saleing..it and land surrounding it its in the beautiful mountains of eastern Tennessee. Here are five recent sales and listings of Sears homes around Chicagoland. BOOKS ON SEARS AND OTHER KIT OR CATALOG HOUSES. ), This is a fantastic post! But we can't rule out traditional plaster lath. 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. Some early experiments by Sears included selling a kit to build At these sales centers,sales agents helped home buyers design just the home they wanted. We did not examine the mechanicals closely in this house, as they were not provided by Sears and Roebuck and were obtained locally. Please call or text 815-603-7338. 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. Asking: $379,900 Sears Roebuck Model: Elmhurst Year Built: 1932 Listing Agent: Julie Armington Listing Brokerage: F.C. In . Your planned basement project may very well give you added clues to your home's identification. 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. @Gail Minthorn, In short, 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). 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. bungalow ordered in 1926 for $1000. Sears Catalog Homes (sold under the Sears Modern Homes name) were catalog and kit houses sold primarily through mail order by Sears, Roebuck, and Company, an American retailer. 3. Since 1971 Sears Mfg. Capture from Google Streetview. Only one image can be added per comment but you can post as many comments, and therefore images, as you like. after 1940. If you havent sold it yet, Id be happy to refer someone to you in your area. In Chicago, Richard Sears had an equally disruptive idea. Sears homes can be found across the continental United States. Some Vintage Kit Homes Now Sell for Over $1 Million. These along with some houses I photographed 8/9. Number 29. Price: $374,900 Burlington beauty:According to the listing, this catalog home is the Vallonig model. The kit was dropped at a depot, not at a lot. The columns are pure Sears Modern, as is the awning, but like 920 North Madison, it seems to have grown in size over the past few decades. tips and photos with this article. The article gives lists of Sears kit home identification points or details and also lists of plan books and catalogs that one can leaf through. That year, the Aladdin Company of Bay City, Michigan, offered the first kit homes through mail order. Using the Sears numbering system, the contents of the railroad boxcars (typically NTL FOLIO TH4819.P7S42 1936, One House or a Hundred. Thanks - anonymous by private email 2021/11/06, another photo of this house was posted on this page. Price: $334,000. You might try some of those to see if they have an older historical connection to Keystone kit homes, though we emphasize that these are a bit of a long-shot. Aladdin kit home photos wanted, CONTACT us. With this new book, even the inexperienced can make "educated" conclusions about whether or not a home is one of the 75,000+ Sears catalog kit homes that were sold between 1908 and 1940. See full bio. And which kit? 1918. Homes Q&A: : Does Sears Holdings give permission to reproduce catalog pages or images from its catalogs, and or other . Ssrah. The sheets were made of pressed wood pulp and cost 46 cents per sheet. Sears Modern Homes were catalog and kit houses sold primarily through mail order by Sears, Roebuck and Co., an American retailer.. From 1908 to 1942, Sears sold more than 70,000 of these houses in North America, by the company's count. 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. Instead of hiring an architect and an army of carpenters, prospective homeowners could now simply place an order and get plans and building materials delivered right to their property. Lake Worth, Florida.