Wardway Astoria in Croton-on-Hudson, New York

Croton-on-Hudson, a small village in northwestern Westchester County, New York was on our kit house radar before I started reviewing mortgage records for the area. Several houses from Sears had been identified either through real estate ads or from building permit records. I was hoping that a review of mortgage records would turn up more kit houses and I wasn't disappointed! To date, we've been able to identify over 30 kit houses in Croton-on-Hudson and I expect more will turn up as we continuing to locate houses.

One of the discoveries is a house that was sold for a number of years by Wardway, first as the "Waverly" and later as the "Astoria". Although this must have been a popular house for Montgomery Ward, it's the first example I've seen and I was able to authenticate it with a mortgage. Even better, the house was listed for sale in 2016 so we can take a closer look at both the inside and outside of the house. Let's check it out!

Image courtesy of Archive.org

According to the book "A History and Field Guide to Wardway Homes" by Rose Thornton and Dale Wolicki, this model house was first offered by Wardway in 1922 as the "Waverly". In 1929, the model was renamed to the "Astoria". From the catalog images that I've seen, while the name changed, there were no major changes to the design of the house.

Catalog Image of Wardway Waverly
Image courtesy of AntiqueHome.org

This particular house was built in 1930. Based on that, we'll consider this example an "Astoria". The mortgage for this house in May 1930 was for $6,400. The mortgage was between Thomas P. Riordan, the trustee for Montgomery Ward, and George and Anna Dobbs. This particular area of Croton-on-Hudson is part of the "Leslie R. Palmer" subdivision and a number of kit houses from Sears and Montgomery Ward were built in this subdivision including several on this street.

While the house has been re-sided, you can see from the real estate listing how well the house design including the location of the front door and windows on the front of the house match up with the catalog image.

52 Farrington - Croton-on-Hudson, NY - Wardway Astoria
Image courtesy of Zillow

Likewise, you can see how the view of the right-hand side of the house matches the catalog image.

52 Farrington - Croton-on-Hudson, NY - Wardway Astoria
Image courtesy of Zillow

The only noticeable difference is the locations of the brackets. The catalog image shows 4 brackets per side with no bracket at the peak of the gable, where this house has 3, which have been enclosed.

On the inside of the house, you can see some of the original details. The front entry has some great examples including what appears to be an original front door with a mail slot, the original newel post on the staircase and a telephone nook - you may have to explain that one to the kids!

52 Farrington - Croton-on-Hudson, NY - Wardway Astoria
Image courtesy of Zillow

In the dining room, you can see that a door has been added to the back of the room. This allows access to a deck that's been added to the back of the house.

52 Farrington - Croton-on-Hudson, NY - Wardway Astoria
Image courtesy of Zillow

Next, we move upstairs to see the two front bedrooms. It's interesting to see how the front bedrooms were arranged so that the rooms have windows on two sides of the room. This allows for natural light and for air to be able to circulate in the days before air conditioning.

Catalog Image of Second Floor Plan for Wardway "Waverly"
Image courtesy of Archive.org

52 Farrington - Croton-on-Hudson, NY - Wardway Astoria
Image courtesy of Zillow

52 Farrington - Croton-on-Hudson, NY - Wardway Astoria
Image courtesy of Zillow

You'll also notice in the various photos the radiators in each of the rooms which were elements of the hot water/steam heating system in the house. It's also nice to see what looks like all original wood flooring throughout much of the house. You can see more interior photos in the listing at Zillow. The Wardway Astoria/Waverly was sold for almost a dozen years so we know that there are likely a lot more examples of this model in the world. If you know of any, share that with us in the comments!