More Sears Houses in Massapequa Park

Image courtesy of Newsday
(Brittany Wait)

While researching the history of the Sears houses built north of the Long Island Railroad in Massapequa Park, I was pretty sure that all of the possible Sears houses in that portion of the village had been identified. Searching Zillow gives us a pretty good idea of where houses from that era are located. Also, several of us had gone through that portion of the Village pretty thoroughly using Google Streetview looking for those "100 Sears houses". But in the course of researching "Hollywood Gardens", I found a couple of references to locations for Sears houses that were not on our list of homes. I also realized at least one known Sears house had not made it to my list of homes that has been shared. To fully document all the Sears houses in Massapequa Park, I want to make sure these are included. Let's take a look!

The first house I'm sharing is one that has already been documented for some time. This Sears Sheridan was built several blocks away from most of the Sears houses located north of the Long Island Railroad so it didn't make it onto any of the previous lists I've shared.

48 Second Ave - Massapequa Park, New York - Sears Sheridan
Image courtesy of Google Maps

Many people seeing this house will think "Sears Vallonia". That's understandable. The Sheridan looks very similar to a Vallonia especially when the porch has been enclosed as it has been on this house. A couple of clues that can help you differentiate the "Sheridan" from the "Vallonia" are visible in this view of the house.

48 Second Ave - Massapequa Park, New York - Sears Sheridan
Image courtesy of Google Maps

Both the "Sheridan" and the "Vallonia" have exposed purlins on the sides of the house - purlins are the roof timbers that extend beyond the exterior wall of the house. But where the "Vallonia" has a total of 7, the "Sheridan" only has 5 - the same as this house. Both the "Sheridan" and the "Vallonia" also have a dining room that bumps out with a shed dormer. But where the windows in the dormer are separated in the "Vallonia", they are together in the "Sheridan" - the same as this house. You can see those differences in the images below.

Catalog image of Sears Sheridan

Catalog image of Sears Vallonia

One of the references I found online to Sears houses in Massapequa Park mentioned that there were Sears houses on Charles Avenue. I was sure that I searched Charles Avenue without finding anything. I decided to take another look and was rewarded with these two possible Sears houses.

The first house at 121 Charles Avenue is a nice match for the Sears "Wellington". This house has an addition on one side. But there's enough visible details including the exposed purlins, the chimney placement and the arrangement of the windows on the right side of the house that I'm pretty confident that this is a Sears "Wellington".

121 Charles Ave - Massapequa Park, New York - Sears Wellington
Image courtesy of Google Streetview

121 Charles Ave - Massapequa Park, New York - Sears Wellington
Image courtesy of Google Streetview

Catalog image of Sears Wellington (1925)
Image courtesy of Archive.org

A couple of doors to the north is another possible Sears house - a Sears "Sunlight" at 129 Charles Avenue. Like the "Wellington", it's had an addition that obscurs one side of the house, making it hard to say for sure that this is a Sunlight.

129 Charles Ave - Massapequa Park, New York - Sears Sunlight
Image courtesy of Google Streetview

129 Charles Ave - Massapequa Park, New York - Sears Sunlight
Image courtesy of Google Streetview

Catalog image of Sears Sunlight (1928)
|Image courtesy of Sears Homes of Chicagoland

The last house I want to share is the one that I'm iffy about it being a Sears house. But it's near several other Sears houses and it has several elements that appear to match the Sears "Wellington". As you can see from the images, this house has been greatly expanded. But the front of the house has some elements that match the Sears "Wellington". Here's the house on Pacific Street and an authenticated Sears "Wellington" in Berkley, Michigan. Although the two houses have reversed orientations, you can still compare the location of the exposed purlins on these two houses and see how those match up.

190 Pacific Street - Massapequa Park, New York - Possible Sears Wellington
Image courtesy of Redfin 

3060 Tyler Ave - Berkley, Michigan - Sears Wellington
Image courtesy of Google Streetview

The windows on the first floor of the right side of the house on Pacific Street are a fairly close match to the "Wellington".

190 Pacific Street - Massapequa Park, New York - Possible Sears Wellington
Image courtesy of Redfin 

An older image of the left side of the house from Google Streetview also matches up fairly well. The biggest concern with this side of the house is the lack of peak on the dining room dormer. Otherwise, the chimney location and windows appear to generally follow what we would expect to find with a Wellington. Since that image was taken, the large second story addition has changed the profile of the house significantly making it difficult to assess its likeness to the "Wellington".

190 Pacific Street - Massapequa Park, New York - Possible Sears Wellington
Image courtesy of Google Streetview 

There are a number of interior photos of the house in an online real estate listing. Unfortunately. I didn't see any details that were definitively from Sears Roebuck. Also, much of the interior has been reconfigured with second story addition making it difficult to determine what is original and what is not. Is this a Sears "Wellington"? I think it is or at least started out as one. But it will likely take something like mortgage research or finding evidence of stamped lumber or shipping labels inside the house to confirm that it is a house from Sears. For now, it's on our list of "possible" houses until someone is able to assist us in authenticating the house.

I believe with this last set of four houses, I've documented all of the known Sears houses in Massapequa Park. But with these most recent discoveries, I don't want to write off the possibility that more may be found in the Village tucked away on a street that we missed. If you know of any other Sears houses in the Village or know more about the history of any of the Sears homes that were built in Massapequa Park, please share those in the comments below!