Berkley, Michigan Kit House Tour - September 28, 2024

Ever wanted to visit a kit house in person? Here's your chance! This Saturday, September 28th, Berkley, Michigan will be hosting a tour of kit houses in the city that includes the opportunity to visit inside 6 homes - 5 new on the tour this year. 

Berkley is home to over 50 kit houses including some of the largest models sold by Sears Roebuck. Follow the link for more details and to purchase tickets online ($25 per person when ordered in advance). See you there!

Sears Clyde in Northville, Michigan

The "Sears" Clyde was a popular model for Sears Roebuck. First introduced in 1920, it continued to appear in the "Modern Homes" catalog through 1929. There are over 200 examples of this model in the National Database of Sears Homes, testifying to both its popularity and distinctive design. This example of the "Clyde" is located in Northville, Michigan and it was one of the first Sears houses I located in the city thanks to its distinctive Craftsman-style elements. It's a good example of what to look for when identifying the "Clyde" model. Let's take a look! 

Sears Langston in The Bronx, New York City, New York

In January, I shared an example of a Sears "Rodessa" that was built in New York City, specifically in The Bronx. I wanted to share another example from The Bronx, this time a larger two story model, the "Langston". This house helps highlight some of the ways that we're able to track down Sears houses built in New York City. It also highlights some of the challenges in finding  and identifying homes that in some cases were built over 100 years ago! Let's take a look! 

Where are the Sears Houses - February 2023 Edition

Sears Americus - Temple, PA

It's been about 3 months since the last update of "Where are the Sears Houses?" With the winter weather and the holidays, the pace of discoveries slowed down a bit compared to the last two updates but not by much! Over the past 7 months, we've added over 1,500 new houses to the National Database of Sears Homes. It's been a pretty impressive pace. We'll see if we can keep it going into 2023. Meanwhile, let's see what all these new houses have done to the line up of places where Sears houses have been located. Let's take a look! 

Sears Rodessa in The Bronx, New York City, New York

One of the last places that most people would think to find Sears houses is in New York City. "New York City?!" Yes, the home of skyscrapers, subways, brownstones and Central Park is also home to Sears houses - almost 150 of them identified to date. While many of us picture Times Square as the quintessential New York City setting, the reality is that New York City is a geographically big city - over 300 square miles in size. Large swaths of the city were developed as the "suburbs" of the high rises of Manhattan, particularly during the years when kit houses were most popular, and on these streets, we've found quite a few Sears houses. Let's take a look!