Sears Birmingham in Baltimore, Maryland

Catalog image of Sears Birmingham (1932)
Image courtesy of Archive.org

When I did my 2015 "year in review", I promised to do more short posts that just highlighted houses I've discovered. Here's my first of the year to keep that promise! I came across this Sears Birmingham through researching Sears mortgages in the city of Baltimore, Maryland. This is the first Birmingham that I've seen and the first to be added to our nationwide list of Sears houses. The Birmingham's first and last appearance was in the 1932 Modern Homes catalog. When I looked this up, I was surprised by this fact. You'll find elements of this design in houses built in cities across the country. But apparently this wasn't a popular plan and Sears ditched it after 1 year. "Houses by Mail" claims that the Birmingham also appeared in the 1931 and 1933 catalogs but I've found no evidence of that. Lemeul C. and Mayre W. Dunbar financed their house through Sears Roebuck for $7,000 in February 1932. Let's look at some pictures of the house!

2 Mallow Hill - Baltimore, MD - Sears Birmingham (2009)
Image courtesy of Google Maps

From the front, the house matches up nicely with the catalog image. This house was built with a reversed floor plan which was a standard option that Sears offered customers. This choice seems odd for this lot because it put two of the three bedrooms facing the street. It also put the first floor sun room and the main living areas on the side that faced an adjacent house, depriving those rooms of the sunlight that they would have gotten if they had selected the standard layout. 

2 Mallow Hill - Baltimore, MD - Sears Birmingham (2009)
Image courtesy of Google Maps

If you compare this side of the house to the catalog image of the floor plan shown below - keeping in mind that this house is reversed - you can see that the first floor windows don't match up exactly with the floor plan as shown in the catalog. This would have been a change in the design done at the request of the homeowner. This is where a mortgage record becomes so valuable in the research process. Where otherwise we might have been left guessing, the mortgage record allows us to authenticate this as a Sears kit house.

Ironically, the house image that Sears used in the catalog doesn't match up exactly with the floor plan either! It has a single window in the kitchen where the floor plan shows a paired window. It's not the first time I've seen a mismatch in the catalog between the house images and the floor plans. 

First Floor of Sears Birmingham - Catalog Image (1932)
Image courtesy of Archive.org

An interesting feature of the second floor is the open porch on the back of the house.

Second Floor of Sears Birmingham - Catalog Image (1932)
Image courtesy of Archive.org

You can make that porch out on the far side of the back of the house.

2 Mallow Hill - Baltimore, MD - Sears Birmingham (2009)
Image courtesy of Google Maps

Let's take one more look at the house from the front.

2 Mallow Hill - Baltimore, MD - Sears Birmingham (2009)
Image courtesy of Google Maps

This Birmingham in Baltimore is an attractive looking house. But apparently, there's not many out there. If you happen to know of any, let us know!