Sears Newark in White Plains, New York

Catalog image of Sears Newark (1930)
Image courtesy of Sears Homes of Chicagoland

As I've been reviewing mortgages in the Town of Greenburgh, New York, I've run across some of the less common examples of Sears houses, like the Sears Elmhurst that I shared recently. Another house that I located through a mortgage record is this Sears Newark located in White Plains, New York. There are a number of Sears houses located in the surrounding neighborhood but this Newark is one that stood out because there's been so few examples identified to date. This Newark is one of two that I've been able to identify and authenticate from the mortgage records in Greenburgh.

The Newark was first introduced in the 1929 Sears Modern Homes catalog. The Newark was joined in that catalog by the Worchester, which shared the same design but was finished with face brick. The two models appeared in both the 1930 and 1931 catalog but only the Worchester appeared in the 1932 catalog. Both models appeared for the final time in the 1933 catalog before being "retired". I'm only aware of a few authenticated examples of each model.

Catalog image of Sears Worchester (1929)
Image courtesy of Antique Home

In addition to the mortgage record which authenticated this house, you can see from the images of the house how well it matches up to the catalog image (and in some ways that it doesn't). This house has a sun room on the east side of the house. It's possible that this was part of the original house design.

101 South Road - White Plains, NY - Sears Newark
Image courtesy of Google Maps

One of the identifying features of the Newark is the narrow second story window above the front porch. While it appears that all of the original windows on this house have been replaced, the narrow dimensions of that second story window remain as you can see in the image above. The porch of this house differs from the standard design of the Newark. It's likely that this porch design is original to the house, a change that the customer would have requested from Sears in the process of ordering the house.

On the right hand side of the house, you can see some more elements that can help you identify the Newark. On the first floor, the front dining room has a set of paired windows while the kitchen at the rear of the house has a single window. On the second floor, there's only one window for a bedroom that is centered on the side of the house. Although not standard to the design, this house has a window for the attic area, which likely is finished or semi-finished in this house.

101 South Road - White Plains, NY - Sears Newark
Image courtesy of Google Maps

This Sears Newark had a mortgage for $4,800 in May, 1931 with Edwards D. Ford. This amount is much lower than we've seen with other Newarks so in this case, the buyer must have chosen to finance a smaller percentage of the total cost through Sears. As noted earlier, there are other kit houses in this area, some of which we'll feature in future posts.

Know of another Sears Newark? Let us know about it in the comments!