Sears Hammond in North Muskegon, Michigan

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

When Wendy and I visited North Muskegon, Michigan to see some Sears homes, we found more homes than we had on our list to visit. One of the surprises for us was a Sears Hammond. Unlike the Alhambra we spotted, I wasn't 100% sure that I had spotted a Hammond when we first drove past the house. We had to circle back around so I could look for a couple of details that made me confident that it was a Sears house. This is a very nice example of the Hammond so let's take a look at the clues that tipped us off that it is likely a Sears house.

Thank You Brighton!

Aladdin Roseland (1918)
Image courtesy of Clarke Historical Library

This past week, Wendy and I presented on "Michigan Kit Homes" at the Brighton District Library. It was a wonderful evening with an attentive audience that had come with a lot of good questions. But the best part of it was hearing the stories from the attendees who had personal connections to kit houses. One woman shared photos of an Aladdin Roseland that her family had built. Another gentleman told us about his family's Sears duplex in Ann Arbor. Turns out, it's a testimonial house! We also talked to homeowners who owned 1950s-era kit houses from Aladdin and Lewis. We don't often see examples of kit homes from that era so it was great to connect with those homeowners. We had a great time making those connections. Last but not least, a big thank you to the Friends of the Brighton District Library who made the evening possible. Great Friends groups help make great libraries!

Do you know of any kit houses in the Brighton, Michigan area? Share those with us in the comments!

Sears Alhambra in North Muskegon, Michigan

Last fall, I went searching online for kit houses in the villages and cities that dot the west side of the state of Michigan. While the "west coast" of Michigan doesn't have the density of kit houses that we find on the east side of the state, we've found examples of catalog and kit houses along the rural roads and in the villages and cities of western Michigan. One of the places I searched was the City of North Muskegon, which lies just east of Lake Michigan along the shores of Muskegon Lake. My search through the City of North Muskegon turned up a couple of possibilities for Wendy and I to check out in person when we traveled west. Little did we know what else we would find!

Sears Albion in Elmsford, NY

A few weeks ago, I blogged about "The Missing Models" which are all the "named" models from Sears that don't yet appear in the national database of Sears homes. A couple of weeks later, one of my fellow kit house researchers Judith Chabot located and authenticated our first example of the Sears Albion. I had never seen the Albion before so it was exciting to finally see an example of this model "in the wild". The next day - with some help - I located not one but two Albions! One of the Albions is a good example to review so let's take a look!