ID this House! Sears Newark

30 Bellwood Ave - Dobbs Ferry, NY - Sears Newark
Image courtesy of Zillow

Westchester County, New York is home to hundreds of identified and authenticated Sears houses. You'll find Sears houses in almost every community in the county and Dobbs Ferry is no exception. Dobbs Ferry is home to several of the most popular models offered by Sears like the Americus, the Cornell and the Starlight. But it is also home to one of the less common examples - the Sears Newark. I've previously written about the Newark but a recent example that I came in Dobbs Ferry is a great match for the Newark and a good candidate for the "ID this House!" series. Let's learn to ID this house!

First things first - unlike many of the houses in Westchester County, this house has not yet been authenticated. I don't have a mortgage record, building permit or newspaper reference that helps me to confirm that this house is from Sears. But it's such a good match for the Newark that I'm pretty confident that this is the real deal. After reviewing this house against the catalog plans, I'm sure you'll agree. 

Next, let's review the history of the Sears Newark. 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". Only a handful of examples of this house have been identified with several authenticated examples.

Why have so few Newarks been identified to date? It's likely that there were never that many homes of this design that were sold and built. While the effects of the Great Depression took a couple of years to reach its full effect, sales of Sears houses declined steeply from a banner year in 1929 to a fraction of those numbers in 1933. The other challenge is that the fairly plain Colonial Revival design of the Newark is hard to differentiate from houses with similar designs from the same era. Still, I did spot this Newark "in the wild" without the benefit of a mortgage record or similar locator so they can be found through visual identification alone.

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

We'll start out our lesson with the front of the house. Unlike the previous example I shared, this Newark still has the original windows or replacements that mirror the original configuration. Upstairs, you'll find a two 6 over 6 windows flanking a tall narrow window. This narrow window is for a closet for one of the upstairs bedrooms in the original floor plan.

Downstairs, we have windows on either side of the front entrance. But these are in a 8 over 8 configuration. Although this is a small detail, recognizing that the upstairs and downstairs windows should be of different sizes even if they have been replaced is an important detail to help differentiate a real Newark from a wanna-be.

Last but not least is the enclosed entry on the front of the house. This design is not-so-common on Colonial Revival style houses which typically sport an open covered porch. You can see how this entrance sports almost all of the details of the original including the matching front door design and the decorative panels that run across the top of the enclosed entry. The only element missing that is found in the catalog image is the decorative "trophies" that topped the entry.

This house has a standard floor plan so you'll find the living room fireplace chimney on the left side of the house flanked by a window on either side on each floor. You can see that from an older view of the house in Google Streetview. Just like in the catalog, the chimney should be slightly inset to the side wall. You can also see in this view that the house has an addition on the back.

30 Bellwood Ave - Dobbs Ferry, NY - Sears Newark
Image courtesy of Google Maps

On the right hand side of the house, look for the centered single window on the second floor - that's an unusual placement. 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. You can see all those elements in an older view of the house in Google Streetview. That window in the attic is not original to the catalog plan but we've seen the attic finished in other examples of the Newark.

30 Bellwood Ave - Dobbs Ferry, NY - Sears Newark
Image courtesy of Google Maps

For anyone doing an identification based on the exterior views of the house, this should be enough to see whether the house is a possible Sears Newark. However, if you are able to get into the house or view real estate photos of the interior, here are some other elements to look for to help authenticate the house as being from Sears.

Here are the floor plans for the first and second floors.

Floor Plan of First Floor of Sears Newark

Floor Plan of Second Floor of Sears Newark

On the first floor, we can see a nook for a telephone at the far side of the entrance vestibule. The newel for the staircase doesn't match anything we've seen in any of the Sears catalogs so it's likely a replacement.

30 Bellwood Ave - Dobbs Ferry, NY - Sears Newark
Image courtesy of Zillow

Although I didn't spy what appeared to be original door hardware in many of the photos, here's one that has what appears to be La Tosca style hardware on the door on the right-hand side of the image.

30 Bellwood Ave - Dobbs Ferry, NY - Sears Newark
Image courtesy of Zillow

Here's a close-up of the La Tosca style hardware as taken from the Sears Building Materials catalog.

Image courtesy of Sears House Seeker

While Sears hardware by itself is not proof that a house is from Sears as anyone could purchase Sears-specific hardware through the Building Materials catalogs, it can be a piece of evidence that helps confirm that the house you've located is a Sears kit house.

Here's one more possible Sears-oriented interior element - the fireplace surround. Here's the fireplace in the Dobbs Ferry Newark.

Here's the design of the surround from the Sears Building Materials catalog. You can see how closely those match.

Image courtesy of Sears House Seeker

I hope this overview on how to identify the Sears Newark has been helpful. Remember, the details matter so study the catalog images closely and note how well the house you are studying matches up. By paying attention to those key elements, you'll avoid misidentifying houses. If you think you've found an example of the Sears Newark (or any other kit house), share it with us in the comments!