McClure #3060 in Cheverly, Maryland

Image courtesy of the
Bentley Historical Library 

The McClure Company was a manufacturer of kit houses based in Saginaw, Michigan. While McClure only sold homes for a handful of years, I've been able to locate examples of McClure homes in several states. As I shared in a previous post, I learned of the McClure Company from research that had been done in Cheverly, Maryland. There are at least five examples of houses from McClure located in Cheverly. Today, I want to share one of the houses located in Cheverly, as it's a very nice example of the McClure #3060 model. To date, I'm not aware of any other examples of this model from McClure. But I'm hoping that by highlighting it, more examples of this house may come to light.

Cheverly, Maryland is located just a couple miles from the Washington DC border of the northeast quadrant of the federal capital. Like many of the Maryland suburbs of Washington DC, Cheverly was first developed in the early years of the 20th Century, taking advantage of its proximity to streetcar and railroad lines that radiated out into the Maryland countryside. Cheverly was planned and first developed by Robert Marshall, President of the Washington Suburban Realty Company. Marshall was responsible for the construction of most of the kit houses located in Cheverly including four of the five known houses from McClure. Marshall purchased the houses directly from Sears Roebuck and McClure and had them constructed as model homes to help establish the character of the community. While most of these model homes were kits from Sears Roebuck, Marshall also purchased four kit houses from McClure in February 1925. 

3305 Cheverly Ave - Cheverly, Maryland - McClure #3060
Image courtesy of Cheverly History Club

This McClure #3060 is the largest of the five McClure houses located in Cheverly. When I was going through the McClure materials held at the Bentley Historical Library, I found only a single catalog of homes designs and like the #3063 that I previously shared, this house is not in that catalog. Fortunately, a prominent kit house researcher shared with me a set of catalog images for McClure houses that were not in the catalog located at the Bentley. Among those images was the catalog image and floor plan for #3060. 

Catalog image of McClure #3060
From a Private Collection
May not be used or reproduced without the written permission of the owner

I don't know why the catalog image for the #3060 has a giant tree blocking the view of the house. While that's a common occurrence in real life, one would think that the kit house manufacturers would want to give their prospective customers a clear view of the house! In any case, from what we can see, the house in Cheverly matches up very nicely with the catalog image. Like the #3063 in Ypsilanti Township, Michigan, the side porch on the house in Cheverly has been enclosed. 

Floor plan of McClure #3060
From a Private Collection
May not be used or reproduced without the written permission of the owner

If you have a keen eye, you may realize that the #3060 and the #3063 have identical floor plans. In fact, the only significant difference I can see between the two plans are the two dormer windows that you see on this house in Cheverly. These would provide additional light into the attic portion of the house which would be desirable if that portion of the house had been finished. From the catalog images that have been shared with me, there are at least 4 different house designs that share this floor plan. Three of them are of a Colonial design and one is a Dutch Colonial Revival design. 

To date, this is the only known example of this house. But McClure sold houses for a number of years so there's likely more examples of this model in the world. With that distinctive porch and those dormers, this one should be easy to spot. If you think you've found an example of the McClure #3060 (or any other kit house), share it with us in the comments!