Berkley, Michigan Kit House Tour - September 28, 2024

Ever wanted to visit a kit house in person? Here's your chance! This Saturday, September 28th, Berkley, Michigan will be hosting a tour of kit houses in the city that includes the opportunity to visit inside 6 homes - 5 new on the tour this year. 

Berkley is home to over 50 kit houses including some of the largest models sold by Sears Roebuck. Follow the link for more details and to purchase tickets online ($25 per person when ordered in advance). See you there!

Sears Clyde in Northville, Michigan

The "Sears" Clyde was a popular model for Sears Roebuck. First introduced in 1920, it continued to appear in the "Modern Homes" catalog through 1929. There are over 200 examples of this model in the National Database of Sears Homes, testifying to both its popularity and distinctive design. This example of the "Clyde" is located in Northville, Michigan and it was one of the first Sears houses I located in the city thanks to its distinctive Craftsman-style elements. It's a good example of what to look for when identifying the "Clyde" model. Let's take a look! 

Sears Langston in The Bronx, New York City, New York

In January, I shared an example of a Sears "Rodessa" that was built in New York City, specifically in The Bronx. I wanted to share another example from The Bronx, this time a larger two story model, the "Langston". This house helps highlight some of the ways that we're able to track down Sears houses built in New York City. It also highlights some of the challenges in finding  and identifying homes that in some cases were built over 100 years ago! Let's take a look! 

Where are the Sears Houses - February 2023 Edition

Sears Americus - Temple, PA

It's been about 3 months since the last update of "Where are the Sears Houses?" With the winter weather and the holidays, the pace of discoveries slowed down a bit compared to the last two updates but not by much! Over the past 7 months, we've added over 1,500 new houses to the National Database of Sears Homes. It's been a pretty impressive pace. We'll see if we can keep it going into 2023. Meanwhile, let's see what all these new houses have done to the line up of places where Sears houses have been located. Let's take a look! 

Sears Rodessa in The Bronx, New York City, New York

One of the last places that most people would think to find Sears houses is in New York City. "New York City?!" Yes, the home of skyscrapers, subways, brownstones and Central Park is also home to Sears houses - almost 150 of them identified to date. While many of us picture Times Square as the quintessential New York City setting, the reality is that New York City is a geographically big city - over 300 square miles in size. Large swaths of the city were developed as the "suburbs" of the high rises of Manhattan, particularly during the years when kit houses were most popular, and on these streets, we've found quite a few Sears houses. Let's take a look! 

Aladdin Pomona in Wheatland, Wyoming

Before this month, the national database of Aladdin houses didn't include any houses in Wyoming. We knew that houses (and garages and a barn!) had been sold to customers in Wyoming from the years of the sales index that we've reviewed. But no specific houses had been located either from searches based on the sales index or in searches we've done looking for houses from other kit house companies (it's not unusual to run across houses from one company while you're looking for houses from another). But that changed when I started looking specifically for houses in Wyoming that were listed on the sales index. While I didn't find all the houses on the list, I found several including an Aladdin Pomona in Wheatland, Wyoming. Let's take a look! 

Aladdin Pomona in Fenton, Michigan

Back in 2016, while doing research for a kit house presentation at the Jack R. Winegarden Library in Fenton, Michigan, I came across this house in Fenton at 894 North Leroy Street which looked to be an Aladdin "Pomona". I took some pictures of the house to include in the presentation and added it to our national list of Aladdin homes. At the time, I didn't have any reason to think that it wasn't a Pomona. But without any information to confirm that it was one, I couldn't authenticate it as the real deal. This is often the case with houses that we find "in the wild". But recently, I had the good fortune of being able to confirm its authenticity. Let's take a look! 

Aladdin Pilgrim in Le Roy, New York

January has been a good month for finding Aladdin homes. After I finished documenting the Aladdin homes in the Cabbagetown neighborhood in Atlanta, Georgia, I returned to searching for homes on the Aladdin sales index. So far, I've found over 20 Aladdin homes in states across the country. Those have included both popular models like the "Pomona" and lesser known models like the "Norwood". This Aladdin "Pilgrim" in Le Roy, New York is one of those homes that I found. Let's take a look!  

Making Lists - January 2023

Regular readers of this blog know that one of my kit house-related projects is contributing to a national database of Sears catalog and kit houses. As I shared in 2016, the database grew out of the need to have a centralized listing of Sears houses. Started 10 years ago in January 2013, the Sears database has grown to almost 16,000 documented homes with over 40% of those authenticated through various methods. 

While the Sears database is the largest in number of homes, it's not the only database we're working on. Just as there was a need to document houses from Sears, the same is true for homes from the other major kit house manufacturers. We now have databases for 9 regional and national kit house companies. Let's take a look!

The Aladdin Kit Homes of "Cabbagetown" - Atlanta, Georgia

Happy New Year loyal kit house readers! I thought I would start off the year by sharing one of my more interesting discoveries from 2022 - a collection of Aladdin homes built in 1919 in Atlanta, Georgia. Located in Atlanta's "Cabbagetown" neighborhood, these are the first documented examples of Aladdin homes I've been able to locate in the city of Atlanta (and the first kit houses I've found in the state of Georgia). These homes represent a side of the kit house story that isn't often told - homes sold not to individual homeowners but to companies seeking to provide housing for their workers. Let's take a look!

Sears Vallonia in Easton, Pennsylvania

This week's example of the Sears Roebuck "Vallonia" is located in Easton, Pennsylvania. I located this house from a reference I found in an environmental assessment done for a nearby highway project. The assessment, which had been posted online, was from 1993! I went searching half expecting to find the house long-gone. Instead, it's still there in all its original "Vallonia" glory!

We love seeing examples of Vallonias with original details intact and at least on the outside, this house still has many of them. Those details were referenced in the environmental assessment report too. 

Regular readers may notice that this "Vallonia" appears to be taller than some others that I've shared. Having seen hundreds of  examples of the "Vallonia", this design change appears to be another "hidden" option that wasn't mentioned in the "Modern Homes" catalog but was shared with customers who were interested in having a taller second floor than offered in the standard design. Judith Chabot explored this design change in her post about another example of a "tall Vallonia" in Westerly, Rhode Island. Watch for another example of the "Vallonia" coming soon! 

Where are the Sears Houses - November 2022 Edition

Sears Tarryton - Nutley, New Jersey

What's this? Another update of "Where are the Sears Houses?" But it's been only two months since I posted the last one and that came just 7 weeks after an update in July! What can I say, our intrepid band of kit house researchers has been on a roll. In four months, we've added over 1,000 new houses to the National Database of Sears Homes. I can't promise we'll be able to keep up this pace going forward but it's been exciting for us to see so many new discoveries. All of these new houses has made for some fierce competition among the list of states where Sears houses can be found. Let's take a look! 

Sears Vallonia in Westfield Center, Ohio

This week's example of the Sears Roebuck "Vallonia", located in Westfield Center, Ohio, shows off one of the details you may see if the house still retains its original look. In the middle of the piece of trim that runs across the top of the front of the porch is what I call a "keystone". It kind of resembles the keystone in an arch, although it doesn't serve the same structural purpose. In the case of the "Vallonia", I believe it's both decorative and functional, providing support at a location where two trim boards meet. 

You can see the "keystone" better in this close-up of that portion of the porch below the front dormer. 

That detail is an original part of the "Vallonia" model as you can see from the catalog image. 

From this view from inside the porch, you can see how that piece functions. 

Although it's a small detail, spotting that on the front of a house that looks like the "Vallonia" can help you in confirming that you've found one. Here's one last view of the "Vallonia" in Westfield Center, Ohio. 

Watch for another example of the "Vallonia" coming soon! 

The Century Club - Communities with 100 Sears Homes (or more!)

As the national database of Sears homes has grown past 15,000 homes, I wanted to share a list of communities where we've identified 100 or more Sears houses, a group I've dubbed "The Century Club". The members of this club are part of a rarified group. Of the 2,600 plus named places where Sears houses have been identified, as of September 2022, only 17 of them can claim to be home to 100 or more Sears homes. As the national database continues to grow, I hope to see new members inducted into the club! Which communities made the cut? Let's take a look! 

Aladdin Colonial in Maysville, Kentucky

As regular readers know, I search Zillow almost every day looking for potential kit houses. One of the searches that I do is looking for houses that have "Sears" in the description. As I've shared, this isn't a very reliable method for identifying houses from Sears Roebuck. I would say that more than half the houses that claim to be from Sears are definitely not from Sears and are likely not kit houses at all. Of the rest, most of them actually are from Sears. But a small percentage of those are models from other kit house companies that are erroneously listed as being from Sears. Such is the case with this lovely example of a "Colonial" from the Aladdin Company of Bay City, Michigan. Let's take a look!

Testimonial House: Sears No. 306 in Griswold, Iowa

Recently, the group of kit house researchers I work with has been using Rebecca Hunter's "Putting Sears Homes on the Map" book as a reference to locate testimonial houses. Most of the locations listed in the book are for houses that were referenced in the "Modern Homes" catalog either tied to a specific owner or location in the United States. But some of testimonials listed by Rebecca come from a book that Sears put out around 1912 called "Successful Building". This book was filled with customer testimonials including photos of the houses that they built. While many of those testimonials also appeared elsewhere, some of them, as far as I know, didn't appear anywhere else in Sears advertising, either in the "Modern Homes" catalog or the General Merchandise catalog. I recently had the good fortune of tracking down one of those houses in Griswold, Iowa. Let's take a look!

Sears Vallonia in Scotia, New York

Staying in Scotia, New York, where I recently featured a Sears "Ardara", this week's example of the Sears Roebuck "Vallonia" is a good example of how you can still identify a "Vallonia" even if it doesn't retain all its original details. 

As you can see, this "Vallonia" had its front porch enclosed, hiding the original columns (if they are still there) and it has been given a modern treatment of "stone" bases where the original porch column bases were located. But even though the trim has been replaced with what appears to be aluminum siding and the purlins on the front dormer have been similarly wrapped, we can still see the original lines of the "Vallonia". 

On the left side of the house, we can see two distinct features of the "Vallonia" that help us differentiate it from the very similar looking Sears "Sheridan" and look-a-like houses. First,we can count the 7 purlins that, while wrapped, still extend from the side of the house, supporting the overhanging roof. To be honest, I don't know if the purlins on the "Vallonia" are structural or decorative. But we're always looking for 7. 

On the dining room dormer that bumps out from the side of the house, we want to see 2 single windows separated from each other. If you see 2 windows together on a house that looks a lot like a "Vallonia", it's probably a Sears "Sheridan". 

Even the back of the house can provide us clues about whether a house is a "Vallonia" or not. That tall  chimney for the furnace that's located in the middle of the roof? That's the correct location to find it on the "Vallonia". See you next week with another example of the "Vallonia"!

Sears Ardara in Scotia, New York

One of the more unique designs from Sears Roebuck was the Sears "Ardara". First introduced in the 1919 "Modern Homes" catalog, the "Aradara" is easily recognizable with its prominent curved porch roof. This model is best known for being the first Sears model to be offered with an attached garage, over a decade before that became common on some Sears models. A nice example of the "Ardara" is currently for sale in Scotia, New York, giving us a chance to see this model up close. 

Sears Ardara - 1921 "Modern Homes" catalog

Let's take a look! 

Sears Vallonia in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

The "Vallonia" was one of the most popular models sold by Sears Roebuck. Appearing in the "Modern Homes" catalog for 20 years, it's one of the most identifiable models. With loads of Arts-and-Crafts inspired details, it's an attractive bungalow-style house that still captures the eye of home buyers over 100 years after it was first introduced. 

To date, almost 600 examples of the "Vallonia" have been identified. Of those, I've been fortunate to see many nice examples of this design so I decided I wanted to share some of those with you. One of those is this "Vallonia" in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 

As you can see, this "Vallonia" retains many of the details of the original house design. 

I plan on sharing a new example each week so if you're a fan of the "Vallonia", keep watching for more of them! 

Where are the Sears Houses - September 2022 Edition (15,000 houses!)

Sears Hathaway - Hempstead, NY

If you're a regular reader here, you're probably a bit surprised to see me posting a "Where are the Sears Houses" update. Didn't I just do one of those in July? Indeed, I did. But in just 7 weeks, the national database of Sears houses has grown by over 500 homes and it's time for another update. And not just any update - we've reached the 15,000 house mark! 

I'm just as surprised by the turn of events as you are. So I'm pleased to be able to share this news because it represents a ton of work by my fellow kit house researchers and yours truly too. Along with all those new homes discovered are some changes in the line up of states you see at each update. Let's take a look!