Where are the Sears Houses - August 2017 Edition

3 Oak St - Beacon, NY
Sears Lakecrest

Wow, that was quick! It was just over a month ago that the national database of Sears Modern Homes passed the 7,500 home mark. In less than 6 weeks, the list of homes has grown by over 500 homes, passing 8,000. As the members of our group of kit house researchers like to see how they're doing in their respective states, we are revisiting the breakdown of location of houses by state and comparing that to our previous update in June 2017. Let's take a look!

Welcome Boston Globe Readers!

Sears Martha Washington
Quincy, MA

If you landed here from the Boston Globe article about kit houses, check out these links to learn more about what we do and about the history of kit houses.

• Sears Houses of Massachusetts: View a list of documented Sears houses in Massachusetts.
• In the Beginning: How we got started!
• The Great Sears Paper Trail: Learn how we use documents, some almost 100 years old, to find Sears houses. 
• Sears Mortgages of Washington DC: One of our biggest research projects that led to the discovery of a lot of big kit houses!
• Sears Houses of Massapequa Park, New York - Grand Boulevard: One of our projects to document Sears houses around the United States. If you are interested in seeing many examples of Sears houses, check this out!
• Yes, Virginia, Sears Homes Were Built After 1940: Fellow kit house blogger Lara Solonickne documents the fact that Sears continued to sell kit houses after 1940.
• View the real estate listing for a Sears Alhambra in Milford, Massachusetts. This is one of the nicest examples I've seen of this unusual Sears house. 

Sears Alhambra - Milford, Massachusetts
Image courtesy of Zillow

After you visit the blog, join the Sears Modern Homes Facebook page to see many more examples of kit houses from Sears and other kit house companies. Interested in reading more? Check out the kit house blogs linked under "More about Catalog and Kit Homes" on the right hand side of the page.

Thank you for visiting!

Sears Elmhurst in Niskayuna, New York

Once upon a time, I thought the Sears Elmhurst was a super rare model offered by Sears Roebuck. It made sense that we wouldn't expect to find more than a handful of them. The Elmhurst is a fairly large house, pricier because it was finished in brick veneer and only offered for a handful of years at a time when home sales were in decline, all factors that would tend to keep the number of houses built down to a small number. But in fact, we've discovered through our research that if the Elmhurst was once considered a rare model, it's a rarity no more. With almost 20 examples located to date, there's more than a handful of them out there. Still, it's an interesting looking house and always fun to find one. So I want to share with you another example of the Elmhurst that I recently came across in Niskayuna, New York.

Thank you Flint!

2002 Windermere Ave - Flint, MI - Sears Lexington
Photo courtesy of Nigel Tate

Wendy and I want to thank the attendees of our recent presentation on "Michigan Kit Houses" at the Flint Public Library. We enjoyed highlighting the history of kit houses in the Flint community and sharing examples of kit houses - like the Sears Lexington - that still exist in Flint. We know there's more research to be done in Flint and more kit houses to be found. We look forward to continuing that effort!

Sears Parkridge in Katonah, New York

6 Nightingale Rd - Katonah, NY
Sears Parkridge
Image courtesy of Zillow

"Houses by Mail" by H. Ward Jandl and Katherine H. Stevenson is the go-to book for Sears catalog house researchers. Published in 1986, it includes an image of almost every house that Sears sold through their mail order catalogs from 1908 - 1940. But due to the lack of availability of a few catalogs back in 1986, not every model made it into the book. One of the missing models is the Parkridge. Recently, while looking for Sears houses with mortgages in Westchester County, New York, I came across a very nice example of the Sears Parkridge and was able to identify it myself. Let's take a look!