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!