Where are the Sears Houses - November 2017 Edition

29 Lawrence Ave - Tuckahoe, NY
Sears Alhambra
Image courtesy of Zillow

With our recent appearance on NBC Nightly News and running for re-election here in Novi, it's been a busy few weeks around the Hamilton house. When the national database of Sears homes passed the 8,500 home mark, I took note of it but didn't get a chance to run the numbers. As there's a bit of friendly competition among our group of kit house researchers, I didn't want to keep them waiting too long for an update. Here is the breakdown of location of houses by state based on approximately 8,600 homes in the database. Let's take a look!

Elmhurst #20!

If you watched the NBC Nightly News segment on Sears houses that Wendy and I appeared in, you may have caught a glance of a catalog image of a stately brick and stucco Tudor-style house. If you watched closely, you would have seen that the model featured was the Sears "Elmhurst". If you are a regular reader of the blog, you know that finding and sharing examples of the Sears "Elmhurst" has been a recurring feature on the blog. Coincidentally, a Sears Elmhurst in Alexandria, Virginia was recently listed for sale.  This listing gives us a chance to see this model up close and personal. Let's take a look!

Welcome NBC Nightly News Viewers!

Sears Sherburne - Berkley, Michigan

If you landed here from watching the NBC Nightly News episode about kit houses, check out these links to learn more about what we do and about the history of kit houses.

• In the Beginning: How we got started!
• The Great Sears Paper Trail: Learn how we use documents, some over 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 unique 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!

PS - If you contact us, please be patient and we'll get back to you as soon as we can. We've received a lot of inquiries from the program and we're getting back to folks just as quick as we can. 

Thank you Howell!

This past week, Wendy and I presented on "Michigan Kit Homes" at the Howell Carnegie District Library. Even though it was a cold and wet evening outside, we had a good size crowd in attendance including a couple of people who had kit house connections to share with us. We'll be following up on those leads to see if we can turn them into kit house finds! One of the interesting aspects of the kit houses located in Howell is that Howell is home to at least 3 "generations" of Aladdin kit houses - an early Aladdin "Venus", a 1930s-era Aladdin "Lindbergh/Madison" and a 1950s-era Aladdin "Coronado". The first and last house were shared with us by fellow kit house researcher Dale Wolicki, who documented many of the kit houses located in Howell in the early 2000s. Thanks Dale!

Judith Chabot Interview

Judith Chabot, one of the members of our research group on Facebook, was recently interviewed by the Saint Louis Business Journal about her interest in kit houses and why and how she got started researching them. In addition to the print version, the Business Journal did a short video interview with Judith that you can watch below. Judith did want us to note one small correction - Bea Lask did her research in and around Cincinnati in the 1980s, not the 1970s as was stated in the video.