Where are the Sears Houses - January 2019 Edition

Sears Cedars  - 175 Wetmore Road
Columbus, Ohio

That was fast! It feels like I just wrote up the last update to "Where are the Sears Houses?" and we're already at the 11,000 house mark! Actually, it was three months ago that I shared the last update and since then, another 500 homes have been added to the national database of Sears Roebuck homes. Our crew of kit house researchers didn't hunker down for the winter. Instead, they've been busy finding houses! Here is the breakdown of the location of houses by state based on approximately 11,000 homes in the database. Let's take a look!

Return to Yonkers, New York

42 Seminary Ave - Yonkers, New York
Sears Americus

Back in 2016, I spent quite a bit of time doing research into Sears mortgages for houses built in Yonkers, New York. I covered that research in several posts that I wrote detailing the number of mortgages, the number of houses located and a breakdown by model. Recently, I took some time to return to those mortgages in Yonkers that I had not yet pinned down to a location. Using some new resources, some tried-and-true favorites, and a couple of years of additional experience finding and identifying kit houses, I was able to locate quite a few more Sears houses in Yonkers, pushing the total number of identified Sears houses to over 100! Among the new finds are homes from some of the other kit house manufacturers including Aladdin, Lewis and Montgomery Ward (Wardway). Let's take a look at the updated numbers!

Where are the Sears Houses - November 2018 Edition

2237 S 71st St - West Allis, WI
Sears Walton
Image courtesy of Trulia.com

It has been about five months since the last update of "Where are the Sears Houses?" In that time, the national database of Sears houses grew to over 10,500 houses, which means it's time for another update of "Where are the Sears Houses?" Here is the breakdown of the location of houses by state based on approximately 10,500 homes in the database. Let's take a look!

Welcome Detroit Free Press Readers

Sears Sherburne - Berkley, Michigan

If you landed here from the Detroit Free Press article 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. 
• Kit Houses of Berkley, Michigan: See a list of kit houses located in Berkley.
• Where are the Sears houses located in Oakland County? You can find Sears houses in a number of cities, villages and townships in Oakland County. 

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 article and we're getting back to folks just as quick as we can. 

Thank you Petoskey!

This past week, Wendy and I journeyed up to the northern tip of Michigan's Lower Peninsula to present about "Michigan Kit Houses" as part of the "Friends @ the Carnegie" speaker series in Petoskey, Michigan. Hosted by the Petoskey District Library and sponsored by the Friends of the Library, the presentation took place in the historic Carnegie library that sits across the street from the current library building. 

Historic Carnegie library building in downtown Petoskey

Not only did the original Carnegie library provide a nice venue for the evening's attendees, it was outfitted with the largest screen we've ever stood in front of for a presentation!

Andrew and the Giant Screen!

We had a wonderful time talking about the history of kit houses, sharing the process of buying and building a kit house and  showing examples of kit houses in Petoskey, nearby cities and from across the state and the country including a wonderful example of a Sears house in downtown Petoskey. Everyone we met at the presentation was very gracious and we even had a couple of invitations to tour homes that we took advantage of the next day. If you ever get a chance to travel to northern Lower Michigan, you must find the time to visit Petoskey. We guarantee that you'll find it well worth the trip!