4,000!

5316 Gallatin - Hyattsville, MD - Sears Hathaway
Image courtesy of MRIS

Back in February, I shared how the national database of Sears houses had passed the 3,000 house mark. Just 2 months later, I'm pleased to report that thanks to the over 100 Sears houses in Prince George's County, Maryland that I added today, the list has cleared the 4,000 house mark! Among the 4,000 entries are over 1,500 authenticated Sears houses, most -  like the Sears Hathaway to the right - have been confirmed through mortgage and deed records. Although these 4,000 houses only represent approximately 5% of the estimated 70,000 homes sold by Sears through their Modern Homes Division, it's still the most comprehensive known list of likely and authenticated Sears homes. As I said before, it's only going to get bigger and better over time! If you know of any Sears houses in your town, let us know with a comment.

Update on Sears Mortgages of Takoma Park, Maryland

208 Hodges - Takoma Park, MD - Sears Hathaway
Image courtesy of Bing Maps

In March, I shared an initial review of the Sears mortgages in Takoma Park, Maryland. Since that update, I've identified a couple more houses bringing the current total for Sears houses with mortgages financed by Sears Roebuck in Takoma Park to 60! Examples of the models found in Takoma Park include this rare variation of the Sears Hathaway with unclipped gables. I've updated the original post to reflect the updated numbers including the number of each kind of model house found in Takoma Park. Read the updated post!

Model Homes - Sears Roebuck

Sears Maplewood
Lansing, Michigan
Image courtesy of Newspapers.com

Modern residential builders often advertise their model homes to help spur interest in their new developments. Staffed with sales people, these homes - often with all the bells and whistles included - are open to the public to explore in the hope of enticing prospective homebuyers. Things weren't much different in the kit house era of the 1920s - 1940s. In some cases, developers of new subdivisions of the era built and featured a kit house (or houses) as an example of the style of home that could or would be built in the new development. 

Kit house companies also teamed up with some of their customers who allowed their new homes to be used as model homes. Often times, this meant opening one's new house to visitors from near and far, sometimes thousands in number, over a period of a couple weeks. Presumably, once the tours were done, the house would be made like new. Not as common but also done were models that were built without a prospective customer in mind. These model homes are notable because they often pop up in searches about the kit house companies in historic newspapers. Let's take a look! 

Where are the Sears Houses - June 2018 Edition

41 Palmer St - Stamford, CT
Sears Hathaway
Image courtesy of Zillow

It has been about three months since the last update of "Where are the Sears Houses?"  In that time, the national database of Sears houses eclipsed the 10,000 house mark, which means it's time for another update of "Where are the Sears Houses?" Here is the breakdown of location of houses by state based on approximately 10,000 homes in the database. Let's take a look!

Sears Mortgages of the Town of Cortlandt, New York

As I shared recently, one of my research projects this winter is revisiting the Sears mortgages of the communities of Westchester County, New York. The most recent set of mortgages that I've reviewed is for the Town of Cortlandt, which lies in the northwest portion of Westchester County. For the time period I reviewed, I found almost 80 Sears mortgages. Although I didn't find as many houses as I did in Yonkers, New York, I did find quite a few, a couple which I'll share below. Let's take a look at the numbers.

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 - 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! 

Sears Mortgages of Montgomery County, Maryland

Seal of Montgomery County, Maryland
Image courtesy of Wikipedia

A couple months ago, I shared the results of research I had done into mortgages financed by Sears Roebuck for kit houses located in Washington DC. At current count, Catarina Bannier and I have located and/or authenticated over 220 Sears house within the borders of Washington DC. One of the houses that had a mortgage in Washington DC was a Sears Elmhurst. I had a feeling that there had to be at least one more Elmhurst in the Washington DC suburbs where we knew a number of Sears houses had been built. I asked Catarina where such a high-end Sears kit might have been built and she suggested Montgomery County, Maryland, which surrounds DC to the west, north and a portion of the northeast side. She was right! Not only did the Sears mortgages of Montgomery County lead me to another Sears Elmhurst, they've helped Catarina and I locate and authenticate over 100 Sears houses.

Sears Mortgages of Prince George's County, Maryland

Seal of Prince George's County, Maryland
Image courtesy of Wikipedia

Back in February, I shared the results of the mortgage research I did in Montgomery County, Maryland, where over 100 Sears houses were authenticated using mortgage records. Like Montgomery County, Prince George's County is a suburb of Washington DC, sharing a border with most of the northeast and southeast portions of the District. Through researching mortgage records for the County, I've been able to authenticate over Sears 100 homes in Prince George's County. The total number of homes authenticated to date exceeds the number authenticated in Montgomery County. Together with the homes authenticated in Washington DC and Montgomery County, I've been able to authenticate over 500 Sears homes in Washington DC and the surrounding Maryland suburbs.

Sears Mortgages of Takoma Park, Maryland

Seal of the City of Takoma Park

In a recent post, I shared some numbers on Sears mortgages in Montgomery County, Maryland. The community with the most houses with mortgages financed by Sears Roebuck was Takoma Park, Maryland with 46. What I didn't know at the time is that for many years, a portion of Takoma Park was located in Prince George's County. It wasn't until 1997 that the border between the two counties was adjusted to place all of Takoma Park within Montgomery County. That meant that there were likely more houses with mortgages from Sears located in the portion of Takoma Park previously located in Prince George's County. Having completed a preliminary review of the Sears mortgages for Prince George's County, I now have been able to identify another 18 houses with mortgages from Sears in Takoma Park. The discovery of the name of another Sears trustee led to the discovery of some additional homes in Montgomery County too. In total, to date, I've been able to identity 64 Sears houses with mortgages in Takoma Park, Maryland. Let's check out the numbers and photos of some of the houses that have been authenticated.

Sears Mortgages of Washington DC

Image courtesy of Wendy Harman
Washington DC, USA
(March from the Tidal Basin) [CC BY 2.0]

I recently shared a post about discovering and authenticating Sears houses by searching mortgage records for catalog houses that were financed through Sears. Normally that process is very time intensive, requiring quite a bit of research to match mortgages with homes. But recently, I had the good fortune to come across a database of mortgage records that made the process of researching go much more quickly. This database of mortgage records was for properties located in Washington DC. In about 2 weeks time, I was able to review around 300 mortgage and deed records. For comparison, it took me almost a year to research around 500 mortgages in Oakland County, Michigan.

Sears Mortgages of Oakland County, Michigan

One of the more time-intensive methods of researching Sears kit houses is by searching through mortgage records. Depending on where you are doing the research, it can take quite a bit of work to look through these records and related property records to find homes that were financed through Sears Roebuck. But when they are found, these mortgages help to authenticate possible Sears houses or lead us to houses that had not previously been identified.

Advertisement for financing a Sears kit house (1928)
Image courtesy of Detroit Free Press