I am researching a kit house located in Red Springs NC. Local legend is that this home is a Sears Lexington ca 1932. Check the attached picture and you can see that the Lexington is a colonial, but not the correct colonial. Through the 1929 Gordon-Van Tine catalogue at antiquehome.org I have pinned down this home to be a Newbury.

I have a couple of goals and questions for the forum.

The first goal is to get a clear copy of the cover and Newbury page from 1930-1932 so that I can frame them and hang them in the house. Another goal is a price list for this house.

The question to the forum is about the sun room and sleeping porch on the left. I did not see these two items in the Dover reprint of the GVT catalogue. I know Sears offered them, so I would suppose that GVT offered them. Could someone confirm that these items are in a GVT catalogue ca 1930-1932?

The home is on it’s 4th owner. The first 2 owned the home for almost 60 years, roughly 30 years per. It has the original kitchen cabinets and light fixtures in the bedrooms, but new light fixtures other wise, new plumbing fixtures and appliances. The exterior looks “as built”.


Markings:
Bundled wood (oak hardwood flooring) in the attic is stamped (black spray painted stencil)
20834 – MRS W B ROBESON
RED SPRINGS NC
And a rubber stamp
“Brown’s Best White Oak”

Floor joists in basement are marked with red chalk numbers (lengths and cutting marks?) and stamped in black ink with FIRST FLOOR JOISTS.

Bottom of outside door frame next to chimney is visible from basement and is marked (black spray painted stencil):
MRS. W. B. ROBESON, 20834
RED SPRINGS NO. CAROLINA.
Also rubber stamped:
“Iowa and LH Entrance” (?) The door does swing open on the left side.

Thanks
Charles

Attached photo of "The Lady in White"

Thats a Gordon-VanTine Newbury, no doubt about it.

The one story porch is an original feature offered with the model. The two story sleeping porch looks to be original and is similar to GVT sleeping porches I have seen elsewhere.

If you look around you might be able to find the original shipping label stamped "Gordon-VanTine Davenport -Iowa". The shipping labels are frequently found in the attic of in the basement where they were frequently used to build doors, shelfs or cabinents.

The Newbury was introduced in 1929. It was renamned the Idlewood in 1932 and disappears from the GVT catalog soon afterwards.

I have attached pics of the Newbury/Idlewood for a 1932 catalog. A Gordon VanTine website (www.gordonvantine.com) should be online sometime next week.

Thanks Wolicki for the catalogue picture. It helps to document the official "before" look of the interior/exterior. Originally the top kitchen cabinets were put on the left side wall (where they still are) and both kitchen windows were put on the back wall. There is no chimney on the left side. These changes make the kitchen look very big. Other changes were made to the house over the years and I will document them in the future. I am looking forward to your GVT web site and will drop you a write-up and pictures on this house when I finish looking around top to bottom.

By the way, the chimney smoothly tapers from the bottom to the top instead of being straight or stepped. Was this a GVT suggestion or a local variation?

Charles