We're still trying to identify our Sears home. We bought it in 2003 and the previous owner told us it was a Sears Kit home. She said it was her husbands childhood home. Records at the courhouse tell us it was built somewhere between 1908-1912. In 1905 it was a vacant lot, but we weren't able to determine when exactly the house was put on it.
Here are a few things that do make us believe it is a Sears Kit home. We are very close to what used to be a railroad depot and the tracks are still there and used although the depot is gone.
I found a picture of window hardware that looks just like the hardware on our front windows. I found a picture on the internet of someone who said they had a Sears home standing in front of a bookcase that looked just like the one in my house. I can't locate that picture anymore unfortunately. I bought the book "Houses By Mail" but I'm not able to find one in the book that looks like mine. We do know it's been changed. Previous owner told us that it used to have a wrap around porch, which is gone now. Also we think she said the staircase was moved. A mismatched pattern in the hardwood of our dining room floor seems to indicate this is true.
I'm attaching two pictures. If anyone can help with identifing it, I'd appreciate it. We can't find other distinguishing characteristics like the lumber markings or door styles and hardware. Is it possible that if ours is one of the early styles, it had different doors and trim?
make sure you check back here on occasion as someone will be able to help. given the extent of the changes you describe, the expert opinion of "The Houses That Sears Built" author Rose Thornton is what is required. she should be by for a look soon or you can e mail her at thorntonrose@hotmail.com.
Thanks Wabash. It looks like she is busy so I'll just wait until she has time to have a look. I was wrong on the book I bought. It was Rose's book, "The Houses That Sears Built." I'm attaching a second picture of our house from the other side.
i would try to contact the former owner again and perhaps get a photo. i just recently was able to contact the ex wife of the son of the original owners of my house and obtain an album with 94 pages of photos. who she is was revealed quite by chance following a lot of inquiries and it was quite a thrill for me so persistence is the key.
It doesn't grab me as a Sears House. Sears did have several foursquares but that doesn't look like any of them. I can see that the poor dear has endured many remodelings, but even setting those aside, I still don't believe you have a Sears House there.
Oftimes, people would buy a boxcar full of building materials from Sears Roebuck and then the old folks in town have memories of watching the original home's owner haul load after load of building materials from the train station to the building site and that's how the legend starts that IT IS A SEARS HOME!
Thanks for your reply Rose. You might be right about that. The original owner has a painting of what the house looked like before the wrap around porch was taken off and I'm going to try to get a picture of that. Maybe then we'll be able to rule it out for sure.
