I'm new to the forum. I'm hoping someone can help me!

I have a wardway home that was build in the late 1920s-early 1930s. My sidewalk has a date of 1931 I believe.. But I'm not sure when the house was actually built. I've tried searching and searching but havne't found much on them. I bought the house from my grandmother, who bought it from the original owners 40 years ago.

It is a 2 story house with basement. The 1st floor has 2 bedrooms, bathroom, living, kitchen and dinette. The 2nd floor however has been remodeled into a 2nd floor apt and I don't know the original layout. It currently has 2 bedrooms, which those 2 I believe are original.

Anyone have any clue as to where I could find the original floor plans? I'm not sure which model it is that's my problem. The house has very high peaks and I still have alot of the original facets.. such as windows, doors, I think even the kitchen cabinets may be the originals.

Thanks so much for anyone's help!

Hello Sunnid,
Welcome to the Arts and Crafts Forums. Since I make blueprints and drawings of various structures, I have to do a lot of research at times. What you will need to do is to go to your county Auditor and find what plat book your property is in and then from there to the records office and they will help you find a complete history of your home from when it was built and by who, as well as the first owner of the property and through the years who else owned it.

Good Luck in your search but, I doubt you will find the original blueprints.

Respectfully,

Ralph Jones

Hi, Sunnid.

First, you should know we LIVE for pictures. If you could load an image into Flickr or Photobucket and link or import the the link to it, we could all see it and then have something to go on. (Or you can send it directly to us at info@arts-crafts.com.)

Ralph is right. Finding the original plans isn't likely, however if we can figure out which Wardway it was, then we might be able to help.

The problem is that not much is known about Wardway homes. Dale Wolicki has documented a relationship between Gordon Van Tine and Montgomery Ward. Many of Ward's homes were manufactured by Gordon Van Tine but given different names. We have the 1929 GVT catalog as well as the 1925 Wardway. With a photo, we stand a much better chance of IDing your house.

You could check our sister site, Antique Home for floor plans for both the Wardway or Gordon Van Tine companies. We have about twenty for each company posted. There are many more we didn't put up.

From your description it sounds like an English cottage style.

Rikki

Thankyou so much!

Ralph, I will look into that information. I know I'm only the 3rd owner. The original owners(who were carpenters) sold it to my grandparents which I recently bought it from. Actually one of the daughters stopped by just this past summer while my husband was working on the front steps and said her bedroom used to the one on the 2nd floor uptop. It was interesting. They also had a chicken coop that they remodeled into a cottage.. we still have that though it will be torn down probably this summer.

I'm going to check with my grandmother as she runs our local Historical Society. She may have more information and as soon as I can get a decent pic showing the peaks etc. I'll get that posted.

I'm interesting in turning the house back into a single family home. I know they've added on and that's obvious but we still have alot of the original structure there too.

Thanks so much!

Hello Sunnid,
Try to get as much of the original house as possible and we would appreciate some interior pictures of the style used if original.

If it is not of the original trim let me know and I can help you locate the style of trim they used when the house was built. However there were so many different styles and in that time period I don't think that it would be of the Arts and Crafts style but, I could be wrong.

Most houses of that time period used what was known as the Colonial style as well as another that I was thinking about but, forgot it before I could type it in. Ah yes, it was the Federal Style.

Respectfully,

Ralph Jones

I am also new to the forum, but have been learning a lot.
I have a 1924 Gordon-VanTine #505 in Flossmoor, a suburb of Chicago. We didn't know anything about GVT at the time we bought it, but shortly after I began the rehab, I started to find markings everywhere. I had to remove some of the window casings (saving them) and every one of them was stenciled with "Gordon VanTine, Davenport Iowa". We felt we had found a gem.
My wife found the house in the 1923 catalog while we were attending a lecture on kit homes by Rebecca Hunter. She was excited to hear that there was a GVT in this area, since most of the homes here were from Chicago mfrs.
The house was run down, but still in original condition. We found a couple of old doors in the garage attic (not a GVT garage though), so that made rehabbing a bit easier. I had an architect design a garage to match the home, and it looks great.
The sad thing about it all was that all the other bidders on this house were planning to tear it down, feeling that the lot was more valuable without the house. We are thinking about having a bronze plaque made with the original catalog page for our front yard, to remind everyone of the richhistory of old homes. They are so much more than just an old building.
I have run into dead ends trying to research the early history of this house, i.e. ship date, original purchaser, etc. The village building dept has no records of it. Any suggestions out there?

Check out Dale Wolicki's website. He's the GVT expert!!

www.gordonvantine.com.
Donna