Hi I'm a newbie!
My Wife and I are in the process of buying a kit home in the UP. The listing says that it is a Sears Home; however we have bought the books and can't find it anywhere!! Searching the www I have come up with the following pic which is attributed to Rosemarie Thornton
http://www.wikihow.com/Image:MW_Farmland_IL_555.JPG
The only differences are that the windows and doors are more ornate however they are the same size. There is an extra two sets of door frames and a window frame in the attic that have writing on them a name,Ewen, Michigan and then a number which at the time didn't mean anything to me other than I knew that Sears delivered via rail and the rear of the property fronted the tracks at that time (snowmobile/rv trail now). I won't be back up there for a while to retreive that info. So is this a Montgomery Wards or Gordon Van-Tine home? Does her 555 before the .jpg indicate that she has identified it as a kit #555? We a patiently waiting on the books we have recently ordered about the Wards and GVT homes.
Inquiring minds looking for info!!
Roy and Cindy Cooper

The house in the picture is a Montgomery-Ward Farmland identified by my friend Rose Thorton and located in Grafton, Illinois. Montgomery-Ward was the only manufacturer to offer this model. It was offered between 1909 and 1921. The Farmland is a Plan Book house; it was not pre-cut, thus you will find shipping labels but not assembly markers. Rose and I are finishing up our book on Montgomery-Ward homes and we hope to have it to the printer this spring,

I'll download some pics and floor plans from a Montgomery-Ward catalog in the next few days.

Woliki - Thank you so much! After our first search thru the www my Wife said "I'm sure that's not a Sears house". Me being the deligent type ordered books and kept searching Sears leads "because the listing says it is!" She however branched out and here we are!
There is a Sears Bungalo on the southeast corner of School and Ingalls Sts in Swartz Creek. Michigan where we currently live. I used to live near it.
Looking forward to more info.

Roy

Hi Wolicki -
Could you please post the floor plan??
We are submitting an offer on the house. Being 8&1/2 hours away from it is a bit of a pain! Especially when I could really use a measurement! From the front the house it appears to be the same as the Illinois house. However it has been added onto in the rear with a full bath and laundry room accessed by a hallway going from the butler pantry across behind the Formal dining room. The addition has vinyl siding that is the same width as the rest of the houses wood siding so with a fresh coat of paint on the house it shouldn't detract looks.

Roy and Cindy Cooper
crosleycrazy1@yahoo.com

From a 1918 Wardway Homes catalog



http://i53.photobucket.com/alb...ilow/FarmlandFP1.jpg

http://i53.photobucket.com/alb...ilow/FarmlandFP2.jpg

Thank you so much for posting these and also emailing me! We have an offer in on the house just waiting for all 7 heirs to decide to accept it!

Roy

Wow, That's great Dale.I can't wait to purchase you and Rosemary's Motgomery Wards book.
Cabin Creek CDs has one of the Wards house books on cd for sale at their website,as well as several Sears and a Garlinghouse Bungalows plan book too.

I think it's great you live in a Wards house.
Wish I lived in one of these old places.

Update: We've accepted their counter offer - we'll be in the house soon!! Hopefully; as this loan we are using is intensive as we are financing the repairs the house needs into the loan FHA HUD 203(k)
As soon as we have possesion of the house I will post pics

We've done it! We are Closing on the house Monday 06/29. Not the original loan we were going after. We ended up with a Michigan Rural Development Loan. Here is a link to view the listing ->
http://www.greatlakesandland.c...MI+49925+-11298.html

We have a lot of interior pics in our Webshots album from when we first viewed the house. We plan on taking outside pics on Monday and should have them loaded into Webshots Tuesday evening. www.webshots.com and member search roycooper.

The house is a mirror image of the pic posted by Wolicki on 1-27 except the side porch doesn't extend to the rear of the house past the Bay.
What group does it fit into? A & C, Victorian or? We have alot of the lighting pics loaded into Webshots. Nearly every room has it's original lighting!





And a pic of the fireplace. No idea yet why the paneling is on the wall.

Congratulation on the new house. Hope there isn't too much work to do but old houses always need some.

The Montgomery-Ward "Farmland" is best described as "Late Victorian, one of the examples built after 1910 when the Bungalow and Arts & Crafts styles were popular.

The fireplace with its overmantel is definately an original feature and the lights may be too. I doubt they had electricity at this house when it was built but Montgomery-Ward sold generator kits that powered batteries that got the average house through five or six days before the lights dimmed.

The lighting was definately added later as the hardwood floors in the attic have had square holes cut out above where the ceiling lights are on the second floor. The lighting is probably what was installed then. The attic has been lathed but not plastered. I'm 6'4" and can walk to the dormers. The floor plan is similar to the plans of the Farmland in the front but the house is twice as long. Plus there was a 12' addition added later to the rear. There is a bedroom where the dining room is in the plans. The formal dining room and kithen are where the porch and dining room are in the plan. The Butlers pantry was a seperate room off the house to the rear with a porch from there on across the rear. All of the trim on the windows and doors are held in place by large black flat head screws; a feature the FHA Inspector said was a trait of the most expensive houses built in that ERA. The second floor has three bedrooms in a row down the side the living room is on with another above the one below on the other side. I will draw out a floor plan and post it when I get a chance.

Congratulations on moving into the new Wardway Farmland! The Upper Pennisula of Michigan has some wonderful architecture and lots of historic homes that should get more attention.

You mentioned you found windows in the house with the original shipping labels of Montgomery-Ward - if you could get a good picture of a label i'd love to include it in our upcoming book on Wardway Homes (we will give you credit of course!)

If you have any other pics of original and interesting features let me know!

Dale Wolicki
Architectural Historian
ikcilow@yahoo.com

Dale
It was fantastic to meet you and get to show off our house. Any questions or further pics you need of anything; we will be more than happy to get for you.
Roy & Cindy Cooper

What a beauty!

Thanks Roy & Cindy, I really enjoyed seeing your Montgomery-Ward "Farmland" and I am so impressed with your plans for the house. With all the original doors and millwork and hardware the house is going to be the local landmark when your done with your renovation.

Most people would have looked at that house and said "too much work" but its the rare people like yourself that look and say "wow, with some work this place will look fantastic!"