This home was built in 1916 and everyone in town remembers it as a Sears kit home. I have the "Houses By Mail" book (which is an amazing resource) and the Sherburne looks very similar to the house in question. Any thoughts?



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I'm thinking that it looks a lot like an Aladdin Marsden. Of course some people call every kit house a "Sears House", much like a Kleenex is a tissue.
Take a look..

It sure does look like an Aladdin Marsden. I only assumed it was a Sears kit house because the lady who lives there was told that.

I'm going to have to look into the floor plans for that home.

Thank you so much for your time and input.

Its not a Sherburne. Can you tell what the window placement on the front of the house was before the porch was enclosed? Does it match the Marsden? Also I'm concerned that the dormer doesn't match - was there more than one dormer for the Marsden?

The Marsden eaves brackets are pretty distinctive - I see yours are covered up, but do you know what they look like underneath?

I don't think it's a Sears house. There is nothing in the 1916 catalog that's similar. I'm concerned about the facing dormer and the proportions. It looks more like a knock-off of a kit home.

According to Rieff in Houses From Books there were just over 11.5 million houses built from 1906 to 1942. Of those, only 500,000 were kits and that's arguably a high number. Sears was responsible for only 1% of the new home construction from 1908 to 1940 when they finally shuttered the Home Building unit.

The probability that it's a kit by another manufacturer is there of course, but builders were more likely to copy what they saw around them and adapt it to the homeowner or the materials on hand.

Sears was known to modify its plans, but other manufacturers were truly kit home builders. I think it was Aladdin that reversed the plan but the words were backwards. You had to buy the original plan to read the blueprints.

LL -- Go pick up a copy of Rosemary Thornton's book at the library and check for the telltale signs that you have a kit home. If it's not, it's still a nice house and probably damned comfortable. Be happy that it will continue to age beautifully while your cousin's McMansion starts falling down around his ears in 20 years. ;-)

R.

quote:

Originally posted by Donna Bakke:
Its not a Sherburne. Can you tell what the window placement on the front of the house was before the porch was enclosed? Does it match the Marsden? Also I'm concerned that the dormer doesn't match - was there more than one dormer for the Marsden?

The Marsden eaves brackets are pretty distinctive - I see yours are covered up, but do you know what they look like underneath?

It's actually not my home- I'm writing about kit homes for a newspaper in town. Everyone in town (including one 92 year old lady) recalls this specific home as a "Sears" kit home. And for what it's worth most of these folks don't know each other or have anything to gain by this being a kit house (leading me to believe that it's not just hearsay).

I just looked through all of my pictures and I don't have a picture of the original front door or the windows that were covered when the porch was enclosed. I do have pictures of the fireplace and the built ins, the doorhandles and some of the hardware. (Oh, I could kick myself) And to top it off, the lady with whom I did the interview with sold the house and the new owners weren't too thrilled about my being there to do the story so I know they won't be helpful.

LL-

Maybe you could share some of the photos of the hardware and cabinetry. Most of the kit home catalogs included sections on the built-ins and plumbing and lighting packages so that would give us more to work with.

It's possible that the odd proportions of the gabled dormer could be accounted for by its being added on after the house was completed. Many bungalow style houses were designed with the attics incomplete but with the selling point that they could be finished later when additional room was needed. There were dozens of articles on finishing attics during the 1920s and 30s.

My intention isn't to disparage anyone's memory, but it's a lot like that kids' game "Telephone" where you say one thing and as it gets passed down the line it becomes something else completely unrelated. It happens in writing history all the time where a single myth is repeated so much that it becomes a "fact." Richard II of England, accused of killing the young princes in the Tower, is a good example.

I sympathize with with you on your writing project. Some people are nervous about having their homes (that is, fortresses) photographed or written up. I was doing a presentation for the city and one homeowner went off the rails when she saw me taking a photo of her house from the street. It's gonna happen occasionally.

R.

Some pictures of the inside of the home.

More.

Hardware on pocket door at top of stairs.

Door hardware. I hope this pictures help!

Thank you all for your time.

Donna - as usual - is right. This is not a Sears Sherburne. This Sherburne is an unusual house for many reasons and has lots of quirky little features. Houses by Mail is a good reference work, but the line drawings within its pages aren't always completely inclusive and elucidating.

Once you see a Sears Sherburne, you'll see what I'm talking about.

And as mentioned in many other places, 80% of the people who SWEAR it's a Sears Home are wrong. Often, the house *is* a kit house, but it's a kit house from another company.

Rosemary Thornton
www.uglywomansguide.com
author, The Houses That Sears Built