Dear Members,

Rosemary Thornton has been kind enough to write an article for The Arts & Crafts Society.
Do You Have a Sears Kit Home?

So grab your field guides
The Houses That Sears Built
Finding the Houses that Sears Built; A Guide to the 60 Most Popular Designs

Let us know what you find out!

Lauren

{At the left: The Chelsea Model - Sears Modern Home from the 1916 catalog.}

Hello Lauren,
We have several of these houses here in London, Ohio which is my home town and as the weather permits I shall gather some pictures to send you to post.

Since my easiest method for sending pictures is via the email and you may choose or delete any you feel unworthy to be on our forums.

Respectfully,

Ralph Jones

There used to be a Sears house in McQueeny,Tx down the road from me.But someone bought the house,which I believe was the Elmwood model and moved it.
There are a couple of bungalows there in town I need to take photos of which might be Sears,but won't know until I compare the photos with the houses in the book.
I have a reprint of a Sears catalog,called Homes In A Box,which is a reprint of I think
the 1913 or1914 catalog,which shows a house in New Braunfels,Tx.
There is an Aladdin,The Shadowlawn,which sits along the Interstate 35 access road as you go north towards Austin near New Braufels.
And I know of a couple of houses,one in Spring Branch,the other is in a field near Gonzales.Both are similar to a house in one of the Sears catalogs, but may have come instead from a William A. Radford plan book.
There is a small house near Geronimo and also near Stockdale that could have come from Lewis Liberty Homes,but I'll have to look at a catalog to tell you the name of the house.

A Sears Home in Texas? Well, according to the testimonials in the old catalogs, there were a few built in Texas, which is kind of amazing. If you want to post photos here, I'll try to be check in more frequently and render an opinion.

I just discovered this site and, yes Lauren, it looks like we do have a Sears house. My wife and I acquired our "new old house" about a year ago. We have been discovering bits and pieces of evidence from the day we first moved in. The latest find is an intact and legible shipping label attached to the back of a piece of mill work. How exciting is that? Rose, if you are within shouting distance, we would love to have you take a look at our diamond in the ruff. (Yes, the pun is intentional!) The architectural style of our house is not mentioned in your book "The Houses That Sears Built" or "Finding The Houses That Sears Built" which only strengthens my belief that we have an uncommon find here. I have a blog posted at http://searskit.wordpress.com/ which contains pictures and more info about our new old house. Thoughts? Opinions? Envy?