Hello!
Recently squired a Sears Home, I have done tons of research, and am so excited to be owning one of these awesome houses. There are a few houses on my street that are believed to be sears houses. I found the marked studs in the walls, and the back of the drywall and same framing had Sears Roebuck, and Company stickers on the back. The house needs some work, but is almost finished. Here are some pictures, can anyone help me out?
The outside looks like a model. 52, but it is not block, and the floor plans don't match up. There is would under the siding. The porch will soon be fixed, we are keeping the roof and the pilers. We are trying to keep it as original as possible.
Here are the pics:
(Excuse the bad awnings, the house is in the process of being rehabbed)

http://s189.photobucket.com/albums/z268/StreetRacer061/...current=IMGP1824.jpg
http://s189.photobucket.com/albums/z268/StreetRacer061/...current=IMGP1826.jpg
http://s189.photobucket.com/albums/z268/StreetRacer061/...n=view¤t=1.jpg

was reading some more, been on a few other forums.
Maybe this inst a Sears house?
Reasons I think it is-
The porch (pilers, the way its setup)
The main stairs (landing at the bottom with a closet and window, and they turn)
numbered-Stamped Lumber
Sears papers on the back of drywall, and mil work.
Sears accessories, doors, etc

BTW, great site.. found it by accident.

Its a Cornell or a Haven. Not sure which, I don't have my book with me.

Donna

Thanks
Glad you didnt say "Im sorry, its not a sears house"
I really thought it was a Fullerton.

hi,
just found this site and hope someone can help me. i would be so glad to know more about this house. anyone have a clue what kind of house it is? all i know is that it was built in 1919.

Hello,
Im far from a sears expert..
but that dosent look like a Sears home to me.
It does kind of have some features like a sears house though, the porch roof lines and the eves.
Hopefully Donna, or someone eles can better help.

This is for Streetracer's house:

It looks like a variation called the Classic American Four Square. The floor-plan is based on a tradtional two-story colonial. There are four bedrooms up and four rooms down with a central hall stair case. There is a variation where a switch-back staircase goes up the outside of the house. If you are lucky, you may have a really nice stained or leaded glass window that lets light from the side of the house.

This style house was built long after the bungalow went out of style. This type of house was so popular because it had a very efficent floor plan--the square footage below was exactly the same square footage above. It was easy to heat, plumb and cheap to build.

It should sill have the oak stair-case, nice oak mission style fireplace, column room dividers, built-in book caes, etc. There should be great wood floors but the kitchen is usually a wreck. These days, you can now get period style cabinets to set off the kitchen. If this house doesn't have any of the Arts % Crafts period details inside, you can add them.

Once you tear off that awful green awning, then you can really see the architectural detail of those awesome porch supports. At that point, it will start to look more and more like a period house. The windows have been replaced. When you have the money in your budget, you can replace those windows with something that is a period reproduction like those offered by Anderson windows. You can add copper gutters, get rid of the stone on the front--it looks like it was added in the fifties and emphasize the brick in your porch supports. I may be wrong about the stone on the first floor, but it just doesn't look right--thje colors and shape fight with the brick. What matches the foundation--it is brick or this blocky kind of stone? That can give you clue as to whether or not the block stone on the first floor is original to the house. (Get rid of that scrub and let the architecture of that porch become your curb appeal.) I hope that you are lucky enough to have the original door. This house has so much potential, I envy you.

There are other experts on this website that can offer you a lot more information on Four Squares than me. They can refer you to some good books on this type of architecture. This is all off the top of my head without any reference material. My books are in storage.

Good luck.

Bev.

Here are some websites about American Four-Square houses that you can use as reference.

http://www.victorianvilla.com/sims-mitchell/local/architecture/foursquare/

http://www.e-restores.com/artscrafts/index.htm


This website breaks down the period into several distinct styles. It does it very well with floor plans and interior shots.

http://www.e-restores.com/artscrafts/index.htm

This is for Maggie:

Most American Four Squares have hip roofs like the previous house. Your home does not have that type of roof. Without my books, I can't tell you if it is a Four Square or not. You do have the front porch that goes the width of the first floor. It will all depend upon whether or not you have any period details inside the house.

Bev.

Here is a website that is treasure trove of period colors. This page shows colors that are close to what you have on the exterior of your house, Streetracer.

http://www.arts-crafts.com/market/robs/Dvorak.html


This is red version paint combination. They added black storm windows later. This looks like a hip roof with a dormer on the front of the house.

http://www.historichousecolors.com/4square.html

This person, Robert Schweitzer, offers a service to help people pick out color for their period homes. It is really a neat website. The reason I posted this website was because one of his examples was so close to what Streetracer already had on the house that he just bought.

I hope that this will help.

Bev.

Hey Bev-

Street cars house is a sears. We've been talking about it over on searshomes.org...guess I should've posted over here as well.

Its called the Cornell and was one of Sears 60 most popular homes. It is a four square. Sears had all different kinds of homes, not just bungalows.

Here are some links to some different Sears homes.

Starlight http://64.66.180.31/archive/sears/page40.html

Westly http://64.66.180.31/archive/sears/page42.html

Argyle http://64.66.180.31/archive/sears/page45.html

Osborne http://64.66.180.31/archive/sears/p4extc.html

crescent http://64.66.180.31/archive/sears/page78.html

parkridge http://64.66.180.31/archive/sears/page133.html

bunch of 4 squares and others http://www.searsarchives.com/homes/1908-1914.htm

Enjoy!

Donna

bev,
i know the house was built in 1919, it has original hardwood floors, all the fancy window trimmings, 4 rooms downstairs, 4 bedrroms & one bathroom upstairs plus a usable attic. the attic has windows on three sides not four. no fire place, and the porch has a wooden ceiling.
i have looked on the internet for older houses but so far have found none with the same roof.
thanks for the info.

Like donna said, with her help we found that it is a Sears House, the Cornell.
Which is obviously a foursquare, but not the one you described by any means.
Its three bedrooms, not four.
The main reason I think its the cornell, the Haven is bassically the same thing just a few feet not as wide, and was a four bedroom model. The cornell was a bit wider, and had several floor plans.
The stone is not orginal to the house, it was added in the 80's with the siding I was told.
It dosent look THAT bad..
The windows were all replaced expect one on the main porch which is still the orgianl sears rope window. The door is orginal, but in bad condition.
All the interior doors are orgianl expect the bedroom doors. When I got the house, they had those cheap slab doors on, but I replaced those..
All the orgianl sears doors we stripped down to the orgianl wood. (Some idiots like to pain wood, which drives me crazy)

Here is a pic of the Cornell with a floor plan from my 1935 catalog. Lauren