Wednesday, June 29, 2016

Mrs. Audrey Smith's Wardway Berkley

Pittsburgh Press, Sunday, January 31, 1932
This ad appeared in the January 31, 1932 issue of the Pittsburgh Press. Mrs. Audrey Smith was quite pleased to have her own home, instead of throwing money away on rent. Her cute little house is a Wardway Berkley model, in Rockford, Illinois. This model was offered in 1931, and was designed by the Gordon-VanTine company. In 1931, they offered an almost exact partner model, called the Rose Glen, which had a recessed front door, though in later catalogs, it was re-named the  Rosemont.
wardway berkley
Mrs. Audrey Smith's Wardway Berkley, at 3126 Arline Avenue, Rockford, IL.
wardway berkley
From page 117 of my copy of the
Wolicki/Thornton Field Guide to Wardway Homes, available here.
Gordon-Van Tine's Rose Glen, from their 1931 catalog, here.
gordon van tine rose glen as rosemont 1936
Here is the same Gordon-Van Tine model,
but re-named in the 1936 catalog, as the Rosemont.
I do not know in which year the name change took place.
wardway berkley
Also from the Wardway Field Guide.
I was able to locate Mrs. Audrey Smith, thanks to Ancestry.com's census records and city directory for Rockford, Illinois:

Rockford, Illinois city directory.
wardway berkley

wardway berkley

Also in the Pittsburgh Press in 1931, was an ad for a model Wardway home, available to tour. The model was the Wardway Winthrop, and it was the home to Wardway's Pittsburgh district manager, E. B. Hancock.  To read my blog post about that house, click here.

2 comments:

  1. That's a great ad. I like how they showed the depressing apartment with no windows where she used to live.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I love her saucy look, with those big eyes and those skinny eyebrows-- she looks like a woman with confidence!

      Delete

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