Sears House Seeker: December 2023

Sunday, December 24, 2023

Christmas Delights: Sears Houses With Lights In Greater Pittsburgh

Sears Avalon • 5638 3rd Street, Verona/Penn Hills, Pennsylvania
(You can see this house in my May 27, 2016 blog post about Sears houses on this street.)

Merry Christmas Eve, 2023! I am very pleased to have, this year, several photos of Sears houses all decorated and lighted up for Christmas time. These are all in the greater Pittsburgh area of Pennsylvania, and were photographed and shared with me by our fellow researcher and friend, Karen DeJeet.

Here's Karen's Sears house, a Sears Hamilton bungalow in Forest Hills, that had its dormer removed during renovations by the previous owners. Karen has found us hundreds of Sears houses in Pennsylvania.

Here's another Sears Hamilton, complete with its original dormer (even if it has had two windows removed). This house is in Oakmont, Pennsylvania, on Delaware Avenue.

Here's the Hamilton bungalow in the 1926 Sears Modern Homes catalog:

This link takes you to the catalog, online.

Also in the Penn Hills neighborhood of Verona, Pennsylvania, is this Sears Dover. 1940 was the only year that the Dover was shown in the Sears Modern Homes catalogs with this look (side chimney, instead of front; A-style entry vestibule, instead of having one side that swoops down; double windows on one side of the front; peak side gables, instead of clipped). We are confident that it is a Sears house, though, because of the presence of the curlicues on the decorative iron strapping on the front door.

1940 version Sears Dover • 5520 3rd Street, Penn Hills neighborhood of Pittsburgh.
I have it on good authority that the elderly couple who lived here back when "my source" used to go Trick-or-Treating here, would give out quarters for Halloween ;)

Sears Dover as it appeared only in 1940

Sears Wellington • 5205 Verona Road, Penn Hills neighborhood of Pittsburgh, PA

Sears Wellington in the 1926 Sears Modern Homes catalog

And, in Oakmont, we have a Winona and a Verona:

Sears Winona • 805 Washington Avenue, Oakmont, Pennsylvania
You can read about the various versions of the Winona, over the years, in this 2020 blog post of mine.
This house looks to be a 1923-26 version, but with an extra window added to the front, and one bedroom window eliminated on the right side.

Sears Verona • 816 Eleventh Street, Oakmont, Pennsylvania

Sears Verona • 1926 Sears Modern Homes catalog

The Hollywood is a model that we rarely find, and that we are not always fully confident about when we find a possible example, because there are "lookalikes". But, this one looks very good, though it has different dormer brackets than the catalog shows. However, if there were any town where we could feel pretty confident about a house, it's Pittsburgh :) Karen located this Hollywood in 2015.

Sears Hollywood • 199 Dewey Street, Edgewood neighborhood of Pittsburgh, PA

Here's the Hollywood in the 1921 Sears Modern Homes catalog

And, our final decorated Sears house for today, is a Sears Marina model that Karen found for us in Swissvale. I love these decorations!

Sears Marina • 7801 Union Avenue, Swissvale neighborhood of Pittsburgh, PA

Sears Marina in the 1921 Sears Modern Homes catalog

That's it for the Sears houses, but you know that I always like to include other vintage houses that are nicely decorated for the holidays. Karen sent these four beauties from the Pittsburgh area:

A beautiful house -- not a Sears house :)

Look at those fun decorations! Note: not a Sears house :)

I love the elegance of this house and its decorations. Beautiful :) (Not a Sears house.)

Not a Sears house, but, what a delight!

Meanwhile, back in Kirkwood, Missouri

To finish off, I'll show a few of the lovely houses I get to drive past in my travels around my little world in the St. Louis suburbs. These are all in Kirkwood, Missouri, and none of them are Sears houses: