Some Sears House Finds

Happy 4th of July! 

It's time to post a little display of some of the Sears houses that we've been looking at recently. Some are older finds, some are brand new to the list!

Sears No. 108-- Earliest Version

Our researcher buddy, Matthew, recently treated us to two very rare finds. Here is the first, a first-version Sears No. 108, in Bedford, Ohio:

Earliest-version Sears No. 108, 311 W. Glendale Street, Bedford, Ohio

The very early No. 108 in an early ad for Sears paints.

This model is very rare... this is only the second example that we know of, of this earliest version with the front corner bumpout. This model was offered beginning in 1908, but, by 1912, the floorplan had changed, to eliminate that corner bumpout, and then the model was discontinued after the 1913 catalog (and the model number was assigned to a different house). You can see more about the No. 108, in this January 3, 2020 blog post of mine.

Possible Sears No. 177

Matthew also found this house, that is quite possibly a Sears model No. 177. We don't usually post about houses that are only added to our "Possibles" list, but... this is the first example we have ever seen of this model, so I think we're all pretty excited about the possibility that it is an example of this rare model. Matthew noted that the fireplace is not located where the floor plan indicates (should be on a side wall of the living room, but it is on an interior wall), and the upstairs floor plan doesn't follow perfectly. This model was only offered from 1911-1917, according to Houses By Mail, and was never offered "cut-and-fitted" (having pre-cut, labeled framing lumber), and we've noticed that those early, non-pre-cut models are sometimes more altered (such as my family's 1911 Sears No. 110).  

Possible Sears No. 177, 19 Elsmere Avenue, Delmar, New York (a section of Bethlehem, New York).

Sears No. 177 in the 1914 Sears Modern Homes catalog, not pre-cut

Streetview capture of catalog view, possible Sears No. 177, 19 Elsmere Avenue, Delmar, NY

Isn't this an inviting front porch? And, look at these lovely floors in the interior photos, and the wide, Craftsman style window trim.

Front porch of Possible Sears No. 177, 19 Elsmere Avenue, Delmar, New York (a section of Bethlehem, New York)

Sunny living room, Possible Sears No. 177, 19 Elsmere Avenue, Delmar, New York (a section of Bethlehem, New York)

Fireplace, not where expected, according to the catalog. Possible Sears No. 177, 19 Elsmere Avenue, Delmar, New York (a section of Bethlehem, New York)

Such lovely, original hardwood floors! Possible Sears No. 177, 19 Elsmere Avenue, Delmar, New York (a section of Bethlehem, New York)

We don't always get a rear view of our houses, so I'm happy to document this.

Floor plan of the Sears No. 177, 1914 Sears Modern Homes Catalog

Write-up about the Sears No. 177 in the 1914 Sears Modern Homes catalog

Sears Modern Home No. 123

A reader of our Sears Modern Homes Facebook Page, recently shared photos of her Sears No. 123, in Man, West Virginia. This is another very old, very early model, that was offered in the first catalogs in 1908, and had its last offering in the 1914 Sears Modern Homes catalog. It was never offered as a pre-cut model.

Probable Sears Modern Home No. 123, Man, West Virginia

Probable Sears Modern Home No. 123, Man, West Virginia

For an excellent read on this old model, see Cindy Catanzaro's blog post from April of 2023, showing a Sears No. 123 in Springfield, Ohio, and the story of coming across a likely example of the No. 123 in Sharonville, Ohio:

Read Cindy's blog post, here -- lots of good information and photos on this model

Sears Puritan in Bellevue, PA

A while back (2017, to be precise), researcher Karen DeJeet (who lives in a Sears Hamilton bungalow in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) came across this nice - looking Sears Puritan model, modified to add a front porch. For some reason, I came across its later (2020) real estate listing, so we enjoyed seeing some interior photos, showing some elements we see Sears offering, in their catalogs:

Sears Puritan, with added front porch, 193 Grant Avenue, Bellevue, Pennsylvania (a section of Pittsburgh).

The real estate listing from 2020 includes this photo, showing a Sears Colonial style staircase newel, staircase spindles offered by Sears, and Sears Colonial style fireplace surround, as well as beautiful, original hardwood floors:

Living room inside the Sears Puritan at 193 Grant Avenue, Bellevue, PA, showing Sears Colonial fireplace surround, Sears Colonial staircase newel and spindles. You can see more in this real estate listing.

Sears Colonial design fireplace surround, 1930 Sears Building materials catalog

Sears Colonial newel and spindles, 1929 Sears Building Materials catalog

Sears Puritan (without side sunroom), 1923 Sears Modern Homes catalog

Floor plan, Sears Puritan (without side sunroom), 1923 Sears Modern Homes catalog

Sears Vallonia, Troy, New York

Andrew Mutch recently came across this 2019 real estate listing for a Sears Vallonia, in Troy, New York, and added it to our national database of Sears Houses in the U.S.. Despite having an enclosed front porch, and vinyl or aluminum siding now, the interior views show us some very nice, original hardwood flooring and Craftsman window and door trim, and original, solid wood doors.

Sears Vallonia model, 9 Roosevelt Avenue, Troy, New York

When we see the rear view of a Sears Vallonia, this is the look we expect, with this back window, and bumped-out section covering most (but not all) of the rear of the house.

You can see more examples of the Vallonia model that Andrew has blogged about, in these posts on his blog, Kit House Hunters. In this 2018 blog post of mine, you'll see a bit about the evolution of the design and the floor plans of the Sears Vallonia model.

Sears Avondale in South Carolina

Researcher Nigel Tate recently made a trip to South Carolina, and took advantage of the opportunity to look around a bit for Sears houses. He found one! It's a Sears Avondale, somewhere in Bishopville, South Carolina.

Sears Avondale, 524 US-15, Bishopville, South Carolina

Sears Avondale, 524 US-15, Bishopville, South Carolina

To see a catalog image and floor plan for the Avondale model, see this 2023 blog post by Cindy Catanzaro, at Sears Houses In Ohio, where she shows exterior and interior photos of a beauty of a Sears Avondale in Hamilton, Ohio.

Bennett Homes

We've mentioned this before: researcher Sarah Mullane is the most knowledgeable person anywhere, on Ray H. Bennett kit homes (not Sears houses, but a lumber company that also sold kit-houses, based out of North Tonawanda, New York). Here are two models she recently found:

Bennett Homes Amherst model, 696 Crescent Avenue, Buffalo, New York

Bennett Homes Amherst model

Probable Bennett Homes Drexel model, 93 Briarcliff Rd, Cheektowaga, New York, now slightly modified above the bumped-out front of the house (the living room is there). This may have been a modification done to avert leaking from ice build up on the flat roof of the original design.

Bennett Homes Drexel model, catalog image with floor plan

That's it for today's selection! You'll notice that I didn't have any of my own finds to show here... true! I have not, myself, found a Sears house in a bit. So, I'm happy to be able to highlight the finds of my fellow researchers! I'll sign off with more of the lovely Sears Fullerton that I showed the porch of, at the top of today's blog post. This one was originally found by Andrew Mutch, and I ran across it in the real estate listings again, this past week.

Sears Fullerton, 330 Harvard Avenue, Terrace Park, Ohio

Sears Fullerton, 330 Harvard Avenue, Terrace Park, Ohio

Beautiful original wood floors and original Craftsman trim around doors and windows.
See the real estate listing for more beautiful photos (this house went under contract within 3 days of hitting the real estate listings).

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For more information on who we are, and what we do, visit our website: SearsHouses.com

(NOTE: This blog is best seen in WEB view, to access the many informational links in the side bar.)

Two old ones: Sears No 113 & Sears No C2001

Sears No. 113 in the 1914 catalog • Sears No. C2001 in the 1917 catalog

Matthew and I have both recently come across examples of two of the big, old models that Sears offered early on, that weren't in the catalogs once the 1918 switch was made to naming the models, instead of just marketing them by number. Matthew's was an especially exciting find-- the No. C2001-- because it is the first and only example that our group has found (or that we know of anyone having ever found) of this model. Let's take a look!

Sears Modern Home No. 113

I was Google "driving" around Catskill, New York one day, recently-- for what reason I was in this town, particularly, I can't even remember. And I stumbled across this really nice example of the Sears No. 113. Its front view is a bit obscured by foliage, but we get some really great side and rear views. We only have 8 examples of this old model, on our national list, so I was excited to add another (and really excited to just come across it, just like that). I don't have any interior views, nor do I have any information on who may have lived here and built this, originally, but I'll show you the Google maps Streetview photos that I snagged. 

Sears Modern Home No. 113 • 164 Spring Street, Catskill, New York
You can just barely see the left side upper gambrel style large dormer, and we see the upper front bay window, and then the front porch with its centered front door, flanked by a good size window on each side of it. In the catalog, we see these porch columns... rounded columns, with a kind of curled Ionic capital.

Sears Modern Home No. 113 • 164 Spring Street, Catskill, New York
This is the angle of the catalog image-- too covered by foliage here, though.

Sears Modern Home No. 113 • 164 Spring Street, Catskill, New York
Here is the side porch, side entry door, and side bay window into the dining room.

Sears Modern Home No. 113 • 164 Spring Street, Catskill, New York
This is a rare view of the rear of a Sears No 113. The large back window on the first floor, looks into the dining room; the small window is at the pantry; and the back door goes into a small entry mud room area leading into the kitchen.

Sears called these porch columns Colonial, I think because of their smooth, rounded style, but the capitals are of the Ionic design, that I believe we see in both Roman and Greek capitals.

Here's a little visual primer from Encyclopedia Britannica, showing some of the historic capital designs.
(source)

The No 113 was only in the catalogs for a few years, from the first catalogs in 1908, through 1914. It was never offered as a pre-cut/ cut-and-fitted model... it came as a bundled kit, but with standard length framing lumber (so, you wouldn't find any ink-stamped letter/number combos on any of the boards in the house, but you would maybe find paper shipping labels from Sears, affixed to the back of trim pieces around doors and windows, or crown or floor moulding, for example... like you see on this page of our research group's website).

Sears Modern Home No. 113 in the 1914 Sears Modern Homes catalog.

Floor plan of the Sears Modern Home No. 113 in the 1914 Sears Modern Homes catalog.

Specifics on the catalog page for the Sears Modern Home No. 113, in the 1914 Sears Modern Homes catalog.

Let me show you a few of the other examples of the No 113, that we have on our national list of Sears Houses in the U.S.:

This Modern Home No 113 is in the village of Vienna, part of Dubach, Louisiana. We learned of it through comments from the Louisiana Trust for Historic Preservation (and they refer to it as being located in the Lincoln Parish village of Vienna, just north of Ruston). Apparently, the original owner worked for the railroad, and could walk to his job through his back yard. Though we can't see the right side, the assessor's sketch for the house shows a space for the side portico.

In West Springfield, Massachusetts, we found a No. 113 for sale several years ago. This house was a testimonial house, meaning that the original owner wrote in to Sears, sending a photo of the house, after building it, to say how pleased he was with the house. That original owner's name was Frederick G. Phinney, according to Rebecca L. Hunter's book, Putting Sears Homes on the Map, A Compilation of Testimonials Included In Sears Modern Homes Catalogs (Sears mistakenly listed his name as Phimery, however). According to the 1920 U.S. Census, Phinney was the manager of a cigar store, and lived here with his wife, Maude, and their son, Clarence, and daugher, Madaline. The city directory shows Phinney at this address beginning in 1916, but he is listed as early as 1911 at 8 Boulevard, so it's possible that house numbers changed, and he was actually in this house as early as that.

The house has since been bought, re-sided with vinyl (sadly), and fixed up inside for re-sale. Fortunately, they kept much of the beautiful original wood flooring and most all of the original woodwork inside, though they have done the modern grey and white look for the modernized kitchen and bath. Still... we're glad it's still standing! You can see real estate photos here. 

Sears Modern Home No 113 • 20 North Boulevard, West Springfield, Massachusetts

Before the house was bought and re-sided, you could see that it had the Sears Colonial porch columns, though with a simpler capital attaching them to the porch roof soffit.

Dining room area of the Sears Modern Home No 113 • 20 North Boulevard, West Springfield, Massachusetts

Parlor area of the Sears Modern Home No 113 • 20 North Boulevard, West Springfield, Massachusetts

Staircase in entry reception area of the Sears Modern Home No 113 • 20 North Boulevard, West Springfield, Massachusetts

In Dunkirk, New York, architectural historian Rebecca L. Hunter (KitHouse.org ; Mail Order Homes- Sears Homes and Other Kit Houses ; Putting Sears Homes on the Map, A Compilation of Testimonials Included In Sears Modern Homes Catalogs) located a Sears No. 113 a number of years ago. In 2018, our researcher, Sarah Mullane (foremost specialist in the country on Bennett kit Homes), traveled from her home in the Buffalo area of New York, to see this house, and photograph it for a blog post that she did on a number of Sears houses in this neighborhood. You can see the blog post and photos here, on her August 2018 post on her blog, Catalog Homes of Western New York.

Sears Modern Home No 113 at 19 Taft Place, Dunkirk, New York

Finally, a few months ago, Matthew found this really beautiful Modern Home No. 113 in Wheeling, West Virginia. The left side view shows an addition where the side portico is, normally, but Matthew consulted an old Sanborn map of the street, and it showed the outline of the footprint of the house, having a bumped out section for that expected portico. We do see the expected bank of triple windows on that side, still.

Sears Modern Home No. 113, 62 Heiskell Avenue, Wheeling, West Virginia. Happy to see the original siding and the original rounded colonial porch columns!

Sears Modern Home No. 113, 62 Heiskell Avenue, Wheeling, West Virginia

Sears Modern Home No. C2001

Matthew posted this find just today, in our research group... just nonchalantly, as if it were just another Sears house find :) But, it's not! It's one of the "missing models", meaning one of the models Sears sold, that no one has yet found a standing example of. And, this model was only in the 1916 and 1917 catalogs, so it's a really rare one. It's not a super cute, really lovely old model, but it's a good size farmhouse style house, and we're happy to have it added to our list! 

Sears Modern Home No. C2001 • 640 6th Avenue, Coraopolis, Pennsylvania

Sears Modern Home No. C2001 • 640 6th Avenue, Coraopolis, Pennsylvania

Sears Modern Home No. C2001 • 640 6th Avenue, Coraopolis, Pennsylvania

Side view, Sears Modern Home No. C2001 • 640 6th Avenue, Coraopolis, Pennsylvania

Side and rear view, Sears Modern Home No. C2001 • 640 6th Avenue, Coraopolis, Pennsylvania

Close up of the porch soffit... you can see the keystones that are shown in the catalog image.

The C2001 was never given any other name, and was only briefly in the catalogs. The only time we see the houses marketed with a C before the numbers, was in certain editions of the 1916 and 1917 catalogs. This was when the pre-cut/cut-to-fit system began being offered by Sears, and some of those catalogs showed a table of the houses that were offered only as Standard-length framing lumber kits, and those offered with pre-cut/cut-to-fit framing lumber. The C2001 was offered only as a pre-cut/already-cut-and-fitted model. Here it is in the 1917 catalog:

Sears Modern Home No. C2001, 1917 Sears Modern Homes Catalog

Sears Modern Home No. C2001, 1917 Sears Modern Homes Catalog

Sears Modern Home No. C2001, 1917 Sears Modern Homes Catalog

Floor plan, Sears Modern Home No. C2001, 1917 Sears Modern Homes Catalog

That's it for these fun finds of Sears Modern Homes that are over 100 years old! 

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For more information on who we are, and what we do, visit our website: SearsHouses.com

(NOTE: This blog is best seen in WEB view, to access the many informational links in the side bar.)