Scenes Of The Season

Christmas On A Mantel: Pancho Navidad and Père Noël

I hope these scenes of Christmas delights add a lovely touch to your holidays! There are a few Sears houses mixed into the bunch -- enjoy!

A Sears Mitchell in Buffalo, New York (Thanks, Mark V.!).  Here's a blog post about the Mitchell .

A lookalike to the Sears Mitchell : Wardway Homes' Newport model. This one is in Clawson, Michigan.
Daily Bungalow has a catalog image of the Newport, here.

Sears Elmwood in Horicon, Wisconsin. It's for sale!
Learn more about the Sears Elmwood, in this blog post of mine, highlighting one in Normal, Illinois.

Beautiful Santas on display in St. Louis, Missouri.

Wonderful Christmas lights on an authenticated, custom Sears house, in Janesville, Wisconsin. (Thanks, Dan P.!)

More of the Janesville Sears custom design.

The beautiful front door on Dan's custom Sears house in Janesville.

An Authenticated Sears Alhambra In Hampton, Virginia

Thanks so much to Sarah, for allowing me to show her beautiful 1921 Sears kit house, in all its Christmas glory! 

The Berlins were the first owners of Sarah's Alhambra. This was 1918, three years before they ordered their kit from Sears.

You can follow Sarah at #ourSearsKitHouse on Instagram

Meanwhile, in Kirkwood, Missouri

These wonderful vintage homes are not Sears houses, but they sure look nice this season!

The Historic Louis Deffa House

Thanks to a post on the St. Louis History and Architecture FaceBook page, I learned about the Louis Deffa house, in the historic St. Louis City neighborhood of Soulard:

Doesn't this look lovely? This is in Monson, Massachusetts.

Photo courtesy of the Monson, Massachusetts Police Department

Another view of Mark V.'s Sears Mitchell in Buffalo, New York

A beautiful street scene in the old town of Québec City, Québec, Canada

A treasured glass ornament.

St. Louis' beautiful, historic, Powell Hall, in mid-town St. Louis.
We were there for the St. Louis Bach Society's annual Candlelight Christmas Concert. 

Do You Know About Shiny Brite Ornaments?

Sears was one of the sellers of these wonderful glass ornaments, beginning in 1937, I think. These were made in America, and created by American businessman Max Eckardt. I only just learned that these vintage glass ornaments have a name and a history... we've always just called them, "Mom and Dad's old glass ornaments". I have a small collection of them, from my parents' house... they were always on our tree, and my sisters, Lynne and Betsy, and I, loved them... and still do! Our parents married in October of 1953, and they must have bought all of their ornaments that year-- lots of Shiny Brites! I got lots of great information, and these three photos, from James and Jamie's 2012 blog post at The Cavender Diary.

Shiny Brites, for sale in the Sears Catalog

Shiny Brites... Sears, Roebuck and Company sold them

I have a box of these much like this! I also have smaller round ones, and small ones that have a little point at the bottom.

See my possible Shiny Brite? And, the beautiful porcelain snowflake my sister, Betsy, made for us in 2001.

Another of my vintage ornaments that may, or may not, be a Shiny Brite, with a favorite felt, quilted Santa, from the St. Louis Art Museum.

Do you spy the little striped ornament that comes to a point at the bottom? That's not a Shiny Brite, I have learned, but rather an ornament from the Paragon Glass company.

Other American-Made Vintage Glass Ornaments

December 24, 2019: This is an edit to what I wrote above. As it turns out, my ornaments may not be Shiny Brites. This is all new territory for me, and I'm just learning! Thanks to help from Jamie, Richard, and especially Mike, in a FaceBook Group for Vintage American Glass Ornaments, including Shiny Brites, I learned that my red, unsilvered, swirled glass ornament, is WWII era (no one was silvering the interiors during the war), and is from a company called Premier Glass Works.  I've seen one box that says that Premier was out of Irvington, New Jersey. There is a version of this ornament with silvering, too, and I have now seen it offered in a blue-green color, as well.

My own red ornament, from my family's ornaments.

There is my ornament's style, next to a blue-green one, in a box of ornaments for sale on eBay or etsy.

Here are some ornaments in a box from Premier Glass Works, for sale last April on Etsy. Apparently, you also can't trust that ornaments are from the company that the box they are in all these many years later says. Obviously, they may not be the original ornaments from that box. Still, it's cool to see the Premier Glass Works box!

The littlest vintage glass ornaments that I have, that come to a little point at the bottom, are from a company called Paragon Glass Works, out of Elizabeth, New Jersey. Mike pointed out to me that the lip of the post, where the hook goes in, is smoothed and turned in a bit, on Paragon ornaments. They originally were made with their own round hooks going right inside that post, rather than having a metal cap over the post. So, my metal cap is a replacement.

Look closely at the post of the bottom gold ornament, second from the right... you can really see the curved-over, smoothed edge of the glass, and how the hook fits right inside the glass on these ornaments. This whole box is actually only 6 inches wide, so these are really tiny ornaments, but they also have the pointed bottom, like mine. 

Another box of American-made Paragon Glass Works ornaments, probably from eBay. Love the Santa and reindeer!

Paragon's glass ornaments, as well as all of the glass ornaments (except by Premier) of the WWII era through about 1980, were made by the American company, Corning Glass, who sold blank, clear bulbs to these ornament companies, and the companies then added their own designs. I'm learning that many of these designs are very similar. So, my striped balls are from... who knows! They may be Premier, or Shiny Brite, or Corning, in fact, because it looks like Corning also sold their own glass ornaments... or, maybe this box just contained the original, plain Corning ornaments. I found this box from a listing on eBay, I think, and it is stamped with information saying that these were decorated and shipped from a company in Boston, Massachusetts. Well, my parents were living in Massachusetts at the time when they would have bought these ornaments, so it's likely that their ornaments came from the local McCallum's Department Store in town, and might have been shipped from a New England company that offered these glass ornaments. 

The site of the original McCallum's Department Store in Northampton, Massachusetts, is now Thorne's Marketplace, a collection of shops and restaurants. This photo is from a blog post about Thorne's, including great photos of the interior of what used to be McCallum's, on Visiting New England.

Whatever their origin, I love them, and I've now become very interested in all of this vintage glass ornament info :)

Gorgeous! This is not a Sears house... but, it's right behind one! In Wilmington, North Carolina, sits a historic, customized Sears model No. 167 (the early name of the Maytown). It's a real beauty, and I thank Kenyon M. for sharing its story with us. I'm not publishing photos of his house, but... he shared this view from his back window! To learn more about the Sears Maytown model, you can check out this blog post of mine, which showcases a Sears No. 118, and a Sears No. 167.

This is a pretty rare Sears house: a 1939 Sears Newcastle. This one is in West Lafayette, Indiana, and you can follow its story here, on Instagram. Many thanks to the owners, for letting me share their photo!  Lara Solonickne of Sears Homes of Chicagoland featured a Newcastle in this 2012 blog post.

From my house to yours, on this blustery, snowy day here in St. Louis, Missouri, I wish you

a very Merry Christmas,

 and 

all good tidings throughout 2020!

See our little wooden Santa out there?

Sears Mitchell And Lookalikes

Sears Mitchell •  4616 Arlington Avenue, Fort Wayne, Indiana

Sears Mitchell • 1932 Sears Modern Homes catalog

This is the first time that I have blogged about the Sears Mitchell model. That might be because it is a model that has such close lookalikes, that I am rarely confident that the house in front of me is, in fact, the Sears model. 

But, today, we have a beautiful real estate listing for a Mitchell that was found in Fort Wayne, Indiana, during a house-hunting weekend that several of our researchers were involved in. I understand that the group was headed down this street to see a Sears Barrington, and drove right by this house, and it was Dale Wolicki who spotted it as they headed back up the street. Ha! We all thought that was pretty funny, considering that there were probably quite a few avid Sears house minds--and eyes-- in the car at the time. 

There are quite a few little things to look for (on the exterior) when trying to pin down that a model like this is a Sears Mitchell, and not one of the lookalikes sold by Gordon-Van Tine, Wardway, Aladdin, Bennett Homes, or Home Builders plan book. The side windows -- on both sides-- are a huge key factor. Sometimes, though, it's hard to get a good look at both sides. There are some other distinguishing features in the front of the house, too. I'll try to explain them all. 

But, first... take a look at this door on the house on Arlington Street, in Fort Wayne! This is, without a doubt, a Sears door. It's a perfect example of what we call, "Sears curlycues". See the hinge edge of the door? That curly look? That was only on the decorative iron strapping of Sears doors. So, if se see that on a house that looks like a model from the catalogs, we know it's authentic.

Sears door with trademark Sears "curlycue" decorative iron strapping, on our Mitchell in Fort Wayne.

There is one other company that we have found, that offered decorative iron strapping with a curly edge, and that is the McKinney forged iron company, based in Pittsburgh. Their iron strapping options were advertised in a big Home Builders plan book that I have, from 1929. The curl is slightly less pronounced than the Sears curl, but the definite difference is at the other end: McKinney's strapping has a little hook at the other end. Sears' strapping has a pointy tip, kind of like the tip of a fat arrow. All of the other companies used iron strapping that did not have curylcues at the hinge edge, in any fashion.

See the difference there at the end?

What's On A Mitchell?

First, let's take a look at what to expect on the front of a Mitchell. Not all companies have all of these features. Some have most of this, some have all of this, some are clearly different here.

See the right side here, with 2 windows, then 1, 1, 1 ?
Well, the Wardway/Gordon-Van Tine version has one fewer windows on this side (2, 1, 1).

The Fort Wayne Mitchell looks good from this angle (reversed floor plan, of course).

The real test of a Mitchell, is the set of windows on the long side of the house... so, if you're looking at the catalog image, it's the left side of the house. On this Mitchell, since it's reversed, it's the right side elevation of the house.... which we can't really see in any of the photos. But, for this house, the door clinched it for us, so we know it's a Mitchell. I'll use the floor plan, and another house, to show you what we're looking for.

Here's an infographic that I've turned to many times, made by Andrew Mutch:

That single window should be right up close to that bumpout, and the triple windows within the bumpout, should have plenty of space before you get to them, just like you see here. Other companies are different here. Aladdin's University model has a single window, but it's more centered in that area... not quite as close to the bumpout, and, within the bumpout, there are only two windows, also set back toward the back of the house.  Gordon-Van Tine's Patrician, and Wardway's Newport, have a whole triple set of windows there in that first space (that's the living room, for all of the models), and then only a double, in the bumpout. The Bennett Homes Brentwood looks the most like the Mitchell: it has a single window, but it's not quite as close to the bumpout a the Mitchell's single window, and the bumpout also has three windows in it, set back like the Mitchell's windows. The plan book lookalike, the Home Builders Elyria, is very different on this side of the house, because it has no bumpout... it is even for the whole length of that side of the house.

The GVT and Wardway models are actually the same house-- on the shorter side of the house, they have one fewer windows... a double, and then just two singles; Aladdin's model is the University, and here is the Mitchell, both with a double, then a smaller bathroom window, then two bedroom windows.
(Click to enlarge.)

On the outside, the Bennett Brentwood would be pretty hard to tell from a Sears Mitchell.... though the whole bumpout looks larger on the Sears Mitchell. On the inside, the location of the closet in the front bedroom, is a key indicator.

No bumpout at all on the living room side of the house!

I was lucky enough to run across an Aladdin University this year, in Charleston, West Virginia, and to help myself figure out the differences, I looked at all of the windows on this side, and made this comparison:

Here's another house that shows this side of a Mitchell:

You can see what we expect, on both sides of the Mitchell, with these two photographs.
Notice that front set of four long windows? 

On the image above, of this white Mitchell, did you notice that the 1932 catalog doesn't show windows like that... it just shows three wider windows? Well, the older catalog versions do show this kind of front window look:

The Sears Mitchell in its first year, 1928, had a stretch of 4 long, slim windows. 

Beginning in the 1930 catalog, up through 1939 (this image), the front windows are shown as three standard size windows.

The Mitchell was first offered in 1928, and had a long run, all the way up into the 1940 catalog. It graced the cover of the 1929 catalog, and its brick-veneer twin, the Sears Stratford, starred on the front of the special Brick supplement catalog put out in 1929, also:

Sears 1929 Modern Homes catalog

Thanks to our friend at Antique Home / Daily Bungalow, for this image, and the scans above: Sears Special Supplement, 1929, Brick Veneer Honor Bilt Homes

Now that we've seen the floor plans for the competing companies, let's see their catalog images:

Aladdin Homes offered the University. (Source: 1936 Aladdin Homes catalog.)

Though Gordon-Van Tine and Wardway usually offered the same model, with a different name, you can see some differences in the look of the Patrician, vs the Newport, especially in the section over the front windows, and in the size of the window by the chimney (this window is absent on both the Sears Mitchell and Aladdin University).
(Source: 1929 GVT catalog, on Daily Bungalow)

Wardway's Newport, in their 1929 catalog. (Source: Daily Bungalow)
Also note: Look at the top of the door, on both the GVT and Wardway models. Instead of being one solid, curved-top door, it is actually a squared off door, with a separate curved section just set in there.

The photo of the Bennett Homes Brentwood, is probably actually a Sears Mitchell...look at that door.... sure looks like Sears curylcue iron strapping! (Source: Bennett Homes 1937 catalog)

It looks like the folks at Home Builders plan-book company, grabbed an image of the Sears Mitchell, as well... tell-tale curlycue iron strapping from Sears!

Interior Of Sears Mitchell In Fort Wayne

Finally, thanks to Andrew Mutch's scouring of real estate ads this weekend, we are treated to beautiful interior photos (click to enlarge) of the Sears Mitchell at 4616 Arlington Avenue, Fort Wayne, Indiana, thanks to this real estate listing:

These are the triple windows you see in the front of the house, and the window on the left is the single window on the bump out side.

This inset area is actually the start of the bump out, before it gets to the dining room windows. There should be just this single, standard size window next to it. (Wardway and GVT versions have a recessed area half this width, and next to it, is supposed to be a short-height 3-part window... though we have also seen a pair of standard-size windows, on an authenticated Wardway house.)

This is the expected rear view of the Sears Mitchell. The Wardway Newport and GVT Kent/Patrician, have a slightly different look (see comparison photo further down in the blog post).

Sears Mitchell • 4616 Arlington Avenue, Fort Wayne, Indiana

Comparison Photos: Wardway Newport and Gordon-Van Tine Kent/Patrician

Here are photos from some houses that had Wardway mortgages, to show you the contrast with what the Sears Mitchell has.

Here is a comparison of what we expect to see on the rear of the house, comparing the Sears Mitchell, to the Wardway / GVT version. (Sorry for the blurry image of the Rowley Blvd house... that's the best they had in the real estate listing.)

This is the expected width of the recessed area, on the Wardway Newport or GVT Kent/Patrician. The recessed area here, in the Sears Mitchell, is twice as wide. The recessed area of the Bennett Homes Brentwood, is about this same width. Lara Solonickne blogged about this testimonial Wardway Newport, in January of 2016. Also note, here, that the windows next to the recessed area, are two full-sized windows, whereas we expect a short-height triple window here.

This is the expected look of the bump-out side of the Wardway Newport or Gordon-Van Tine Kent/Patrician, with the short-height 3-part window. Authenticated through mortgage research by Lara Solonickne. 916 Muirfield Avenue, Waukegan, Illinois

Back bedroom. The Sears Mitchell has this 2nd window on the side wall. The floor plan of the Wardway Newport and GVT Kent/Patrician, shows only one window on this wall.

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