Gordon-Van Tine No. 535 in Webster Groves, Missouri

207 Oakwood Avenue, Webster Groves, Missouri • suspected Gordon-Van Tine No. 535 • 1922

Sometimes, houses just pop up right in front of you, and you can't help but laugh out loud at the irony.

I've been away on vacation. But, I'm back, and back to work, and today, I needed a good walk. I also wanted to enjoy some time looking for houses in the town next to mine, Webster Groves, Missouri. So, I headed over that way by car -- about a mile from my house -- and drove around the streets of Webster Groves for a while.  I found a house or two to check out, decided I had had enough of driving around, house hunting, and stopped off at the Webster Groves public library for a bit.  Since I was already parked, and there is a great neighborhood with gorgeous houses behind the library, I decided to take my walk there.

By that time, it was late in the day.  It was kind of hot.  And, I wasn't sure I really felt like a walk anymore.  So, I walked a few blocks, and took a right, intending to head back to my car.

It's amazing how you just sometimes get a feeling... and I got that feeling.  I spied a creamy dark beige house with a dark purple door (just like my house colors!), through the foliage. I could only see a bit... but, I knew.  I had stumbled upon the Gordon-Van Tine house I had been hoping to find one day! Right here in Webster Groves: a Gordon-Van Tine No. 535.

This model by Gordon-Van Tine goes by many names--numbers, usually.  It's been the subject of four of my previous blog posts.  You can read all about how this house began in the 1916 catalog as the No. 560 (with only first-floor side sun porch), and, in its various formations, is also known as the 536, 535, 535B, and Glencoe (as well as a few longer numbers), in this blog post I wrote in June of this year.  In this post, I wrote about a testimonial house that I (and others) found, in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.  In that post, you can learn more about the different changes in floor plans over the years, too. There was also a family by the name of Parsch, in Ohio, that owned this model, and sent in a testimonial about it, and you can read alllll about that family, and the house, in this post. And, finally, if you want to read about Edward C. Roberts, president of the Gordon-Van Tine company in 1916, and the No. 535 in which he (however briefly) lived, go here.

You can see the stairway right inside the door... that was left open as guests began to arrive for today's party.  I spoke to the sister-in-law of the owners,  as I was standing there gawking at the house when she arrived.  I asked her if the owners knew that this was a historically significant home, and explained its background to her, and gave her my name.

The No. 535 as it appeared in my 1919 catalog. Notice the 9-pane square window sidelights on each side of the door.

Nice match to the catalog image.
Even though the front porch columns have been changed, it sure looks to be a No. 535.
(click to enlarge)

In 2010, the home was for sale (see the listing here), so I was able to find a few interior photos... sadly, they are not the best quality, but they nonetheless give a wonderful idea of the open feeling of this spacious home.

Entry foyer from the Zillow listing.

The shape of the staircase shows us that this is the early floor plan, the No. 535, because the later, 535B floor plan, had a straight staircase.  The image below shows a comparison of the two plans:

Remember, you can learn more about the different floor plans, in this post of mine.

Here's the living room that you get a glimpse of from the spacious entry foyer.

From this view of the front of the living room, you get a glimpse of the side sun porch, to the left of the living room.
This all follows the original No. 535 floor plan.

The lovely dining room, just where it should be, across the hall from the large living room.

Gordon-Van Tine In Saint Louis

So, why did I think that I might find this house -- or some GVT house -- in Webster Groves? Well, I didn't realllly think that I'd necessarily find one in Webster Groves, but I sure felt that I should be finding more GVT models in Saint Louis (Webster Groves is, by the way, in the suburbs of Saint Louis County). Why? Because Gordon-Van Tine had a major plant in Saint Louis.  It's mentioned all over the place in my 1919 catalog.

In fact, most of the lumber for a large portion of the states to whom GVT sold, came from our Saint Louis lumber yard. (2020 Edit: Information on the location of the St. Louis lumberyard owned by Gordon-Van Tine, is in the last section of this September 28, 2015 blog post of mine.)

From the 1919 catalog.  A huge number of states to which GVT sent lumber, got that lumber from Saint Louis.

Just a month or so ago, I said to one of my house-hunting friends, that you'd think there would be tons of Gordon-Van Tine houses around Saint Louis, since there was a plant here-- yet, I'm not running across them left and right.  I was looking more for bungalows, though, and not so much for spacious, expensive homes, like the No. 535.

In any case, Gordon-Van Tine assured its buyers -- in Saint Louis or anywhere!--that they were getting first-rate architects designing their homes:

Who Lived Here?

It did occur to me, that, given the year of this house (1922), the original owner might have been an executive with the GVT plant here in Saint Louis.  And, it may have been. Originally, I was not able to verify the residents at this address before 1930.  I couldn't find a 1920s City Directory for Webster Groves, and the 1920 census did not have a listing for this address -- makes sense, since it turns out that the city tax records are incorrect.  The building permit shows that the house was built in 1922.

However, in a 2020 newspaper search (I'm updating this in August of 2020), I found some clarification about the owners of homes at this address (notice my use of the plural here).

I had found 1911 and 1912 newspaper advertisements for the sale of a 10-room home at 207 Oakwood Avenue. At that time, it appears to have been bought by Henry C. Tulley, because I ran across a 1913 newspaper mention of the death of Mr. Tulley's wife, giving this address. But, the home sold to Mr. Tulley is definitely an earlier home at that address, because a 1915 newspaper story refers to a fire that burned down the home at 207 Oakwood Avenue, owned by Henry C. Tulley:

Source: St. Louis Star and Times, February 17, 1915, page 1 of Newspapers.com scan
A more detailed news story was published the same day, in this issue of the St. Louis Globe-Democrat

The 1915 story refers to Mr. Tulley's wife... interestingly, this would be his third wife, because the wife who died in 1913 (after they had only been married for one year), was his second wife.

Finally, in a 1926 newspaper, I found this snippet, showing that Mr. A. E. Cotton and his wife lived at this address in 1926:

Source: The News Times, Webster Groves, Missouri, December 24, 1926, page 4 of Newspapers.com scan

And, in 1926, they put the house up for sale, as they were leaving to move to California. The listing mentions that the house is "practically new" and has a sun porch and a sleeping porch:

Source: St. Louis Globe-Democrat, August 22, 1926, page 66 of the Newspapers.com scan

In February of 1927, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch mentioned, in a section of their Society pages, that Mr. and Mrs. A. E. Cotton were moving to Long Beach, California:

Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, February 27, 1927, page 69 of the Newspapers.com scan

The new owners appear to have been Frank C. Hunt, and his wife, Eura. I found a 1930 and 1940 census listing for this address: Frank C. Hunt, his wife, Eura, and their daughter, Laura, lived here as early as 1930, and perhaps earlier than that. In 1920, they lived in nearby Maplewood, so the move must have happened sometime between 1920 and 1930. Frank was a bank teller in 1930, and his GVT No. 535 home at 207 Oakwood Avenue, was listed as having a worth of $20,000.  By 1940, Mr. Hunt had become a bank executive (despite having only an 8th-grade education!), and he gave his yearly salary as over $50, 000... and the home's value as $10, 000--- so, either his estimation of the worth became more realistic, or the years of the depression had drastically affected the Saint Louis housing market.  He and his wife included a live-in "servant" by 1940, as well (though not in 1930, according to the census): 21-year old Ethel Threlkeld, from a farm somewhere outstate in Missouri.

Here in this snippet from the 1940 census, you can see the Hunt family at 207 Oakwood Avenue.

Footprint: A Concern?

Of course, we don't even know if this home is a Gordon-Van Tine No. 535, because I haven't been able to document it with a mortgage, or a visit inside to check for marked lumber or blueprints. I've written before about the dangers of mis-identifying homes based solely on a "windshield survey" drive-by id.  And, in fact, even in 1919, you could order this house as either ready-cut, or not ready-cut, so we don't know if there would be marked lumber in the house at 207 Oakwood Avenue.

This is the listing number for the two-porch model of this home, in my 1919 catalog.
Notice that you could buy the house as either ready cut, or not.

So, perhaps all of this excitement is for naught... because the footprint from the Saint Louis County Department of Revenue, shows a size that is only close to the GVT No. 535, not a perfect match... and, those front porch columns were not like the ones shown in the catalog.

207 Oakwood is 26' deep, and 39' wide, whereas the GVT catalog shows 24 X 38.
Also, the catalog shows that we should expect a 21-foot deep first-floor porch, and
the tax records show this one to be only 18 feet deep. 

But... we'll probably never know for sure!  But, one thing that I do know: I'll not forget the day that I laughed right out loud, as I turned the corner and came upon this bigger-than-life house, sitting happily at 207 Oakwood Avenue.

Other Authenticated Kit Houses in Webster Groves, Missouri
• Sears Randolph on W. Frisco
• Sears Stanford in the same neighborhood as the Randolph
• Sears Clifton, right next door to the Sears Stanford
• Sears Lewiston on N. Laclede Station Road
• A custom-design Sears home on Westborough Place
• A beautiful Lewis Homes' Marlboro on W. Lockwood

• A Lewis Homes Ardmore model, on Lee Avenue

For other authenticated Sears homes in the surrounding towns of Kirkwood, Glendale, and other areas of St. Louis City and County, please use the SEARCH function on the right-hand side of my blog.

Gordon Van Tine #535 in Pittsfield, Massachusetts

28 Waverly Street, Pittsfield, MA •  Home of Helen Hall-Mayberry and Dr. Frank Mayberry in 1915
(*Note that the build date may be off by a year or two, as I'm not certain that the model was yet offered in 1915.)

This beautiful 1915* home is a Gordon-Van Tine #535 (referred to by some in the catalog-homes community as The Roberts -- though it was never actually marketed with that name).

Gordon-Van Tine (GVT) is another kit-home company from the 19-teens, twenties, and thirties.  Like Sears, Wardway, and Aladdin, they sold pre-cut kits, complete with stamped lumber to allow your construction crew to follow the directions and put your house together. You can read more about the interesting history of this company, and see several examples of GVT homes, on Dale Wolicki's website: GordonVanTine.com.

The Mayberry home testimonial letter, as it appeared in the 1929 Gordon-Van Tine catalog. It appeared in the 1926 catalog as well, and others, too, I believe.

Like Sears, GVT included what we call, "testimonials", from satisfied customers.  They usually didn't give the whole address, and often not a full name, and sometimes not even the town -- just the state. But, in this issue of the catalog, Mrs. Hall-Mayberry's full address was included, making it easy as pie to find, using Google Maps. I'm quite sure that I am not the first interested researcher to look up this address, but I did, and here it is. It's a beautifully kept-up home, in a lovely area of New England, not far from the town where I was born.

Lovely side view. This home, and all of the others on this street, look so well taken care of. What a treat.

I find it intriguing that it is Helen whose name appears on the testimonial letter, and not her husband, Frank. I like, too, that she includes what must be her maiden name, Hall, hyphenated on to her married name.  She and Frank, a doctor, were both born in the 1860s, in Maine, and married in 1886. Before building their home in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, they lived in Medford, Massachusetts (a suburb of Boston), and in Boston, itself. But, by the time of the 1920 census, they were already listed at 28 Waverly Street, Pittsfield, so they must have had their home built some time just before that. Tax records for the town of Pittsfield, put the year of build as 1915.  I believe that GVT first introduced its plan-cut (pre-cut, ready-cut) models in 1916, so this would have been a case of the Mayberrys buying the plans (blueprints) and a package of all of the lumber and building supplies, but not pre-cut and stamped/labeled for ease of construction.

There they are, Dr. and Mrs. Frank E. and Helen H. Mayberry, at 28 Waverly Street.

As with so many New England towns, the first inhabitants of the area we now call Pittsfield, were Native Americans, of the Mahican nation (an Algonquian people).  In 1738, three white men of European descent, from Boston, Albany (NY), and Northampton (in the Western part of Massachusetts, near to Pittsfield) partnered together with the intent to sell plots of land in the area, to interested settlers. However, things were very unsettled with the Native Americans, and those white folks fled, leaving the area uninhabited by white men for a few decades. By 1761, however, the town of Pittsfield was incorporated, and over the years, it expanded from an area of agriculture, to include mills for lumber, grist, and paper... and, eventually, wool. It became a major center for wool production, after the introduction of Merino Sheep from Spain, in 1807. (I learned about all of this in an interesting article on Wikipedia, here.)

The left side view, showing an additional sun porch on the first level.

It's amazing to think that the development of Pittsfield was only a few decades before the Mayberrys married in 1886, and eventually chose it as their town in which to settle down.  By the 1930 and 1940 census, interestingly, however, the Mayberrys no longer lived in their beautiful GVT #535.

From my 1929 catalog, I believe.

I can't say that I'm an expert on this model, but it's one that most all of us in the kit-home researching community have noticed, and appreciated. Once you see it, you're intrigued by its size and lovely proportions.  It's one of the general favorites, I'd say. You can find it listed and referred to, with only some changes to the design, as No. 535, No. 535B, No. 560, and The Glencoe (some researchers refer to it as The Roberts, which only adds to confusion, because it is never listed in a catalog under that name, as far as I have found -- please correct me if I am mistaken). I believe that The Glencoe does not include the two floors of sun porch and sleeping porch, on the side.

Here it is, listed in one of my 1920s catalogs, as the No. 535 and No. 535B. You can see the two floors of porches on the left.

I do know that, in the catalogs of the 1920s, it is offered as the No. 535, and later has a No. 535B version, which seems to add more built-in closets, and several other room-size changes. One very obvious change, the moment you walk in the front door, is the change from an open-feel, turned staircase (in the earlier, 535, floor plan), to a straight staircase in the 535B. Here are some of the changes the catalog explains:

First Floor of the two models, 535 (top left), and 535B (bottom right).
(Click to enlarge)

More from the 1927 catalog.

Ooh, love that quirky wallpaper!
This would have to be the 535-B floor plan, because the earlier No. 535 floor-plan's staircase was much more open, and had turns in it, as seen in the image below.

Below, you see the staircase of the earlier floor plan, the No. 535.  This staircase is turned, has a graceful curved entry, and has a landing. It leads to an open landing on the second floor, and gives, overall, a much more open feeling to the entry and staircase area.

This is from the Zillow listing of a suspected Gordon-Van Tine No. 535 home that I found in Webster Groves, Missouri.
You can read about it in my blog post, here, where you can also find a link to the Zillow listing.

All about the upstairs change, which you can see in the images of the two 2nd-level floor plans, below.

From my 1927 GVT catalog.
(Click to enlarge.) 

There were two 1916 Gordon-Van Tine catalogs, one with "ready-cut" homes, and one with "Standard" homes, which were not ready-cut.  The No. 560 version of this model, is featured on the cover of the "Ready-cut" issue (many people have seen and discussed this rather well-known cover).

Cover of my 1916 "ready-cut" catalog for GVT. You'll notice that the No. 560 pictured here, does not have an upper sleeping porch on the left side of the house. (click to enlarge)

The president of the company, in fact, Mr. Roberts, lived in a No. 560, as is explained right in the first pages of the 1916 ready-cut catalog.  Some interior photos are included, as well... perhaps of his home? (To read more about Mr. Edward C. Roberts, and whether or not he ever actually really lived in this home, read my blog post here.)

Living room and dining room images for the No. 560, as it is referred to in this 1916 catalog.

And, here you see the model without any porches on the left, now known as The Glencoe (I don't remember off-hand when the name changed from a number to a word. This is from the 1929 catalog.)

The 1929 catalog shows a floor plan for The Glencoe that is not quite exactly the same as the #535B. I don't know when, if ever, it was actually called The Roberts in a catalog (EDIT: No, it was never called that in any catalog. That's just a short-hand nickname given to the set of models with this look, by some researchers. If you see a house referred to with that name, it's one of these models.)

First floor layouts.  Top right: the 1929 Glencoe floor plan. You can see that it uses the center hall and stairway layout of the No. 535, rather than the 535B-- Ice room, instead of first floor powder room! (Click to enlarge.)

2nd Floor layout. Top right: 1929 Glencoe.  Because of that two-section, turned staircase, the floor plan had to follow the No. 535, and not the B floor plan, in that center area. Still, you'll note several changes to closet placement (more like the B plan), and no more Maid's Room -- but a nice closet in the bathroom. (Click to enlarge.) 

The No. 536
I have taken a closer look at the floor plan for the single-story side sunporch model, the No. 536 (originally the No. 560), and it has yet another variation in the floor plan:

Source: 1921 GVT catalog on Archive.org

Lovely Interiors
At 30 Mountainview Avenue, Orangeburg, NY, sits what we believe to be a Gordon-Van Tine No. 536 (that means it's the one with a first-floor porch on the side).  In 2013, it was listed for sale.  Here are some of the photos of the interior and exterior, as shown on the Zillow listing for this home, to give you a nice idea of what a well-kept version of this model can look like, even today (click on any image to enlarge):

It's rare to see a photo that focuses right on the doorway of this unique model.

As always, if you have interesting information about this model, or if there is something I need to be corrected about, feel free to leave me a comment below.  To read more about when this model went by each of these different names, go here, to another blogpost of mine.)

The heading of the front cover of the 1916 catalog.