Supersized Sears Houses in Arlington, Virginia: Part 2

Sears Elsmore • 2332 N Tuckahoe St, Arlington, Virginia • circa 1919

This Sears Elsmore in Arlington, Virginia, is a wonderful example of this model from Sears. Looking at it here, from this view, it looks like a textbook example of the pre-1921 floorplan (with inset front door area). However, if we go just a bit to the left, or move around the corner to see the right side and back of the house, we'll see that this is another case of a Supersized Sears House. Today I present part 2 of my series of Sears houses in Arlington, Virginia, that have been "Supersized"... that is, added onto, rather than demolished. I first showcased a number of these in my last blog post.

Sears Elsmore in the 1920 Sears Modern Homes catalog

Now, let's see the left-side view:

Left side of the Sears Elsmore on N Tuckahoe St, showing what must surely be a new foundation with new lower level. (source)

The Sears Elsmore, as designed, is a one-story model, with, I guess, room for expansion up into the attic area, if desired. But, this house on N Tuckahoe Street has an additional lower level that is sitting on what certainly looks to be a new concrete foundation. To accomplish this, the land on the left side of the house must have been excavated, and the house re-seated on a new lower level and foundation.  I'm really glad that the owners who chose to do this, retained pretty much all of the original house. 

Additional space was added behind the original house, which you can see from this right-side view from Google Streetview:

The hip roof is the original part of the house, and everything else is new. This is from 2012 Google Streetview. This part of the house is now painted a rich, dark brown, as you can see in 2019 Streetview. The front of the house has creamy white accents, now, and the front stucco gable and brackets are all creamy white, too (see a partial view, here).

Judging from permits, it looks like this major renovation was begun in 2009 (when permits were obtained for $130,000 of work). The real estate photos from the 2011 sale of the house, show some interior views with original Sears colonnades and other Craftsman trim, now coupled with a very modern, high-quality, minimalist look to the new parts of the house. The photos published in that 2011 real estate listing were actually taken by the then owner, who was also the architect of the additions to the house (see commment in the comments section at the end of the blor). Here are some selections from those photos:

No doubt original flooring, Sears Craftsman style colonnades, and Sears wide Craftsman style trim on the window. As you look through the opening to the left of the dining room, you can see the multi-story staircase of the new addition on the back of the house.

From this image of the original in-set entry way, you can see all the way back to the new part of the house, with its wrought-iron stair railings:

This inset entry area with long windows flanking the front door, is the original style of the Sears Elsmore. An additional floor plan was added in 1921, with a flat-across-the-front entry area. In 1925, the original floor plan was discontinued, and the Elsmore continued through 1927 with only the second floor plan available.

Thanks to the 2011 real estate photos, we have some additional views of the interior, showing us the transition from old to new:

We can see the original wide, Craftsman-style trim around the window of the original kitchen space, and the clearly new, modern, sleek staircase of the new addition.

Here is the original floor plan, as shown in the 1920 Sears Modern Homes catalog, followed by floor plans presented with the real estate listing in 2011:

Sears Elsmore floor plan in the 1920 Sears Modern Homes catalog

These three floor plans, from the listing, are actually flipped, vertically, from the floor plan shown in the catalog... the front of the house is actually at the top of the floor plan, instead of at the bottom, as in the catalog:

Since the time of the 2011 sale of this supersized Elsmore, the house has been re-painted a deep, dark brown, with creamy white highlights. The front porch columns (which are a trademark design from Sears), the porch railings, and the stucco-and-timber front gable, are all back to the creamy white of the catalog image:

This is the only view we can get from Google Streetview in 2019, of the front.

Front view of the house, from the June 2025 real estate listing, available here.

Unfortunately, I was not able to tie this house to a Sears mortgage, so it is, technically, not authenticated, but we are fully confident that it is an early Sears Elsmore. The original address (before the 1934 re-naming project of the streets in Arlington County), was 109 Gould Street, as this area was platted as Gould's Addition. A 1935 property card shows the then-owner to be M. V. Brunner:

It turns out that M. V. Brunner is Mabel Viola Brunner (the former Mabel Viola Cox), who married Lester Carlisle Bruner in 1906:

From the Washington DC Evening Star newspaper, November 1, 1906

Sadly, Lester passed away suddenly, in 1920. I don't believe that their 1920 residence was this house, only because no one around them on the 1920 census, is around them on the 1930 census (no street name is given in 1920)-- but, I could be wrong. Lester was a teacher of some sort (I can't make it out on the 1920 census). In 1930, Mabel was living in this house with her daughters Ethel and Audrey, and son George, and she passed away in 1937, of tuberculosis, at the relatively young age of 51.

Mabel and her three children, in the house on Gould Street (now N Tuckahoe), in the 1930 U.S. Census.

Another Supersized Sears Elsmore : 3320 3rd Street North

We have found three Elsmore examples in Arlington,  Virginia. This one, at 3320 3rd Street North, was originally added to our list by Andrew Mutch, but has been listed in a DHR: Virginia Department of Historic Resources document, too (found here, in the Special Collections... scroll down to Arlington County... not sure which Architectural Survey). We have also connected this house to a 1922 mortgage with Sears, $4,500, for Harold F. Moore and wife, Martha PB Moore:

Top part of the 1922 mortgage (Trust Deed, actually, which is basically the same thing as a mortgage... just depends on the state, which document they use) for the Elsmore at 3320 3rd St North.

Authenticated 1922 Sears Elsmore, now "supersized" with 2nd-story addition, at 3320 3rd St North.
The original address of this house was 119 Ashton Avenue, before the 1934 street re-naming project.

But, even before I had found the mortgage for this Elsmore, we knew that the original owner of this house was Harold Moore, because he wrote in a Testimonial letter to Sears, about his satisfaction with his new Sears home. We have seen this testimonial on an advertising flyer from 1924, from Sears, and it was also published in a 1924 edition of the Evening Star, a Washington D.C. newspaper.

It's interesting to note that Mr. Moore commented that "a lady copied my home"... because we have found two or three "almost" Elsmores on E Randolph Avenue in Alexandria (106 and 108) and 115 E Raymond Avenue, but they are just "off"... the sizing of the front gable is too small, for one thing.

Here's the ad from the Evening Star, April 7, 1924, page 13...

source

...and a close up of Mr. Moore's house, with the photo that he sent in, showing the original size of his Sears Elsmore:

Mr and Mrs Moore's Sears Elsmore, originally at 119 Ashton Avenue, now addressed as 3320 3rd St N, Arlington, Virginia 

Sears Elsmore at 803 N Highland Street

Since I'm showing you the only other two Sears Elsmore examples we found in Arlington, Virginia, I might as well show you the one Elsmore that retains its original size and look. Andrew Mutch ( Kit House Hunters ) originally added this to our national database of Sears houses, but I was able to connect it to a 1922 Sears mortgage, taken out by Lelia A Palmer. This street was originally Virginia Avenue, before the 1934 street re-naming project.

Authenticated Sears Elsmore, 803 N Highland Street, Arlington, Virginia -- not supersized!

Outside of Virginia

If you're interested in seeing another supersized Sears Elsmore, here is one in Saint Louis County, Missouri, in the lovely old town of Kirkwood:

Authenticated, supersized, Sears Elsmore in Kirkwood, Missouri
Read my blog post, here

I have still more examples to show, of supersized Sears houses in Arlington, Virginia. Check back for part 3, coming up next, where I'll showcase a Sears Americus, and several other models. As my other researcher team mates always say, at the close of their blog posts: Thanks for following along!

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

Sears Elsmore, "House That Thrift Built", In Kirkwood, Missouri

Authenticated Sears Elsmore • circa 1917 • 1350 Forest Avenue, St. Louis, Missouri (Kirkwood area)
If you look closely, you'll notice that this house has a change to the style of its main roof, now a side gable roof, instead of a hip roof. That is because of the extensive addition on the back of the house.

Sears Elsmore in the 1918 Sears Modern Homes catalog

I have wanted to write about this authenticated Sears Elsmore in Kirkwood, Missouri, for several years. I first heard about it from fellow researcher Cindy Catanzaro, who found a newspaper mention of the house, and shared it with me, since this is where I live. However, when I went to take my own photos, I wasn't happy with the quality of photo that I was able to get-- the photos just didn't do justice to the house. 

Now, however, I am delighted to see that there is a real estate listing for this beautiful Sears house, and the photos, by St. Louis photographer John Flack, are wonderful! Time to show them off!

Sears Model No. 208 Becomes The Sears Elsmore

The Elsmore was first offered in 1913, as model No. 208. In 1916, Sears began marketing the models with names, rather than simply numbers, and this model became the Elsmore. Here it is, in the 1914 catalog:

This snippet is from an earlier blog post of mine, about a beautiful, authenticated, 1924 Sears Elsmore in Overland, Missouri, also in St. Louis County. That earlier blog post discusses a bit on the evolution of the design of this model.

The 1918 catalog really gives the Elsmore its due, with a full-color rendition:

Sears Elsmore in the 1918 Sears Modern Homes catalog

The House That Thrift Built

The newspaper snippet that Cindy sent me, was a 1921 piece that was shared nationally, in newspapers across the U.S. (I've found it in Montana, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Ohio, Delaware, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, and Pennsylvania). The author was Hazel Blair, and the byline mentions that the story was "Written For the international News Service". Hazel Blair was a woman ahead of her times, working for St. Louis area newspapers in the early 1920s, and later for the New York Times and The Washington Post, with at least one article sold to the Saturday Evening Post magazine. This 1923 mention of her, appeared on page 38 of the November 14th issue of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, in a large article about women successful in writing, entitled, "Have Won Recognition in Literary Pursuits":

Link to article

source

Hazel Blair hailed from a family of successful women, apparently, as this 1924 St. Louis Post-Dispatch story, about her aunt, Mrs. Emily Newell Blair, mentions that Hazel is accompanying her aunt back to Missouri to vote in the presidential election, and explains that Mrs. Emily Newell Blair was the vice chairman of the Democratic National Committee, and slotted to hold a cabinet position if the democratic candidate, Johnson W. Davis, won the election (remember, too, that this was only the second US presidential election that saw women able to vote in this country!):

That election, however, saw Republican Calvin Coolidge take the white house (Calvin Coolidge had earlier been mayor of the town where I was born, Northampton, Massachusetts, and where our family's 1911 Sears No. 110 still stands)

Source: Wikipedia, accessed October 4, 2019

But, getting back to Hazel Blair, and the Sears Elsmore she wrote about: In 1921, Hazel Blair wrote a little article about two St. Louis sisters, Hazel and Mildred Evans, who worked for the telephone company, and who decided that they wanted to have their own home. According to the story, they dreamt of having a little bungalow with a fireplace, and a "nifty lawn", and through thrift, they saved their pennies, and finally ended up building this very house on Forest Avenue, in Kirkwood, Missouri. They began by building a garage on their land, and lived there, while saving up for their house. They invited friends to help them with a "basement digging party", and then enlisted a local contractor to build their home, which they named, "Hazelen"(this surely is derived from a blending of the sisters' two names, which the 1930 census shows to be Hazel and Helen, not Hazel and Mildred, as the newspaper story says).

Here's the start of Hazel Blair's December, 1921 newspaper article about the Evans sisters and their Sears Elsmore in Kirkwood, Missouri.... "Written for the International News Service". Snipped from The Morning News, Wilmington Delaware, page 2 of the December 20, 1921 issue.

Many of the articles posted the story along with an image of an Elsmore... or maybe even the Elsmore that the Evans sisters built:

I believe that this is the original article that Cindy sent me, from page 6 of the December 20, 1921 issue of the Minneapolis Star (Minneapolis, Minnesota).

Here is the full text of the article-- some include Hazel Blair's name and the International News Service part of the byline, but this one does not:

From page 1 of The Evening News (Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania), December 15, 1921

I don't know if the current owners know of the full history of the house, but they do know that it is a Sears house. I also don't know for how long the Evans sisters lived in the house, but they are listed here in both the 1930 and 1940 U.S. Census lists, and also are shown in a cute 1952 newspaper story. Here they are in the 1930 census:

1930 U.S. Census, showing Hazel Evans and Helen Evans on Forest Avenue (no street numbers are given that year).
Click the image to enlarge.

In the 1952 newspaper photo, Hazel and Helen are shown tending to goats on their property on Forest Avenue in Kirkwood. The title of the selection of photos, is, "They Like Retirement", and the photos illustrate the retired lives of several St. Louisans who through "developing old hobbies and new interests... combine activities with leisure". Hazel and Helen retired in 1945 and 1942, respectively, and then enjoyed raising goats, to sell their milk, and their (goat) kids, while also keeping up with raising vegetables and chickens, and remaining active in politics and civic affairs:

From page 134 of the May 18th, 1952 issue of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Interestingly, later that decade a line drawing of the Elsmore, with the line, "The House That Thrift Built", was used in a 1928 newspaper ad for Ithaca Savings and Loan Association, shown on page 6 of the January 20, 1928 issue of the The Ithaca Journal (Ithaca, New York):

source

The Current Version Of the House

Over the years, the house has had substantial additions, including an awesome greenhouse-style sun room. The yard is luscious, and full of seasonal plantings in the front, on the sides, and in the back. It's really a beautiful place. Let's take a look... starting with the current property sketch (from the St. Louis County assessor's website). Only the grey area is the original Elsmore... all of the rest are tasteful additions added to the proprty.

The house is a new listing, by the Kirk Holton Team of the Janet McAfee agency here in St. Louis. Here is their listing, and here is the house on Zillow and on Realtor.com (I include those last two, because listing photos usually disappear after a house is sold, on most real estate agency websites, but will remain on Zillow and Realtor.com much longer). The photos are the work of talented St. Louis photographer John Flack, who kindly reached out to me to share his high resolution versions of these photos, which you can see here. They're stunning.

The house still has many original details. For example, the Elsmore is one of the Sears models that has the trademark Sears porch columns and 5-piece eave brackets. You can see them on the catalog image, where you can also see that the front porch railings are also the original design from the original Sears kit:

Original Sears five-piece eave brackets, Sears porch columns, and Sears front porch railings, from the original Sears kit!

The gorgeous front door is the Sears Craftsman-M model oak door, shown here in the 1918 Sears Building Materials catalog, along with what we call, "the Sears hinge" (because Sears is the only company we've seen including this particular hinge on their houses), and the Chicago design door hardware:

Sears hinge from my 1918 Sears Building Supplies catalog.

And, here it is! On the front door.

We also see this hinge, in a smaller size, on the little square windows above and to the sides of the fireplace in the living room:

Sears hinge, again... living room fireplace windows.

Beautiful patina on the front door handle hardware, which is the Sears Chicago Design style

Sears Chicago Design door hardware, in my 1918 Sears Building Materials catalog. Other companies offered a similar design, though sometimes the hole pattern for where the screws would go, is different for the design offered by other companies. It looks like the Forest Avenue Elsmore uses the "Old Copper" finish.

Additionally, in the light-blue, first-floor bedroom that now has the piano in it, with beautiful wood floors, we see the Sears five-panel interior door, with another hinge that was offered by Sears in the early years (though this design, unlike the first hinge shown, above, was also used by other companies):

Sears five-panel door with Sears hinge, with Sears Chicago Design door hardware

More Sears Chicago Design door hardware

To give you an idea of the lush setting of this house, take a look at this 2015 Google maps Streetview image:

You really should click to enlarge, or go directly to the Google map to see this lush lot, yourself.

If you're interested in seeing another Sears Elsmore in the St. Louis area, I've written previously about this authenticated Elsmore in Overland, Missouri (St. Louis County). 

I'm sure that this house won't last long on the market. I just hope it doesn't fall the way of so many historic Kirkwood homes that go up for sale lately... particularly if they are on a large lot, as this one is... they are bought by a developer, scraped, and some unsightly, huge, vinyl-clad McMansion goes up in its place. Heaven forbid that this happens to the wonderful House That Thrift Built!

                                             

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

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