A Short-Lived Sears House: The Sears No. 108

Sears House Model No. 108, as it appeared in the 1912 Sears Modern Homes catalog.

Happy New Year! It's 2020, and we're excited to continue our searching for Sears Modern Homes, many of which were built during that exciting decade that began 100 years ago, the 1920s. However, today's blog post takes us back to the very early years of the Sears Modern Homes program, to take a look at a short-lived model whose run spanned 1908-1913... and then it disappeared, to have its model number unceremoniously re-assigned to a different house. I'm talking about the rare model No. 108, that you see above.

Up until a week ago, we had only one No. 108 on our National Database of Sears Houses In The U.S..  It was a testimonial house that had been mentioned by a real estate developer in Norwich, Connecticut. He wrote in to tell of the four Sears houses that he had built in town, and one of those was the No. 108. We didn't know exactly what year he sent in that letter, but, once we had seen that No. 108 in Norwich, CT, we knew that he had to have built those houses pretty close to 1908, because the design of the No. 108 that he built, was changed by the 1912 catalog. The very first offering of this model was in 1908, and it looked like this:

26 Kinney Avenue, Norwich, Connecticut •
Sears No. 108, first version, as shown in a 1910 Sears general merchandise catalog, in an ad for Seroco paint.
This home is presented in this interesting blog post about the houses from the W.W. Beckwith testimonial. 

See that corner bumpout? It's kind of awkward, I have to say, but it helps us date the house... and, from the inside, it does add a nice bit of space to that parlor, and looks fine. Here's what I'm referring to:

See those areas that I boxed in? That's the corner bump-out.

A bit of research in a historic newspaper database, netted me some really helpful information that now allows us to date the building of the testimonial No. 108 in Norwich, most likely to 1910. Though this house from Beckwith's testimonial letter, was built on Kinney Avenue, the other three of those four houses that Beckwith wrote in about, were found on Thames Street, the street on which Beckwith lived, according to the address given on his letter to Sears. Here's a mention, in a May 1910  newspaper, of W.W. Beckwith involved in a sale of properties on Thames Terrace (a street near Thames Street) and Kinney Avenue:

Norwich Bulletin, May 27, 1910 Page 11

We see mention of Beckwith's building endeavors on those two streets two days before that, on May 25, 1910:

Norwich Bulletin, Norwich, Connecticut, May 25, 1910, page 5

According to the 1910 Norwich City Directory, Austin Perkins lived at 130 West Thames Street, so I imagine that one of the Beckwith Sears houses -- found at 124, 136, and 140, on West Thames -- is the house being referred to here.

Norwich City Directory, 1910

The 1913-Era Sears No. 108

So, as I mentioned, that was the only No. 108 that we had on our national database. That is... until the owner of a Liberty, Indiana house, asked about her house, in a small Sears Kit Houses group that some of us are in, on FaceBook. She had always been told that their house was a Sears house, but had never been able to find what model it was. Well... no wonder. The early No. 108 was, for some reason, left out of the best reference resource out there for the history of Sears Houses, which also includes catalog images of (almost) all of the Sears models: Houses By Mail.  It was just before Christmas, and everyone was busy, and no one really answered Amanda's question about her house. A couple of days after Christmas, I checked back in... and had a thought... I decided to check the re-print 1913 catalog (Amanda had said that her house was built in 1913, but build date information is often incorrect in town resources), to look for that house.... that No. 10-something... I had looked around for it before... and I thought it had these lines. And... yup! That's the one! The 108! So, I messaged Amanda...

And, she said...

I realized, then, that we had no other No. 108 models of this version, on our national database, so I was really pleased to be able to add Amanda's house to our list. As we exchanged some more information outside of the group, I learned that not only was Amanda's house a No. 108, but that there was another No. 108 in Liberty, Indiana, as well! Two brothers had built the houses, in two different areas of the small town of Liberty, and, so, that meant that I would be adding not one, but two more model No. 108s to our list. Woo hoo!  

Let's take a look at both of these houses, which are both light grey, just like the one in Norwich is... although... you'll notice that these two houses have a flat front. That awkward corner bump-out was removed from the Sears design, beginning, probably, in 1912 (I've not seen a 1911 catalog, but I assume that, since the color ad for Seroco paints, in the 1910 general Sears catalog, shows the earlier design, that the design had not yet been changed in 1910):

Here is the new, and last, version of the No. 108, in the 1912 catalog.

Amanda's house sits on farmland, on the outskirts of Liberty. Amanda knew the last name of the two brothers who had built the twin Sears houses--Huntington--and a little research on Ancestry.com, led me to learn that the brothers' first names were Harry, and Howard. Harry is the brother who built Amanda's house, and he would have been 30 that year, while Howard would have been 29 if he built his house that same year. It is likely that the build date of 1913 is correct, since that is the last year that this model was offered in the Sears Modern Homes catalogs (beginning in 1916, the number 108 was assigned to the model we know as the Saratoga, which, before 1916, had been the No. 146 -- you can read about that model in this blog post of mine ).

Here is Harry's No. 108, Amanda's home:

Harry and Mima Huntington's Sears No. 108, built in 1913. They lived here with their young son, Maurice, until Harry's death in 1918. I believe that Mima eventually moved away from this house, re-marrying in 1925, to Charles Chowning. They divorced in the early 1940s, according to information on the Find-A-Grave website. Interestingly, when Mima passed away in 1956, she was buried in the Harry Huntington family plot, and her name was placed on the tombstone with his.

There is the side bumpout for the dining room... and the clean-cut front corner, where the corner bump-out was omitted from the design.

What a welcoming front porch!

Google Streetview's images are not as nice and clear as Amanda's, but they do show us how well the house follows the design of the No. 108, with the obvious addition added on to the back.

We can see that the house had an extension put on the back, but the rest of the lines follow just as they should, for the No. 108.

I didn't realize the significance of this, until I read more about Mima's life after Harry's 1918 death. Despite her marriage to Charles Chowning, in 1925, which ended in divorce, she was laid to rest with her first husband. I imagine that their son, Maurice, had a hand in that. 

Amanda very kindly shared photos of brother Howard's house, which is on a street in town in Liberty. Howard lived here with his wife, Stella, and their sons, Marion and Lawrence:

There is a small extension on the back of Howard & Stella's house, too... there should be a back porch there, but it has probably been enclosed, and maybe extended across the back of the house.

Again, you can see a slight extension to the back of the house, behind the short double windows of the kitchen. The house should normally stop right behind those kitchen windows.

Both Huntington brothers opted to make that upper front window into a single, instead of the double that is shown in the catalog image.  By the way, these houses would have been built before the pre-cut era (which began in 1916), so the lumber would have been supplied in standard lengths. In homes before the pre-cut era, we see a little more leeway in construction, and it's more likely to find houses that differ a bit from the catalog, in this era, when builders could have made changes at the build site. Sears may have been more willing to offer small changes in design at this time, too, since it didn't mean much difference in what they supplied to the homeowner. 

But, wait... there's more!

I have to thank Amanda for sharing her photos with me, and allowing me to blog about her home, and its twin, in town. The image that I showed her, at first, in fact, was from the 1913 catalog. And... on that catalog page, there was a little box that we call the "built-at box"... it's where Sears mentioned the locations where other homes of that model had been built...at: 

The No. 108 in its last appearance in the Sears Modern Homes catalogs... the 1913 edition. That catalog is available as a re-print, published by Dover books, and is available on Amazon, here.

So, for a lark, I thought I'd pick one of the towns mentioned, and look around a bit. This isn't my favorite method of researching... I get irritated when Google streetview goes slowly, and I get frustrated when I don't find the house I'm looking for. So, I didn't think I'd be long for this search. But... when I looked at the outline of West Haverstraw, New York, on Google maps, I looked a bit at the street names, and randomly picked one to plop down on. I chose Center Avenue, and plopped down right where the green arrow is.

Then... looking down the street that intersected it -- Demarest Avenue -- I found Sears No. 108 number three! There, sitting at #12, Demarest Avenue, is a house that looks to fit the bill very nicely. Sure, it has a bay window added in front, but, otherwise, it's a great match for the No. 108, 1913 version.  And, since that town was mentioned in the 1913 catalog,  and the house is of the second style of this model, without the side bump-out, the house on Demarest must must have been built around 1911 or 1912. Here it is!:

12 Demarest Avenue, West Haverstraw, New York • Sears No. 108 • Built in 1911

You can see that the house ends just behind the kitchen window, whereas the Liberty, Indiana examples, were extended.

There are the expected two upper front windows. They are shorter than full size, and my guess is that this helps us to know that they were replaced whenever that front bay window was added. I'll bet that, during that construction project, they needed to cut into the space down to which the upper windows would normally extend. 

The real estate listing for this house (which has had the same owners since 1979), says that it was built in 1911. In this instance, I'd say that is most likely correct, or very closely. It wouldn't have been this design, if it had been before that, and it wouldn't have made it into the mention in the 1913 catalog, if it had been much later.

But... What About The Inside?

That is always my first thought... what does this house look like inside!?? So, I always search the real estate listings for a possible recent listing, with good photos. Well, we are in luck! The early No. 108, the one in Norwich, Connecticut, the one with the funky front corner bump-out, was for sale in 2018. And, there are great photos with the listing! Without further ado, let's take a look at what the interior of an early Sears No. 108 looks like:

26 Kinney Avenue, Norwich, Connecticut • Sears No. 108

The listing provided a nice little copy of the Sears catalog's floorplan image. 

Here's the staircase newel, in the 1912  Sears Building Supplies catalog.

Display rail for china, Craftsman trim around the windows and doors, and faux beams on the ceiling of the dining room!

Here we see the side bay window of the dining room... and, off in the distance, the not-quite-as-awkward-as-outside corner bump-out of the front parlor.

See that stained-glass window? I believe that's original to the house. Interesting pattern to the layout of the hardwood floor.

Here's a very close match to the stained glass in the window on our Norwich No. 108. This is from the 1912 building materials catalog.  You would expect it to look exactly like the image in the catalog, but we often see stained glass in our Sears houses, that either doesn't match anything in the catalog, or is slightly different. 

There's that little reading nook! That corner bump-out looks kind of nice inside the house.

"Reception Hall", as it is called in the original Sears plans. Now, it's called the living room, and the front parlor is called the family room. 

Here's the upstairs plan, and one of the upstairs bedrooms:

I chose this one to grabe a photo of, because I wanted to check out that door handle hardware.

Unfortunately, I don't see a match for this door handle hardware, in the catalogs.

Here's a funny thing: The real estate listing gives build year for this house as 1929. This information would surely have come from the town's assessor records. Well... nope! We know for certain that this house was built almost two decades before that. This is why we definitely don't automatically trust town assessor records.

Nope! Not 1929. More likely, 1910.

Since we so rarely get to see the rear of our Sears houses, let's grab that last photo, so you can see what the back porch normally looks like on this model:

Sears No. 108, 1912-1913 version, rear.

And, with that, I'll wrap it up! I'm pretty pleased to have been able to add three more of this model, to our national database, and loved getting to see the inside views of this cool model. I hope the new owners are enjoying it!

Sears Testimonial House: Americus in Collingswood, New Jersey

418 Woodlawn • Collingswood, NJ • circa 1920s • Home of Charles F. Kurtz and his wife, Mary

"I am perfectly satisfied in every way with my 'Honor Bilt' Home, the 'Americus'."

So began the three-sentence blurb that Charles F. Kurtz submitted to Sears, about his satisfaction with the sturdy Americus home that he built, or had built, in Collingswood, New Jersey.

Along the years that Sears ran their Honor Bilt and Modern Homes business, selling plans and lumber and supplies, and then pre-cut kits, they always included little comments by previous buyers, usually accompanied by a photo of their actual home, and often listing (most of) their name, and usually the town in which they built the home.  Some of these "testimonials", as they are known, were included in pages of the general merchandise catalog (to advertise the homes catalog), and always, the home catalogs themselves included pages with these testimonials.

      

Testimonial by letter, and with images: pages 27 (left) and 110 (right)  of the 1920 catalog
... and there's a Silverdale in the one on the right :)
(click to enlarge)

Sometimes, there were color flyers-- several page foldout brochures -- that might be arranged by areas of the country, advertising different home options via the use of these testimonials.  It is from one such brochure, made available to our Facebook group Sears Homes and Planbook Houses, by a friend at antiquehome.org, that I found the mention of a Sears Americus model, in Collingswood, NJ.

Images from a testimonial brochure. We aren't certain from what year the brochure dates -- and another member of our group has a copy, as well -- but we do know that Sears used the testimonials for years after the homes were built (why not?), and that there are, included in this particular brochure, homes which were not offered until about 1925, so we're guessing that the brochure dates from the mid-to-late 1920s.

It's rather a fun, and challenging, research mission, to try to locate these homes to see if they are still standing today (and that's what this is all about, after all -- fun, and challenge-- and an interest in documenting this interesting part of American cultural history), but it takes a number of tools to accomplish this goal-- and a good bit of time.  Gone are the days when we were limited to hopping in a (real) car and driving on (actual) roads, hunting down houses to photograph (the method first used by intrepid Sears researcher Rosemary Thornton, as she traipsed all around our country, locating Sears homes -- read about her adventures, and her finds, on her blog, or in her books).  There's nothing like seeing a real kit home for yourself, and, if you're lucky enough to live around some, that's the best way to get a real feel for what each model looked like.

But, if you want to search around the country, you have to branch out to modern methods: Google or Bing maps and Ancestry.com, along with some help from online real estate sites, like Trulia and Zillow. At least, those are the tools that I've found very useful, and they are the tools that helped me find this Americus in Collingswood.

The Sears Americus Model

The Americus is one of my favorite models.  I love its squared-off, Craftsman-meets-four-square-meets-Italianate style.  Unfortunately, when folks change the siding on these beauties (which were usually originally made of wood clapboard, cedar shake, or stucco), they often do away with the beautiful, distinctive brackets that stick out and support the wide eaves (I really like those wide eaves!).

Our Collingswood Americus has lost those brackets, too.  I tried to find an image of an extant Americus that still had its brackets sticking out, by going through the database of Sears Catalog Homes in the United States, begun by Lara, author of the blog Sears Homes of Chicagoland, but had to look up about 10 houses before I could find a couple (apologies, as I do not know which researcher to credit for finding these and adding them to the list):

47 Hillside Avenue, Hastings-on-Hudson, NY • Still has its cedar-shake siding!
(UPDATE Sep.-2-15: Lara Solnickne informs me that this house was located by Jeff Alterman. Thanks! See her comment, below.)

41 Farrington Road, Croton-on-Hudson, NY
(see some interior photos, below)

Farrington Road -- supports on upper-story eaves

Farrington Road -- supports on porch roof, as well as closeup of distinctive Sears squared-off support columns.

This stucco 1922 or 1923 Americus is at 916 Michigan, Wheaton, Illinois -- still has its eave brackets!
This house was located through mortgage research, by researcher Lara Solonickne. You can read more about this home here, in her post on Sears Homes of Chicagoland.

Oh, here's another nice-looking Americus that has eave brackets. It looks like they do have some kind of non-wood siding, but, at least they kept the distinctive brackets and Sears columns. This is at 51 Hereford Street, Cincinnati, Ohio.
(Photo by Cindy Catanzaro, Springfield Ohio Sears kit-home specialist.)

What Does It Look Like Inside of a Sears Americus ?

Description from my1930 catalog

First -Floor plan, from my 1925 catalog
(click to enlarge)

Second-Floor plan, from my 1925 catalog
(click to enlarge)

  

I don't have any photos of the inside of the Collingswood Americus, but two bloggers have shown real-estate listings with images of two other Americus homes, and here are the living rooms of each of those two:

This is from the real estate listing for 304 Baltimore Road, Rockville, MD (built in 1924), retrieved from D.C. real-estate agent (and major Sears homes enthusiast) Catarina Bannier, linked from her May 8, 2014 entry of  DC House Smarts • Here is a link to the listing for the house. (click to enlarge)

This is from Sears Homes of Chicagoland, from an entry that researcher Lara S. wrote about an Americus at 23 N. 19th St, Lafayette, Indiana, ordered in 1922.  In this wonderful post, you get to see all kinds of paperwork related to the original order of the kit from Sears -- blueprints, bills, correspondence, stamped lumber, and more.  You can read it HERE.

From my 1925 catalog.

UPDATE: Thanks to one of my most frequent readers, I've learned of a Zillow sales listing for the beautiful Americus in Croton-on-Hudson, New York, shown above. Here are a couple of the interior photos (you can see the full listing here):

How much did the Americus cost to build, and what did you get for your money?

Oddly, I have found that the cost for the pre-cut kit for the Americus, was significantly higher in 1920, than in 1925! I have no idea why. Both were "Already Cut" and fitted, so that is not the difference.  If you know why, please feel free to explain, in the comments.

This is the cost as shown in my 1920 catalog.

This is the cost as shown in my 1925 catalog.

Here's what the price included, in 1925.

And here are options available in 1925.

So, who lived in the Americus at 418 Woodlawn, Collingswood, NJ?

Interesting question.  Part of the problem in having a clear answer to that question, is that a build date for this home is not available.  Real Estate tax records for Camden County, NJ, say 1900, which I've learned (thanks, Cindy C.!) is a common date to give when records were lost for the actual build year of an old home, but, obviously that can't be the build date for this home, since Sears wasn't selling any homes before 1908 and the Americus was not offered until probably 1920 (I find it in my 1920-1930 catalogs).

In any case, due to the testimonial, you would think that it would be Charles F. Kurtz and his family who first lived in this home. However, not only do we not know the year of the build, we do not know the year of the testimonial brochure.  And, the U.S. census (found on Ancestry.com) gives me some intriguing information: Charles F. Kurtz and his family did not live at this address in 1920 or 1930 -- yet we believe the home was built during the 1920s.  And, what's more, someone else did live at this address in 1930: William Meeks, his wife, Lillian, and their son Thomas (thanks, Cindy!).  But... the census shows that they were renters, not owners.

And, the 1930 census shows that Charles F. Kurtz and his family, including his widowed father Louis, lived in Philadelphia (right across the Delaware River from Collingswood, NJ):

Collingswood, NJ is not far from Philadelphia, PA -- just across the Delaware River and then a little train ride.
I used to live in nearby Cherry Hill, just a bit to the right of Collingswood, here on this map.

This 1930 census information could mean several things.

It could mean that

• Charles Kurtz ordered and built the kit for the Sears Americus during the 1920s, to use as a rental-income property, while remaining at 1526 Wingohocking St.,  Philadelphia with his wife, two daughters, and father.  And, in 1930, it was being rented from them, and lived in, by William and Lillian Meeks and their son.

Interestingly, according to the 1920 census, done before his 1920 marriage to Mary, Charles actually lived across Wingohocking street, with his parents, Lucy and Louis, at 1515 Wingohocking St.  He is shown then to be a bookkeeper for an insurance company (but later census data shows him to be a cement finisher).

1920 U.S. Census information for our Charles F. Kurtz.
The actual census page shows the address to be 1515, which is across the street from where he moved sometime before 1930, with his wife, two daughters, and widowed father.

Or, the 1930 census information could mean that:

• There was a different property at 418 Woodlawn at the time of the 1930 census, and that, subsequently, it was torn down, and Charles Kurtz bought the land and built his Sears Americus kit home there, in, or just after, 1930 (remember, 1930 is the last year that we see the Americus in a catalog).

Or, it could mean that:

• The postal system changed the street addresses for Woodlawn Avenue sometime in 1930, and the 418 Woodlawn where William Meeks was renting, is not the same exact location of the 418 Woodlawn where the Americus was built.  However, in looking at the actual census page for that street, for 1930, I don't see Charles Kurtz at a different address... and, remember, he is shown at the Philadelphia address in 1930.

I could not find William Meeks at any other address either in 1920, or in 1940, so I don't know what happened to him and his family.

But, what we can say is this:

By 1935, Charles F. Kurtz, his English-born wife, Mary, and their two daughters (interestingly, each one named after both his wife and his mother: Mary Lucy Kurtz, and Lucy Maria Kurtz) were living in the Americus at 418 Woodlawn, Collingswood, NJ.  The 1940 census shows them there, shows them as the owners, and shows that they lived in the "same house" in 1935.

Summary info for Charles Kurtz, in 1940, now a Cement Finisher, instead of a bookkeeper.

The listing at the bottom of the 1940 census summary, showing all four of the residents of 418 Woodlawn.

Charles and Mary were married in 1920, when Charles was 22, and Mary was 20.  Though Charles and his parents were born in Pennsylvania, Mary and her parents were born in England, and came to the United States in about 1908. Charles went through the first year of high school.

Mary in the 1930 census.  

By 1940, the whole family was employed, Charles continued as a cement finisher, and wife Mary worked at a retail store as a clerk.  Both daughters, Mary and Lucy, had finished four years of high school, and, now at ages 19 and 17 respectively, were employed: Mary was an inspector for Pen Point Mfg., and Lucy was a sales clerk for a "Five and Dime" retail department store.

Collingswood, New Jersey

Collingswood is, and was, a charming town.

In 1931, apparently the big news was the October football game between the Collingswood High School Knights, and Camden High School (Camden is the county seat, and now a run-down city). Collingswood eaked out a last-minute victory!

You can read the whole story HERE -- it's the source for these snippets about the big game.

These folks might have been neighbors of Charles, Mary, Mary, and Lucy Kurtz!

There was a Pure Oil Service Station in Collingswood.  Look at that swoopy, Anastasia!
Sure looks like the English cottage style that Sears included in its 1920s through 1930s homes.
(You can buy this image on Ebay, HERE.)

Collingswood Today

Today, Collingswood is considered a charming, historic town, which retains its well-kept historic buildings and homes.  In 2009, the APA -- American Planning Association -- listed its main shopping street, Haddon Avenue (the street that Woodlawn is off of) as one of several "Great Streets" in America.

Go HERE to read the article and see the slide show.

The article describes many great things about Collingswood, among them, its historic character.  Its Commercial Historic District, where Haddon Avenue is, is listed as a state historic area, and is on the National Register of Historic places.

It's amazing what you can do with a little start of information.  

From that little testimonial blurb, using 21st-century means, I was able to dig into the past to first locate this wonderful Sears Honor Bilt kit home, and then find out a bit about who built it, who lived there, and what life was like in the town we just saw in passing in a testimonial brochure.

By Janet M. Spavlik, available on Amazon.com

UPDATE, June 7, 2021:

I have just learned that this house was for sale in 2016, and I see that the new owners have painted and fixed up the house beautifully! In fact, the owners apparently found my blog post, thanks to a Google search, and a local news story was done, featuring the house and its origins as a Sears house. The article was done by Kevin Callahan, who writes for the 08108collingswood.com website, and it was published on March 13 of last year (2020). My blog was mentioned, and I see that it's a good thing that I have now included my name and photo on the blog, as the owner, Jessica Todd, said that the blog post that she found about her house, had been written by, "just a guy who likes Sears kit homes". Ha! Jessica, I'm a woman... a woman who likes Sears kit homes :)  I'm really glad that you found this blog post, Jessica! Here's that article, if you'd like to see it... and, here's the house, as it looks now:

Sears Americus, built around 

Image courtesy of Google maps Streetview, 2019.

UPDATE, March 22, 2023

I was very pleased, recently, to receive an email from John Price, who is one of the grandchildren of Charles and Mary Kurtz (his mom was their daughter, Lucy). He explained that he understands the house to have been built between 1920 and 1922, and shared the story of why the family was not shown living there in the 1930 U.S. Census:

Indeed, the family did rent out the house to others, during the depression, but were able to return around 1935!

He also was kind enough to share these two family photos, and I am thrilled to share them here:

Charles and Mary Kurtz, back living in their Sears Americus, circa 1942.

Charles Kurtz (center), with his daughter, Lucy, holding her baby daughter; Mary Kurtz back on the porch; and Charles' father, Lewis Kurtz, on the left. Circa 1945.

John, thank you so much for reaching out to me with this information, and these photos!

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