Today, I'm going to present a small group of Columbines. A clutch... of Columbines.
Not this Columbine:
Which, according to Martha Stewart Weddings, looks nice in a bohemian clutch, with pansies and brodiaea....
But, rather, the Sears Columbine... a nice little house that they offered from about 1918-1929:
The Sears Columbine, as shown in the 1929 Sears Modern Homes catalog.
Bedrooms on the upper floor were an available option, for about $220 more, in 1925.
I've been doing a good bit of mortgage research in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania of late. I've run across a couple of examples of a model that I really like, and then my co-researcher, Andrew, ran across one, too... and then I realized that we've found a good number of this little model, especially in Pennsylvania. This model is the Sears Columbine, offered in the Sears Modern Homes catalogs from about 1918-1929.
So, let's take a look:
We've found them in stucco:
40 W. Wissahickon Avenue, Flourtown, Pennsylvania (Springfield Township).
This house is authenticated. Frank and Emily Sanson took out a $4,800 mortgage with Sears, in 1924, to build this house.
same house, at 40 W. Wissahickon Avenue -- The wrought iron eagle may have been added in the 1960s, when Early American design elements were very popular in the east. My family had one over the fireplace.
Another authenticated Columbine in Flourtown, Pennsylvania: 6332 Arlingham Road (located by Andrew Mutch)
We've found them in wood:
This one is in Delaware, Ohio, at 248 West Lincoln Avenue, and is also authenticated. The earliest catalog examples included the dentil trim along the curved roof of the porch. Both Andrew Mutch and Cindy Catanzaro brought this beauty to my attention.
This one is in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, at 205 Irene Street, found for us by Karen DeJeet.
Another example with the triptych window upstairs, in the front gable: 849 Edkin, West Chester, Pennsylvania
And, we've even found them in brick (veneer, that is):
Sears Columbine at 205 Parkside Avenue, Reading, Pennsylvania
Another view of that same house, and, again, this house was located by Andrew Mutch.
Inside The Columbine
Here is the floor plan, which didn't change over the 11 years that the Columbine was offered:
And, bedrooms could be finished off upstairs, for an extra fee:
This is from the 1925 catalog. This option cost $236 in 1929.
And, here's what the standard price included:
This is the base price that the Sansons would probably have paid for their Flourtown, PA, Columbine, in 1924. Their mortgage of $4,800 probably included the extra cost for stucco, and the price of construction labor. I believe that wiring and bathroom fixtures were an extra fee, as well.
The Other Porch Option
The Columbine is one of the few Sears houses that offered a different style porch as a standard option, not a specialized customization. If you ordered the B model of the Columbine, you got this look to your front porch:
This is from my 1929 catalog (actually, it's Cindy Catanazaro's catalog, scanned for me by Lauren, of Daily Bungalow ).
The catalog shows an off-set gabled porch roof for option B. But, we've found an authenticated, 1925 Columbine, in Maryland, with a wide, centered gabled front porch roof. It looks great:
7719 Carroll, Takoma Park, MD • 1925
This house was located through mortgage research by Andrew Mutch, and is an authenticated Sears house.
To close up, here's the view of the Columbine that was shown in the earliest years that it was offered. This is from the 1922 catalog:
As Cindy always says: Thanks for following along!
And, if you're interested in seeing a collection of Sears Clyde examples, check out her latest blog post, here, at Sears Homes in Ohio.
This wonderful 1915 home was shared with me by its owners, Andrew and Sarah. They were pretty certain that they had a Sears No. 187 (later known as the Sherburne), but they wanted a second opinion... especially since their fireplace was on the other side of the house, from where it's shown in the catalog image. See? This catalog image looks so much like the house photo... until you realize that there is no side door or raised bump-out with two windows, above that side door. In fact, the placement of windows on this side is all wrong. That's because we're looking at the opposite side of the house, as this house has had its floor plan reversed... except for the fireplace. So, inside the house, the layout is opposite of that shown in the floor plan, however the fireplace is on the opposite wall from where the original layout places it. Normally, it would be next to the beautiful staircase that you have in the Sherburne, but, instead, there is a nice big window on that wall.
Let's take a look at the original floor plan:
I've indicated, with an arrow, where the fireplace is located in our Sherburne in Nevada, Iowa. You can see, as well, that fireplace ends up on the same side of the house as the dining room bump-out, with its three windows. You can see that bump-out on the house photo above-- but, the whole floor plan is flipped.
I ran across a video posted on YouTube by SuperPalamara, that is a sort of 3-D drawing video of the Sherburne. This image is from that video, and it gives you a better idea of the layout of the living room. The staircase and the fireplace are not accurate in design, but they are accurate in placement.
Here is the actual 5-minute video-- it's great how it shows all of the sides of the house, and takes you inside, to give you a feel for how the rooms are laid out:
The developer of the video mentions that this is the 1913 Sears Sherburne, so I'm assuming that he has seen the catalog image that is posted on the Sears Archives page:
Since I have the luxury of having some wonderful photos sent to me by the current owners, let's take a look.
This shows the side of the house where the fireplace would normally be situated. You can see the side entry door, and the bump-out that is for the staircase there:
The owners sent this great view of the front of the house, which reveals the nice Craftsman door that is hiding behind the storm door in the image below. You can also see that, up in the huge dormer, one of the openings is actually a door. Those are the two upstairs front bedrooms there, and I imagine that the door to this deck area, would have allowed the owners to use that deck as a sleeping porch in the summer. Many of the early Sears homes have upper sleeping porches.
Google maps streetview allows us to move over just a bit, and get the shot showing the side door a bit.
Here's the house, dressed up for 4th of July!:
I'm a fan of the bunting! Thanks for the photo, Andrew!
I believe that's all original wood shingle and clapboard siding and brackets.
Do you see those concrete blocks supporting the house, and the front porch? Those could have been made by the homeowner (or whoever he hired to build the house for him, or along with him), using the Triumph, Wizard, or Knox concrete- block-making machines. Sears wouldn't have shipped him the concrete itself (but they would have arranged for a local masonry supply house to furnish it), and then he could have ordered one of these block-making machines. This 1915 Concrete Machinery catalog from Sears, shows the variety of finishes you could choose from, and has a page where they show the steps in making the block.
Here is the beautiful staircase that every Sherburne has... although the homeowner could choose from a few different styles of spindles (balusters), banister, and newel.
These are some of the staircase newels offered in the early Sears Building Supplies catalogs. This is from 1912.
It looks like the owners chose a nice, chunky Craftsman style newel, but the more shapely Colonial Baluster.
Now, normally, to the right of this staircase, would be the wall with the fireplace and bookcase. But, since that is on the other side of the living room, we have a nice sitting area there, with a large window:
Isn't that just lovely!
And, then, across the living room, we have the fireplace wall:
The opening to the right of the club chair, is to the dining room.
Now... we should take a closer look at that cast-iron fireplace insert... because.... it's from Sears! It's design No. 128. The catalog referred to that decorative piece above the grate, as the "Summer Front".
This image is from page 12 of the circa 1910 Mantels and Consoles catalog from Sears.
From page 12.
The cover of the catalog, which you can browse here, on Archive.org.
The hinges that you see on the bookcases to each side of the fireplace, are also shown in the Sears catalog, though they are a design that I believe other companies carried, as well:
The owners told me that this hinge is found throughout the house, including on this gorgeous built-in storage hutch. Just look at the patina on that wood!
When ordering built-in cabinetry, the homeowner could choose from a variety of hinges and drawer pulls.
I would like to thank Andrew and Sarah, for sharing their beautiful home with us, and providing these great photos.
More Sherburne Examples
If you're interested in seeing other Sherburnes around the country, here are a few links:
We have interior views of this probable Sherburne in Gahanna, Ohio, thanks to a real estate listing: click here.
This probable Sherburne is in Bloomington, Illinois. This photo was taken by Andrew and Wendy Mutch (of the NBC Nightly News segment!), and I've taken photos of it, myself, on a visit to Bloomington. It looks to be a bit customized... it has some fabulous woodwork in side, which you can see in this real estate listing.
This authenticated Sherburne, in Fulton, New York, is a testimonial house, that appeared in Sears catalogs. Andrew Mutch shows more, and explains what a testimonial house is, in his Kit House Hunters blog post, here.
Additionally, this house was recently sold as a HUD property, and you can view a sales video by Jon Adolfi, here, to get some interior views.
I just love, love, love this Sherburne. Andrew and Wendy Mutch found it in Berkley, Michigan, and Andrew writes about it, here.
You can read about this probable Sherburne in the Mount Washington area of Cincinnati, Ohio, here, at Cindy Catanzaro's recreation of Sears Houses In Cincinnati, a blog originally written by the late Laraine Shape.
One last look:
The Sears No. 187 / Sherburne was never sold as a pre-cut kit, only as a kit with standard-length lumber.
It was available through 1923 in the Sears Modern Homes catalogs.
Authenticated Sears Crescent • 247 Chapman Street, New Britain, Connecticut
This is the testimonial home of Frank August Ohlson. I saw mention of Frank's Sears house in Rebecca L. Hunter's book, Putting Sears Homes On The Map, which lists locations for all of the testimonial and "built here" Sears homes mentioned in the Sears Modern Homes catalogs. Frank Ohlson's listing simply said, "house", so I assume that the testimonial didn't specify what model Frank had bought. But, here it is: A Sears Crescent, and he bought the larger of the two floor plans.
Sears had two sizes and floor plans of the very popular Crescent model. This larger floor plan had a back extension off of one side, where one of the bedrooms was located (the other bedroom is at the front of the house, on that same side of the house). The larger model also has three columns, instead of two, on each side of the front porch. You can see that clearly on this house on Chapman Street, in New Britain, Connecticut.
Here you can see that the left side of the house matches the right side that we see on the catalog image. The home is the reverse floor plan.
On the floor plan, you can see that three porch columns are shown, and you can see the extension for the back bedroom. This floor plan is 34 feet wide, and 36 feet deep on that longer side:
This is from my 1930 Sears Modern Homes catalog.
And, here, a close-up view of the front porch, indicates the three columns:
Three columns!
The smaller of the two floor plans has only two columns on each side of the porch. While it is also 34 feet wide, it is only 24 feet deep, on both sides. On the larger floor plan, the secondary entrance is in the back, off of a little porch, behind the kitchen, but this smaller floor plan has the secondary entrance on the side:
You can see this floor plan here, in the 1925 catalog.
Frank August Ohlson lived here with his wife, Anna (the former Anna Pauline Swanson), and their little boy, Frank E. Ohlson, and little girl, Dorothy. It looks like Frank and Anna built their house in 1928, as that is the year given on the tax records, and 1929 is the first year that the New Britain city directory places them at this address. The 1930 census puts them here, and shows that Mr. Ohlson had been born in Sweden, and arrived in the U.S. in 1907. Mrs. Ohlson was born in New York, though the 1910 census puts her living with her family right here on Chapman Street (though at a different address). Though I didn't find any newspaper mention of a death, I noted that there was a new Mrs. Ohlson in the 1940 census: Lydia Ohlson, who was a few years younger than Frank (Anna had been a year older than he).
Here is the page from Rebecca Hunter's book, with the mention of Frank Ohlson's house:
You can buy this interesting little book, here. I enjoy using it for researching with Ancestry.com and historic newspaper resources, but it also has some good background on kit houses.
I was able to find a real estate listing for the Ohlson house on Chapman, so here are a few more views, followed by a Bing maps view with nice, orange autumn leaves:
The grey and white is so pretty. And, we see the standard triple front windows that came on the Crescent: one wide window, flanked by two slim windows.
The Crescent doesn't normally have an enclosed porch. This one is nicely done, I think. You can see a Sears Craftsman style 8-pane front door inside there, too.
The larger floor plan has the staircase to upstairs in the center of the house, whereas the smaller model has the staircase right on the side of the living room.
Nice wood floors and wood staircase, with a good, chunky Sears Craftsman-style staircase newel. The door to the right of the staircase is a closet.
The arrow indicates that hall closet you see the door for, next to the central staircase.
Clearly, the Ohlsons chose to upgrade to a finished half story above the first floor, adding two more bedrooms.
This is the triple window in the back of the dining room.
I love New England in the fall. Orange leaves! This is the shorter side of the house.
More On The Crescent
You can read more on the Crescent model, in other blog posts of mine:
The many (many!) "lookalike" models to the Sears Crescent, are shown at the end of this blog post
A lookalike model found in the lovely town of Vergennes, Vermont, is discussed here
Lara Solonickne showcases a wonderful little Crescent in this post of her blog, Sears Homes of Chicagoland
A lovely, smaller-floor plan Crescent in Keego Harbor, Michigan, is shown in this blog post by Andrew Mutch, on his Kit House Huntersblog.
The late Laraine Shape showed a few Crescents in the Mariemont section of Cincinnati, in a post on her blog Sears Houses in Cincinnati, which was faithfully re-created by Cindy Catanzaro, after Laraine's death.
