Sears Cedars and the Multack Family • Kirkwood, Missouri

Sears CEDARS • 625 Evans, Kirkwood (St. Louis) , Missouri
• 1930 • Ben and Pearl Multack's home

Last week, I spent 2 afternoons at the local library, peering at microfilm in the quiet History & Genealogy section.  I was looking through the Inverted Deeds Index for Saint Louis County, from about 1915-1930, trying to find the Grantee names Walker O. Lewis or E. Harrison Powell.  I was looking for Sears mortgages, and these two names were pretty much the most common, as Sears Trustees (there are others, too).

This is what most of the 1915 and 1917 pages looked like... honestly.  So so so faint, and just about impossible to decipher.
Pages from closer to 1930 were usually more legible, thank heavens.
(click to enlarge... and, good luck LOL)

I came home with a list of a number of names (not addresses -- the deed has names, and then official descriptions, like "189 feet south of Manchester road, lot 4 of plat 5 of the Enod B. Gentry tract"), and the intention of going back another day to try to find the actual mortgage deeds. I had only had time to find two of those that second day.

Some pages looked more like this.  This is a page that is supposed to give the date the deed was filed, and the book and page number, and then a description of the location.  The left side was okay, but.... good luck trying to find the book and page numbers!

When I talked about my finds with other Sears House friends, one reminded me that I could try looking up the names on Ancestry.com, to see if I could find addresses from the census lists, or city directories. That is how I first came upon the wonderful Lexington I recently wrote about.  And, then... bingo! I was on my third or fourth name of the night, usually coming up with no address, or an address that had no house at it, when I came up with Ben Multack... and it gave his address in 1940 as 625 Evans, Kirkwood, Missouri. "I know that address!" I said to myself.... very excitedly :)

I recognized that address, because it belongs to one of a handful of Sears homes in the Kirkwood area of St. Louis that Rosemary Thornton found, and has mentioned in newspaper articles (like this one) and a blog post (this one).  It's a cool Cedars model, with a big cat-slide front gable entry, and another bigger, pointy front gable above and behind that. Very nice house. I was excited to drive by it and finally see it, a few months ago.

What the house at 625 Evans looked like in 2003, when Rose visited it.
(her photo from the blog post linked to, above)

But, Rose doesn't usually say whether the homes she spots visually, from driving down a street (everyone calls them, "windshield surveys"), are authenticated or not.  Some of them have been authenticated, but some have not, and we just don't know.... because she doesn't say.... so how would we know, eh? We do know for certain that some of them have turned out not to be authenticated, so that kind of leaves every one in question, unfortunately. Maybe alllll of the rest of them are Sears homes, and maybe allll of the rest of them are authenticated, but... you just can't know, because there is usually no mention of authentication means, when Rose shows a house she found herself -- in a book, or in a blog post. In the case of "windshield survey only" houses (anyone's "windshield survey"), some turn out to be larger or smaller than the Sears model, and maybe to have been built a few years before Sears offered them in the catalog. Some look just like a Sears model, but maybe turn out to have no marked lumber or authenticating mortgage or blueprints.   Some turn out to have a very different inside layout, and so aren't from Sears.

This is an example of a turns-out-not-to-be-a-Sears-Barrington house,
that was misidentified through a "windshield survey".  Looks good in many ways! But,
I've been inside.  Wrong layout, wrong size, no marked lumber, and the family (the original builders of the house)
 says it wasn't from Sears. I just had the luxury of being able to check it to verify that.
Nothing to be ashamed of... just not a Sears house.

Rose has commented that, of course, in those early days when "windshield surveys" were about all you could do, the amount of information you could find without visiting every recorder of deeds in the country, was limited.  So... I thought this Cedars might never have been authenticated, and I was just thrilled (thrilled!) to have found a mortgage deed, to prove that THIS Kirkwood purported Sears house, was for SURE a Sears house (it would then be the first Kirkwood one that anyone -- other than the homeowners and Rose-- knew of... because.... you know.... Rose just doesn't usually say).  And, before you choke on your midwestern barbecue or swallow your reed (sorry, that's an inside joke), let me just say that I GET IT... Rose found this house, and tons and tons and tons of others, first. She has an incredible eye, and probably a photographic memory, and has done years and years of research-- and she deserves TONS of respect for all of that. I get it. But... we'd just all like to know whether or not a home a person shows is authenticated. It's no sin to be taking a highly-educated guess... but, if that's the case... say so.

Here is a snippet of the page from the 1930 deed index, showing the Sears trustee (Powell, E. Harrison)
and the homeowners (Ben Multack and wife). And, you see there to the far right, it says, "Mtg.".
That means this is a deed for a mortgage. As opposed to a "Deed of Trust" where, I believe, the homebuyers would be
putting down cash to cover the whole amount in one fell swoop. Or, some deeds say, "Release", which shows that the homebuyer has fulfilled the terms of the mortgage, and now owns the house free and clear, so the house is being released to them, by the company that held their mortgage. In this case, there are two mortgages ("Same"), so the second seems likely to be for the garage.

That's my opinion. And I'm sticking to it.  No matter how many apoplectic fits it causes across the Tulsa plains (I don't know... are there plains in Tulsa? Eh, who cares. Lots of hot air, though, we know that.)

Here's another shot I took of the house. You can see that there is a big addition there, to the left.
The Department of Revenue tax website says that the house was remodeled in 1949, so maybe that's when these changes were made.

But, if you look at the comments on the blog post I linked to above, you'll see that this is one house that Rose actually had authenticated, through nice, bright blue stamps on the lumber, that she saw with her own eyes (actually, she told me about the bright blue ink in an email).  Great! But, my mortgage-finding research is fascinating and rewarding, so I was also excited to find the mortgage deed.

See how they mark the ends of the lumber?

Pardon the tree :) But, this shows even more of the addition.
(Remember, you can click any photo to enlarge it.)

Here are two images from my 1930 Sears catalog, showing what Ben and Pearl Multack fell in love with, and decided to build, during their visit to the St. Louis Sears Modern Homes office around 1930.

See the garage back there?  Also from Sears, I believe, since it matches the style of the house, and since there were two mortgages listed together, for the Multacks.

What I love about finding a mortgage deed, is being able to connect names to a house. And then, to be able to connect a history, and a family, to a house. So, I'm going to talk about the family of Ben Multack, who, along with his wife, ordered the kit for this Cedars from Sears, in 1930. But, first, a bit more about the design of a Sears Cedars.

This is the slightly smaller model, at 26 feet deep, the 3278-A

And this is the larger model, at 28-feet deep. This is what the Multacks chose.

There are two sizes of the Cedars: both are 24 feet wide, but one (3278-A) is 26 feet deep. The other (3278-B) is 28 feet deep.  It looks like Ben and Pearl Multack chose the larger of the two, so plan 3278-B is their floorplan.

2nd Floor of smaller model

 There's a good bit of change to the arrangement of the rooms, on both floors, between the two models.

2nd floor of the larger model.

The footprint for this Cedars on Evans Avenue, is not available on the Department of Revenue tax website, for some reason, but, from looking at the window placement of the original part of the house's second-floor, left side of the house, I see that there is one upper-floor window left visible (the other would be further back, and now part of the addition to the left side of the house), and it is pretty far back into the depth of the house. That would mean that this is the larger of the two floor plans, because that window on the 28-feet deep floor plan (3278-B), is further back. On the smaller floor plan, that upper-left window that is closest to the front of the house, goes to a bedroom. On the larger floor plan (our house), it goes to the landing of the stairway.

Article in Old House Journal

Our 625 Evans Avenue Cedars, was the subject of an article in Old House Journal, in the May/June 2003 issue.  You can read (some of?) the article in the online version of the magazine, HERE (written by James C. Massey and Shirley Maxwell, photos by Anne Matheis; with the note, "special thanks to Rosemary Thornton"). There are several images included with the article, and it's not entirely clear whether or not all of them are from this home, but here is one of the Cedars living room:

The article shows an image of door handles of the Sears La Tosca style, so I assume that these were from the house itself.  This is a Sears-only design (I believe).  I blogged about a Sears Lewiston model in Webster Groves, Missouri, that also showed the La Tosca hardware, pointed out to me by highly-experienced Ohio Sears-homes researcher, Cindy Catanzaro.

Images from my 1930 catalog.

Two Other Sears Cedars From Our National Database of Sears Homes

Here's another probable Cedars, from our National Database of Sears Homes 
(begun by Lara, of Sears Homes of Chicagoland), at 1435 Ashton Road, Havertown, PA.
You can see that this must also be the larger of the two models, because those two upper-floor windows on the left side, are further back

In Springfield, Ohio, Cindy Catanzaro located a 1931 Cedars, through mortgage records. She sent a letter to the homeowner, who replied, and graciously invited Cindy to see the blueprints that had been handed down from owner to owner. That's a real treat, and it's rare to find blueprints!

That original side porch looks so inviting.
The Cedars in Kirkwood has this porch screened in, but the original design was like this.
Photo is property of Cindy Catanzaro, and, like all photos on this blog, may not be used without permission.

Photo is property of Cindy Catanzaro.

And, here is that La Tosca door hardware!
Photo is property of Cindy Catanzaro, and, like all photos on this blog, may not be used without permission.

Photo is property of Cindy Catanzaro, and, like all photos on this blog, may not be used without permission.

Photo is property of Cindy Catanzaro.

From my 1930 catalog.

Here they are, "24-inch, extra thick, clear red cedar" shingles. The Multack home still has its original cedar-shingle siding.
Photo is property of Cindy Catanzaro, and, like all photos on this blog, may not be used without permission.

The Multack Family

Benjamin Multack was about 4 years old when he and a sister and brother came to America with their 26-year-old mother, Lina (Lena). They left Russia in 1908, to come join their father, Samuel Multack, who had left a year or two earlier, and had settled in the city of St. Louis, Missouri.

The Multack (or Multach) family on the 1910 census. Just above the word "Russia" for each of them, "Yiddish" is noted as their language, telling us that the family must have been of the Jewish faith.

Wikipedia is the source for this introductory explanation of what the term pogrom means.

As a Jewish family, the Multacks were no doubt anxious to escape the anti-Jewish pogroms of that time in Russia, which had begun in the 19th century in the Russian Empire, but, by 1903-06, had worsened to the point where the attacks and murders of Jews were so unspeakable, that The New York Times is quoted as writing that the censor would not allow the kind of description that would be needed to relate the slaughter of children and adults taking place in Russia at that time.

Please click to enlarge, and read for yourself about the atrocities during 1903-06, against the Jews, in Russia.
Or, click here, and go to the source, on Wikipedia.

Once safe in America, Samuel continued his trade as a tailor.  By 1910, he was proprietor of his own shop, and the family had grown by one, so siblings Ben, Rosa, Simon, and Hyman, were living with Lina and Samuel on Laclede Avenue, in the city of St. Louis (their 1910 address is now the site of St. Louis University's Chaifetz Arena). The family continued to grow, adding two more children by 1920.

By 1924, Ben had met and married a Missouri girl, Pearl Glenn, of the small, working class suburb of Wellston (that has now seen better days). They were married on November 24, 1924 (two days before the birth of my own 90 year old mother, who would be brought home to grow up in a Sears house, herself!) 

Source: Ancestry.com

Ben and some of his siblings grew the family tailoring business into a thriving dry cleaning business, and, in 1930, he and Pearl ordered the Sears Cedars, to be built at 625 Evans Avenue, in Kirkwood, Missouri, a desirable suburb in St. Louis County, which was founded in 1853. It still retains many of its historic homes and business buildings, and has many fine homes from the 1920s and 30s. 

Lindbergh Boulevard (now called N. Kirkwood Rd.) in downtown Kirkwood, as it looked in 1936.
The Multacks had a dry-cleaning business on this street, on the right side.
(Source: Missouri History Museum )

The Multack Buidling today.  Built by the Multack family in the late 1940s, on the street you see in the image above.

The 1940 census shows that Ben and Pearl had two little girls, as well as a live-in servant named Sophia Hogenmiller, a Missouri woman who had come to live with them by 1935, all living together in the Sears Cedars on Evans Avenue.

In 1943, father Samuel continued his tailoring business, at 221 S. Kirkwood, across the street from Ben's Kirkwood dry cleaning business, and he and Lena had an apartment on nearby W. Monroe. Ben and siblings had grown the family dry cleaning business into three locations in the St. Louis area. 

Father Samuel's tailoring business was at 221 S. Kirkwood Road, in this building where Spencer's Grill would come into business in the 1940s. His door was the one at the far right of that building. (Image from current-day Google Maps)

1943 City Directory (source: Ancestry.com )

The Multacks' Webster Groves dry cleaning business was located here on W. Lockwood Avenue, in the storefront where Hair Saloon is seen in this current-day Google Map image.

The Multacks must have been a well-known family in the Kirkwood-Webster Groves area, with their many businesses, and a building named after them.  Pearl "Peggy" and Ben enjoyed just over 50 years together in their Sears Cedars.  Both passed away in the early 1980s.

 

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

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