For this week’s listing of the week, we decided to find seven charming Sears Catalog homes you can actually buy today. Which is your favorite?
Sears Modern Homes Catalog 1908 4th Edition offering 30 models. MY BLOG MY FACEBOOK PAGE
Sears Modern Homes Catalog 1908 4th Edition offering 30 models. MY BLOG MY FACEBOOK PAGE
Sears said that the Avondale was "a fine example of a modern bungalow, conveniently arranged, perfectly lighted and ventilated with a great many large windows." The Avondale was a blockbuster seller for Sears Roebuck. It was offered from 1909 to 1924. Sears Avondale. Those darn kids left the croquet set in the front yard again. The Avondale featured beamed ceilings in the living room and dining room. It had a window seat and a built-in buffet in the dining room as standard. The Avondale was such a big seller that Sears rolled out a two-story version called the Hawthorne. The architect of the Avondale is William Arthur Bennett. There are nice examples of Avondales in Libertyville and Harvard, and there may be one hiding in your town. Libertyville 102 Park Place, Libertyville. This is a reverse plan from the catalog illustration. Photo from Realtor site. "The colonial columns and balustrade work are up-to-date features which are being used only in high-priced houses." Photo from Realtor site. Today, this house is a rental. Photo from Realtor site. Photo from Realtor site. The front bedroom with the bay window. Photo from Realtor site. Harvard 605 Dewey St., Harvard. This is a Sears Avondale hidden under the trees. Photo from Realtor site. View from the dining room to the front of the house. The living room and the dining room are almost the same size. The double doors on the right side lead to the front bedroom and are not part of the original floor plan. Photo from Realtor site. The front bedroom. Since there are doors that lead directly to the living room, I assume that former owners were using this room as an office or kids playroom. Photo from Realtor site. View of the full dining room. There's the bay window on the side of the house, where a window seat was originally. The built in china cabinet is on the left side. Photo from Realtor site. Photo from Realtor site. The bathroom has two windows in this unusual design. Photo from Realtor site.
Sears 1929 Brick Veneer Homes pg10 (Colchester) MY BLOG MY FACEBOOK PAGE
The Sears Modern Homes catalog from 1927. The cover house is the Sears Glen Falls. This catalog features interior views of 15 models.Rachel Shoemaker...
84 p, B & W illus
1815 Elmwood Dr., Highland Park. Photo from Realtor site. Sears Dover. Sears included this snippet in its description of the Dover: "There is a certain warmth and 'hominess' about a wooden house—a readiness to receive the stamp of its owner’s personality and an ability to adapt itself to its environment." This Sears Dover in Highland Park has definitely been "stamped" by its owners. A giant addition has been constructed behind the original house. The original square footage of the Dover was about 1300 square feet and the addition is over 1700 square feet. The good news is that the owners hired a skilled architect and you cannot see the addition from the front of the house. You would never guess there was a 1700 square foot addition back there. Photo from Realtor site. With that addition, almost every room on the first floor of the original house was repurposed. Here is the original Dover floor plan as shown in the Sears Modern Homes catalog. Remember that the house in Highland Park has a reversed floor plan. This is the living room, as shown on the original floor plan. The front door is to the right of the fireplace. Photo from Realtor site. Here's the dining room, which is the first floor bedroom on the original floor plan. Obviously the floor plan has been opened up and the closets removed. You can see the kitchen and family room, which are part of the new addition. Photo from Realtor site. Photo from Realtor site. The room currently used as a library was the original dining room. Photo from Realtor site. The home office was originally the kitchen. Photo from Realtor site. Even with the giant addition, there's still room on the lot for a pool. Photo from Realtor site. The Dover was constructed around 1928-1929. Swedish immigrants David and Ellen Carlson were the original owners. David was a firefighter. Undated photo of Ellen. David and Ellen's daughter, Dorothy, married a man named Ernest A. Belmont. In 1950, when Ellen died, Ernest and Dorothy became the owners of the house. Ernest was a banker. The Belmonts moved to Champaign around 1956.
Love the Craftsman style of homes? We're looking inside these classic spaces and telling you more about the major features of the style.
Once, I bought a bag of dirt on the internet. I continue to be amazed by the variety of things you can buy on Amazon, but long ago, in the pages of the Sears Catalog, Amazon’s predecessor, you could even buy a house. Between the years of 1908 and 1942, the Sears Roebuck company sold more than 70,000 of these Sears Catalog homes, which were built in locations all over the country.
Sears Modern Homes catalog 1919. Cover features the Sears Magnolia.Rachel Shoemaker Collection
Sears 1929 Brick Veneer Homes pg14 (Elmhurst) MY BLOG MY FACEBOOK PAGE
Sears Catalog Homes (sold under the Sears Modern Homes name) were catalog and kit houses sold primarily through mail order by Sears, Roebuck and Company, an American retailer.
Sears began offering house plans in 1908. The first Sears Plan Catalog was published in 1908. According to the Sears Archives the first bill of sale for a complete “modern home” was …
NOTE: This is for a High Quality DIGITAL PDF copy of the book - NOT A PHYSICAL COPY. This vintage catalog shows homes that were available to purchase as kit home from 1921. This is a very fun piece of history and is enjoyable to read through. Title: Sears Honor Bilt Kit Homes Catalog Circa: 1921 Pages: 138 Contents: Vintage Catalog containing kit homes and various home furnishings! Description: This is a nice Digital scan (PDF File only - not a physical book).
Paperback catalog with glossy, color illustrated covers that have a greenish-gray floral background. The front cover has an illustration of a large white house...
Sears Modern Homes catalog 1919. Cover features the Sears Magnolia.Rachel Shoemaker Collection
Sears Modern Homes Catalog 1908 4th Edition offering 30 models. MY BLOG MY FACEBOOK PAGE
Sears Modern Homes Catalog 1908 4th Edition offering 30 models. See an example of this model here. MY BLOG MY FACEBOOK PAGE
Once, I bought a bag of dirt on the internet. I continue to be amazed by the variety of things you can buy on Amazon, but long ago, in the pages of the Sears Catalog, Amazon’s predecessor, you could even buy a house. Between the years of 1908 and 1942, the Sears Roebuck company sold more than 70,000 of these Sears Catalog homes, which were built in locations all over the country.
