January 31, 2012

Wardway Sovereign

445 S. Pine, Arlington Heights.



The Sovereign model from the Wardway Homes catalog.


445 S Pine Ave, Arlington Heights, IL 60005
Another view that matches the catalog illustration. Photo from Realtor site.



Sears, Roebuck and Co. was not the only player in the catalog home market. Montgomery Ward also sold "ready cut" homes under the Wardway Homes brand name.

The Montgomery Ward houses were manufactured by another kit home company--Gordon-Van Tine. Gordon-Van Tine often sold the exact same models in their own catalogs. The Wardway Sovereign was also known as the Gordon-Van Tine No. 704.

Without hard evidence, how do we know whether this house in Arlington Heights is from Montgomery Wards or Gordon-Van Tine? We do know that the Arlington Heights Realty Company on West Campbell St. was selling Wardway homes, so if I had to make a guess I would go with Montgomery Ward.


Wards offered wood siding as standard on the Sovereign model, but a customer could also choose a brick veneer. So the fact that the Arlington Heights home has a partial brick exterior does not mean it is not a Sovereign. You can see that the holders for the window flower boxes are still intact.

This house was built about 1930. In 1939, it was the home of H. S. and Mary Brown and their two children. Mr. Brown was a film distributor.





January 27, 2012

The Unknown Origin of Richard Nixon's Mail-Order House

The most famous mail-order house is former President Richard Nixon's birthplace in Yorba Linda, California. It's a National Historic Landmark and a California Historical Landmark.

Richard Nixon's father, Frank Nixon, built the home in 1912. Frank was a very accomplished carpenter who helped to build many homes in the towns of Yorba Linda and La Habra. Richard Nixon was born in the home in 1913. The Nixon family lived in the 900-square-foot house in Yorba Linda until 1922. Then the family moved to nearby Whittier, California.

File:Nixonhouse.jpg
Nixon's birthplace. This is the back of the house, but the most well-known view of the structure since it faces the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum. Nixon insisted that the house not be moved from its original placement. Photo courtesy of Wikipedia



Since its opening in 1990, the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum has attracted nearly 2.6 million visitors. The birthplace is the most popular attraction. 

Front of the Nixon home. Photo courtesy of Keung Luke.


In a television interview from 2010, Julie Nixon Eisenhower (the President's youngest daughter) stated that the house was built using a mail-order kit:
"I really can tell you it's the most popular thing we have here at the Nixon library because everyone falls in love with this little house that my grandfather built from a kit. And, Huell, I'm hoping that some of the viewers might be able to help us because we've done research and we know it's not a Sears & Roebuck or Montgomery Ward kit but my Grandfather Nixon ordered this kit from a catalogue and he put the house together.
"And so we haven't been able to document which one, so maybe it'll look familiar enough to some of the viewers."
In a 2011 episode of "American Artifacts", a docent from the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum restated much of the same information:
"So Frank Nixon literally went through a catalog. And it wasn't a Sears catalog and it wasn't a Montgomery Ward catalog. We still don't know the identification of the manufacturer of this wonderful house but we know that it was a kit house. So he actually took his horse and buggy and drove it to the train station. There's actually a section of the train still there on Imperial Highway that you can see. Frank Nixon brought these boxes and crates back to this Yorba Linda site and he built this wonderful house."
The home's site was less than a mile to a train line. Although Yorba Linda had a population of around 200, in 1911 the Pacific Electric Railway Company extended its service to Yorba Linda and built a depot. Fruit was shipped out from Yorba Linda, while lumber and other materials were delivered there.

How Do They Know it was a Kit House?
Before 1990 there were no references to the Nixon birthplace being a kit home. Even the form used to nominate the Nixon birthplace into the National Register of Historic Places does not mention that the house was built using a kit.

Complete renovation of the home began in 1989, so I suspected that something previously concealed in the structure led the experts to believe this was a kit house.  I emailed the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum to ask what evidence they had that the house was built from a kit. I received the following response from Olivia Anastasiadis, Supervisory Museum Curator:
"We know from President Nixon that his father, Frank Nixon, purchased a home kit and had the lumber delivered by train to build a house here on 8.2 acres of land--the land was purchased by Hannah Nixon, the President's mother."
The renovations begin in 1989. The total cost was about $450,000. Photo courtesy of Associated Press.


As the birthplace was being renovated, Nixon and his family were actively involved in the process. According to an article in the Los Angeles Times from 1990, members of the firm that restored the birthplace "relied heavily upon advice from the former President." They conducted a three-hour meeting with Nixon about the history of the house and specific details he recalled from his childhood. It appears that during these meetings, Nixon recalled that the house was a kit home, but he did not know what company manufactured the home.

Possible Manufacturers
Although many Internet sites maintain that the Nixon birthplace was a Sears house, it was not. None of the known Sears models offered in the 1911-1912 time period looked anything like the Nixon house.

The Nixon home in 1969. Photo courtesy of the National Park Service.


The likely manufacturers of the Nixon birthplace would be:
  • Aladdin Homes based in Michigan (with a factory in Oregon that opened in 1912 and shipped houses to California) 
  • Pacific Ready Cut Homes based in California

None of the known Aladdin models offered in 1912 looked anything like the Nixon house. I contacted the Clarke Historical Library, which houses the remaining Aladdin sales records, but they unfortunately don't have records for 1911 or 1912.

The Pacific Ready Cut Homes factory was in Los Angeles and they started selling "ready cut" houses around 1908. Unfortunately the company's sales records have been lost and we don't know what the company's models looked like during that period.

Due to a scarcity of documentation from these manufacturers, we're at a dead end.

The House Today
The Richard Nixon birthplace has been fully restored on the exact spot where Frank Nixon built it. The exterior of the house remained unchanged through the years, although many changes were made to the interiorThe Richard Nixon Foundation restored the interior to the time when Nixon was a young boy. Most of the furnishings are original, including the bed where Nixon was born, the highchair he ate in as a baby, and the piano on which he took lessons. The house was placed onto a new foundation to handle the influx of visitors.

Because the exterior of Nixon's childhood home looks exactly as it did when it was first built, this may ultimately be the clue needed to identify the manufacturer. If someone can find an identical kit house in California or elsewhere that has definitive markings or documentation that indicates the manufacturer, we can finally solve the mystery.




January 17, 2012

Sears Newcastle

18 S. George, Mount Prospect


Sears Newcastle from the 1940 Modern Homes catalog. The illustration shows flat paneling on the second story between the windows, but none of the real-life Newcastles identified to date have that feature. 



This house in Mount Prospect is one of two Sears Newcastles in the state of Illinois. (The other is in Joliet; one in Hinsdale was torn down.)

"Standing four square to cheerful sunshine and admitting plenty of light in every room on cloudy days, this plan employs every inch of floor space advantageously," Sears Roebuck wrote of the Newcastle. The architect of the Newcastle was Howard L. Cheney.

Sears said that the Newcastle was modeled after the Samuel Richards house in Connecticut, built in 1792.
 
Typically Colonial houses are perfectly symmetrical. The side of the Newcastle has a double window in the upstairs bedroom. Along with the distinctive trim around the front door, the double windows can help to identify a Newcastle.


 
This Sears Newcastle was built in 1940 by Mr. and Mrs. Carl BeierThe Beiers lived in the Newcastle until 1980. 

The family that purchased from the Beiers still own the house.

Update!

I heard from Ed Beier, son of the original owners.

"My father had the 18 S. George St. house built, and we moved in during the Spring of 1940, " wrote Ed in an email.
 
Photo of the house from 1940. Looks like work is still being done. Photo courtesy of Ed Beier.


 
Photo of the house soon after construction finished in 1940. Photo courtesy of Ed Beier.



Ed recalled: "The town was very different in 1940, with many remnants of German settlement and culture.  I think the population was about 1,700.  The George St. house was the fifth house built on the block, and to the north and east was farmland.  The old, large farmhouse across the street was the only building on that block."





January 9, 2012

Sears Wilmore

743 N. Pine, Arlington Heights



Sears Wilmore.



This authenticated Sears Wilmore was built in 1937. Check out the original door. 





Here is the original building permit for the house. In the Architect field it says: "Sears Roebuck (Stock)". Thanks so much to the administrator of Growing Up in Arlington Heights, IL for locating the permit.

You might notice that the address on the permit was 793 North Pine. The address numbering apparently changed sometime after 1937. 


The actual architect of the Wilmore was B.T. Lourim.

Paul Lyon and his wife, Cecile, moved into the house in 1938. Paul worked for the Chicago and North Western Railroad, so he was likely very familiar with Sears kit houses. Cecile lived in the house until the late 1950's.


January 7, 2012

Sears Puritan

30 N. Pine, Mount Prospect



Sears Puritan

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This is an authenticated Sears Puritan. According to a newspaper article from 1989, the owners found stamps on the rafters in the attic and basement. 

The Puritan features a gambrel roof with a full-width dormer. There is a curved entry pediment with decorative brackets. The house still retains 6-over-1 sash windows. 

Awful photo of the unique windows on the sides of the Puritan. This the real deal!


The former owners believed the house was constructed in 1927 and owned by an "Adana Bowles". A person by this name never lived in Mount Prospect, based on my research.

I believe the house was built in 1929 and the original owners were Vaughn C. Bacon and his wife, Madge. They were definitely living in the house by March 1930. Vaughn worked for Commonwealth Edison downtown. Vaughn died in 1944, and Madge sold the house and moved back to her hometown of Wolcott, NY in 1945.