Sears Homes of Barrington

Sears Homes of Chicagoland reader Wende Dau was kind enough to get snapshots of some Sears homes in Barrington.

135 N. Hager, Barrington. This is an authenticated Sears house--George M. Wagner got a mortgage from Sears for $4300 in October 1926. Photo courtesy of Wende Dau.

 

Sears Crescent from the 1922 catalog.

136 N. Hager, Barrington. The original owner was Martin C. Jensen. He got a mortgage in 1927 from Sears for $3900. Photo courtesy of Wende Dau. 

Sears Dundee.

 

148 N. Hager, Barrington. The house was built by July 1925 and was owned by the John Griesheimer family. This is an authentic Sears Conway;the Griesheimers got a mortgage from Sears. Photo courtesy of Wende Dau. 

Sears Conway.

533 S. Summit, Barrington. Photo courtesy of Wende Dau.

Sears Crescent.

A Sears House Mystery in Barrington
The early Sears catalogs featured a testimonial from Alverson & Groff of Barrington. Frank Alverson and Edward Groff owned a meat market on Main Street in downtown Barrington.

Sears Modern Home No. 133 (later called the Springfield) was featured in the 1913 catalog along with a testimonial from  Alverson & Groff who built two of these models in Barrington.

The matching Sears No. 133 models in Barrington. This photo comes from a 1912 booklet of testimonials. Scan courtesy of Chicagology.

 
No. 133 was offered from 1908 to 1918, so it must have been a popular house. All we know is that the houses in Barrington were built sometime from 1908-1911. I searched the downtown area using Google Maps and could not find the houses. Maybe one or both are still standing... does anyone know where they are?