Sears No. 215 in the Upper Peninsula

It's summertime, when many Chicagoans head to Michigan for vacation. Sears Homes of Chicagoland reader Larry Johnston was recently in Michigamme, Michigan and snapped some shots of an authenticated Sears model No. 215.

106 Railroad Street, Michigamme, MI. Photo courtesy of Larry Johnston.

Sears Model No. 215 from the 1914 catalog.

This model was offered from 1909 until 1917. The model number changed from No. 306 to No. 215 over those years. No. 215 was a Queen Anne style, and homes of that style began losing popularity around the turn of the century. In the 1918 catalog, Sears offered only three Queen Anne models, and No. 215 was one of the models that was discontinued.

This house was built between 1909 and 1913. The original owners were Peter and Anna Paquin. Peter was a mail clerk for the railroad. The Paquins needed a four-bedroom house to accommodate their two sons and Anna's mother.

A letter that Peter Paquin wrote to Sears was included in the 1914 Modern Homes catalog.

Peter and Anna Paquin at the back door of the house. Photo courtesy of Debbie Walsh.

The house appears to have the original siding. A new vestibule for the front door was built, but I'm not certain whether this was original to the house. The wraparound porch has been rebuilt.

The vestibule. Photo courtesy of Larry Johnston.

Historic photo of the house. Photo courtesy of Debbie Walsh.

The family relaxing at home in 1917.  Anna Paquin is at right. Note the colonnade opening. Photo courtesy of Debbie Walsh.

The "Grille" notation between the reception hall and the living room represents the colonnade covered by a decorative grill. Queen Anne styles were known for their large entry reception halls.

The Paquin family owned the house until just after Anna Paquin's death in 1971.

Update!
We have interior photos!

A Trio of Super-Rare Houses Built by Sears

1109 Linden Ave., Oak Park.

The Schuyler, from the 1933 Sears Modern Homes catalog.

1113 Linden Ave., Oak Park.

The Bristol, from the 1933 Sears Modern Homes catalog.

1117 Linden Ave., Oak Park.

The Webster, from the 1933 Sears Modern Homes catalog.

Sears built three houses side by side on Linden Avenue in Oak Park. These three rare styles were only offered for sale in one year--1933.

In 1932, sales of Sears homes suffered due to the Great Depression. Net sales were down 47% from the prior year, and the Modern Homes Department was operating at a loss.

In an attempt to boost sales, Sears executives decided to conduct an experiment on building homes prior to sale. They felt if customers could walk through model homes and see the Sears quality firsthand, they would be more inclined to purchase.

Construction on the houses started in summer of 1932 and the first completed model opened in October of that year. The Schuyler was priced at $14,900; the Bristol was priced at $15,100, and the Webster was priced at $15,300. These were not cheap houses. Originally Sears hoped to sell these houses for $10,000 each, but the cost to construct was way over what they anticipated.

Floor plan of the Schuyler.

All three originally had cedar shingles, although they are covered in aluminum today. The shingles and the brick were painted white on all three houses. The shutters were black, and the roofs were variegated black and red.

The Bristol and the Schuyler share the same stone exterior on the first floor, while the Webster has a brick first-floor exterior.

Two of the houses featured finished recreation rooms in the basement. This was uncommon in houses of the early 1930's.

Sears managed to sell the three houses, but felt that profit margin was too low to continue constructing homes before sale. "We do not propose any further experimentation along this line pending the sale of the Oak Park Houses and the development of better sales conditions," wrote General W.H. Rose, the General Supervisor of the Modern Homes Department.

These are likely the only Schuyler, Bristol, and Webster models ever built. As bad of a year as 1932 was for the Modern Homes Department, 1933 was even worse. Net sales were down almost 50% in 1933 as compared to 1932! These three models were more expensive than most other houses in the 1933 catalog and I would wager that Sears never sold any others.

A Super-Sized Sears Winona

1062 Greenview, Des Plaines.

Sears Winona, from the 1922 Modern Homes catalog.

A daughter of the original homeowners stated that her parents purchased this brick bungalow  from Sears. Additionally, you can tell the house is a Sears house from the unique eaves brackets. Many Sears houses have these stick-design brackets.

But the house on Greenview is a big house (about 40 feet deep) and did not exactly match any of the illustrations in the catalogs. This got me looking at the alternate floor plans available for some of the popular models.

I believe the house on Greenview is the large version of the Sears Winona. The house was built in the mid-1920's and, from the outside, the floor plans seem to match.

Larger floor plan for the Winona. Look at the window placement.

Left side is an exact match.

Right side is an exact match too.

The house on Greenview is brick, and the Winona was typically sold with a stucco exterior finish. Customers occasionally opted for a different exterior finish. The porch was enclosed and the upper floor was expanded by the use of dormers on the sides. Also the pair of tiny front windows was replaced by larger windows.

The first occupants of the house were John Friedrich "Fred" Klipstein, his wife Ella, and their four children. Fred was a cement contractor and built the house himself (which was originally numbered 1056 Greenview). They moved from Wisconsin into the house in Des Plaines sometime after 1920. At the time this house was built, the area was mostly prairie.

In 1940, the Klipsteins were living in the house with their son Raleigh and his family. 

Neighboring Gordon-Van Tine Blairs

In Arlington Heights, there are three Blairs from Gordon-Van Tine within a short distance of each other.

1021 S. Haddow, Arlington Heights

511 E. Central, Arlington Heights

1113 S. Pine, Arlington Heights

Based on the close proximity, these houses were likely built by the same person.

The Blair is very similar to the Roselle model from Harris Brothers or the Axis model from the Home Builders Catalog, with one noticeable difference. The Blair has an extended dining room on the right side. The lines of the hip roof are broken by the bay projection over the dining room.

Dining room of the house on Pine.

Dining room of the house on Haddow.

All three were built around 1930-1931 before the lowest point of the Great Depression. 

A Dunlap from the Home Builders Catalog

Several houses in the Des Plaines Gardens subdivision (today called Westfield) were built based on plans from the Home Builders Catalog Co. 

This company sold their customers sets of blueprints, a list of all the material needed to construct the house, and sample contracts. Customers chose their house from a catalog, but they did not receive all the building materials. 

It makes sense that a developer would use plans from Home Builders Catalog. It was much less money than specially hiring an architect (the houses in the catalog were typically designed by nationally recognized architects), and the developer already had relationships with the local lumberyards and knew how to source building materials.

I recognized a house in Des Plaines as a Dunlap model from the Home Builders Catalog.

1108 Jeannette, Des Plaines.

The Dunlap from the 1928 Homes Builders Catalog.

The house in the early years. Photo courtesy of Des Plaines Memory.

The Dunlap vaguely resembles the Sears Crescent--that's what got my attention. The house on Jeanette was built by W.L. Plew, a local developer. 

The house was used in an advertisement for the Des Plaines Gardens subdivision in February  1926. So we can presume the house was built between 1924 and 1926.

Ad from the Chicago Tribune, February 1926. You could "find real people for neighbors" in Des Plaines.