One of the "Rare 10"-- a Sears Yates

1939 was a strong year for the Sears Modern Homes department. They sold approximately $7 million in houses that year (about $162 million in today's dollars!). Part of this success was due to the release of a streamlined Modern Homes catalog in 1939. Sears eliminated many older styles and added 10 new "attractive, livable" models.

The new logo debuted in 1939.

Sears management was thrilled with the new lineup of homes. According to the Sears employee newsletter:

"A new Modern Homes catalog which, its sponsors believe, will be a bombshell in the mass housing industry, has just been issued. It is the product of many years of research into the requirements of modern living. It offers 54 small homes.... Done in both modern and period styles, the designs are geared to the most advanced refinements of architectural engineering."

The "Rare 10" Models

The 10 new models introduced in 1939 are among the most difficult Sears homes to identify today. Only a handful have been located, and some of the models have never been seen. There are three main reasons for this:

1. No customer testimonials.
Testimonial letters from homeowners—sometimes including addresses—are an easy way to identify Sears homes. After 1939, however, Sears reduced its print advertising and published few testimonials for the newer models.

2. No Sears mortgage records.
Before the Great Depression, Sears offered in-house financing for kit homes. Searching grantor-grantee indexes often reveals the locations of earlier Sears houses because the mortgage was recorded under “Sears Roebuck” or one of its trustees. After 1933, however, Sears discontinued direct financing and instead assisted buyers in securing FHA or private loans. As a result, links to Sears Roebuck do not appear in mortgage records after 1933.

3. Generic styling.
Most of the 10 new models were Cape Cods or Modern Colonials that look like thousands of other houses built in the late 1930s, making identification by sight alone very difficult.

The "Rare 10" models introduced in 1939 were:

• Malden
• Croydon
• Yates
• Nantucket
• Warren
• Lynn
• Colebrook
• Medford
• Branford
• Fulton 

I have found a few of the Rare 10 models by searching newspaper archives. Last week I found one in Missouri using this approach--the Yates.

A Sears Yates in Missouri

6110 North Main Street, Airport Drive, Missouri. 

Sears Yates from the 1940 catalog.

The Yates is a compact, story-and-a-half home strongly influenced by the Cape Cod revival style that was popular in the late 1930s. 

I uncovered an interview with the family that originally built this authenticated Sears Yates. The first owner was Bernard McAvoy, Sr. He was a store manager at Sears Roebuck and wanted to buy a house for his wife, Edith, and their seven children. 

Bernard, retiring from his career at Sears Roebuck in 1951.

In 1940 he purchased the Yates from Sears and hired a contractor to construct it. (Sears would help customers secure the services of local builders.) Edith remembered they made changes to the standard design, such as adding some porches. The blueprints remain in the house.

The house in 1942, shortly after it was built. There's one of the porches that the McAvoys requested. The dormers were original and I suppose they needed a fully built out second floor to accommodate seven kids!

The McAvoys owned the house until 1971, and there have been only two other owners since then. 

Update!

After this post was first published, Geoff Wyatt contacted me to say that he owns a Sears Yates in New Jersey. Many thanks to Geoff for sharing photographs.
 

200 W. Prospect St., Hackettstown, NJ. Photo courtesy of Geoff Wyatt.

Another shot of the Yates. It is a perfect match to the catalog illustration. Photo courtesy of Geoff Wyatt.

Geoff wrote in an email, "We were told it was a Sears home by the home inspector.  Then we started researching and finally found our house in the catalog."  His house is an authenticated Sears Yates. He found a joist in the basement marked with "3711A", which was the Sears model number for the Yates.

3711A. Photo courtesy of Geoff Wyatt.

Stamped lumber proves the house is a kit. Photo courtesy of Geoff Wyatt.