February 24, 2015

Where's the List?

One of the most common questions I am asked in classes is:

"Where can we find the list of Sears homes?"

You know, the master list of Sears house locations compiled by researchers for the last 40 years.

I asked the same question myself a few years ago.

A Frustrating Lack of Information
When my daughter was in third grade, she had to create an exhibit for the Chicago Metro History Fair. We decided to cover the topic of the ready-to-build kit houses that Sears, Roebuck sold through mail order.  I had read articles about Sears homes in our local newspaper, and I thought it was an understandable history topic for young kids.

My daughter wanted to include photos of actual Sears houses in our area.  I inquired at the nearby historical societies. They gave me a few leads, but I was surprised to learn there was no master list of Sears home locations.

As I helped my daughter do her research, I soon learned that most articles and websites simply mention the name of a town where a particular Sears house is located but do not mention street names or house numbers. When you're dealing with a dense, highly populated area like Chicago, a town name is essentially useless--a person could spend hours looking for a single house and not find it.

Sears, the company, had attempted to start a national list of Sears houses on its Sears Archives website (now abandoned). The meager list contained only one house from my immediate area and, as you might guess, the street address was not included so it didn't help me locate the house for my daughter's project. Frustrating.

At the time, there were a few detailed lists of homes. Elgin had paid for an architectural survey and published its list of kit houses online. The cities of Aurora and Blue Island had published brochures about where their kit houses were located. A resident of Park Ridge had launched a website about where the kit houses were in that town.

My daughter and I were able to cobble together enough photos for the exhibit (five houses). But the precise locations of most Sears homes in the Chicago area remained a mystery.

My sweet little third grader in front of a Sears Wilmore at 743 N. Pine in Arlington Heights. We used this photo as part of her history fair exhibit. 



The Birth of the Sears Homes of Chicagoland Website
I started a free website and posted the house photos that my daughter used in her history fair exhibit (and their specific addresses).Maybe the information would help someone else one day. 

As people started contacting me through the website about their kit homes in the Chicago area, I soon realized that I must start posting about more of these historic homes and make the addresses available. We live in a land of teardowns, and it’s important to know a house’s history before hitting it with a wrecking ball. 

My policy is that I do not include a house photo on my website without a specific address. (Homeowner names are another story; I include those only with permission.)

"The List"--the National Database of Sears Homes 
There were several other researchers throughout the country gathering addresses of Sears homes just like I was. We agreed that the addresses needed to be readily available and housed in one central location.

This group started the National Database of Sears Homes where we could enter the addresses of Sears houses in the United States as we discovered them. This official registry is just a simple spreadsheet, but it's better than nothing. It's slow going; as a volunteer I admit that I add only a couple houses a week.

This list contains about 17,000 of the Sears houses still in existence today. (Sears sold roughly 65,000 houses.) When I asked one researcher why no one had ever started a master list, the answer was, "There are just too many houses." You have to start somewhere!






Researching kit houses is no different from any other scientific discipline. Scientists must communicate their discoveries and results so that others may build on that work to extend knowledge. Additionally, openness about findings enables other investigators to challenge and verify results.

Looking Towards the Future
But there are still some kit house researchers who choose not to share specific addresses of houses they locate. What will happen to that research if something unforeseen happens? Poof... it's gone.





If you have information you would like to include in the National Database of Sears Homes, please email me.








February 17, 2015

Two Italian Families and their Neighboring Sears Houses

By the late 1920's 40 percent of first generation Italian immigrants were homeowners, and Sears Roebuck helped many of them realize the American dream. 

In the 1920's, mortgage loans were supplied by mortgage bankers and savings and loan companies. These lenders typically required 50% down and would provide a short-term interest-only loan of three to five years. When the loan matured, the borrower needed to pay the balance off in full or renegotiate another short-term loan. These second (or third or fourth) mortgages came with interest rates as high as 18%. 

The mortgage process was complicated and unpleasant, and it deterred many Americans from purchasing a home. Immigrants were particularly hard hit because they had to continually renegotiate their loans (often every year), and they experienced race and class discrimination from lenders.

Kit houses from Sears Roebuck already provided a big cost savings to consumers.  Around 1912 Sears began offering financing on their houses. They offered better interest rates, longer terms, and lower down payments than the traditional mortgage lenders. Sears normally required a down payment of about 33% and offered customers an amortized loan with 6 percent interest for five years or a higher interest rate for a loan up to 15 years. The loan application was submitted by mail and Sears did not ask for the applicant's race, ethnicity, or gender.


Payment plan offered by Sears in 1918.

By offering more favorable loan terms and a more equitable loan application process, Sears helped two Italian families in Highwood get homes of their own.

In the 1920's, Highwood was a working-class town filled with Italian immigrants. According to author Adria Bernardi, the influx of Italians into Highwood started around 1924. Highwood was, according to Bernardi, "a town of laborers amidst towns of industrial barons, presidents of banks, and chairmen of boards." The Italians worked as chauffeurs, gardeners, maids, and seamstresses to to the wealthy families in towns like Lake Forest, Glencoe, and Highland Park.

The Sears Rodessa at 117 Maple

117 Maple, Highwood.

 


The Sears Rodessa.

 


This Rodessa has been owned by the same family since its construction in the 1920's. Obviously there has been an addition off the left side.

The original owners were John Caringello and his wife, Rose. John worked as a truck driver for the Charles Fiore nursery, a company that employed many Italians in Highwood. John immigrated from the province of Bari in 1913.


The Sears Richmond at 109 Maple

109 Maple, Highwood.

 

The Sears Richmond, from the 1932 catalog.
This authenticated Sears Richmond was built in 1933, in the heart of the Great Depression. The architect was L. Cosby Bernard

The Richmond in Highwood has a stucco exterior, not wood siding. The side patio has been enclosed.

In its Modern Homes catalog, Sears says that, "The RIchmond, reminiscent of the beautiful Virginia home of the first Chief Justice of the U.S., reflects that good cheer and gracious dignity which made Southern hospitality famous." The description doesn't make any sense, and it's also historically inaccurate. The writer meant the Richmond is reminiscent of the house owned by the  fourth Chief Justice--John Marshall--who lived in Richmond, Virginia.

 

The John Marshall house. Photo courtesy of the The John Marshall Foundation.

 


 

The original owners of the Richmond in Highwood were Paul (formerly Paolo) and Rose Caringella (no relation to the Caringellos who lived next door). Paul worked as a construction worker and likely built the house himself.

Paul got a mortgage from Sears--I found it listed in the Lake County deed records. This means the Richmond is a genuine Sears house.


 




 





By 1949 the Caringellas had sold their house to another Italian family and moved to sunny California.





February 10, 2015

A Fresh Look at Sears Homes

Does the dreary, gloomy winter have you down? Brighten up your day with these cheery cottages from Sears. 

Image courtesy of Ray Witter.

Image courtesy of Ray Witter.


These are from a series of Sears home paintings created by artist Ray Witter. 

February 3, 2015

Let's Travel Back Through Time to See Some Sears Starlights

The Sears Starlight was sold for 21 years (1911-1932). The Starlight in 1911 was a small bungalow with no bathroom. Over the 21 years, the interior and exterior changed, but the nameplate remained the same. 

In 1933 the Starlight was renamed the Plymouth, and the same house under that name was sold for another five years.

Let's travel back and take a look at the Starlight over the years.