August 18, 2020

A Sears Ardara in Bloomingdale

How many Sears houses are in Bloomingdale?

We have located several through historic records, but all have been demolished. There is a Sears Starlight still standing on Bloomingdale Road.

I believe this might be a second Sears house in town--a Sears Ardara.

Sears Ardara @ Sears Homes of Chicagoland
128 1st St., Bloomingdale. Photo from Realtor site.


Sears Ardara @ Sears Homes of Chicagoland
Sears Ardara. The house is unmistakable with the arched portico with Doric columns and matching trellises. It gets much harder to identify when those features are removed.


Sears Ardara @ Sears Homes of Chicagoland
The side of the main house looks like a match. The dining room windows were replaced with a bay window. There is a large addition in the rear, and the second story is now finished living space. The six-room Colonial Bungalow is now a four-bedroom house with 2,600 square feet. Photo from Realtor site.


Sears Ardara @ Sears Homes of Chicagoland
The Ardara floor plan. The house in Bloomingdale is reversed.



Sears Ardara @ Sears Homes of Chicagoland
The interior view of the Ardara, from the 1923 Modern Homes catalog. The attached garage was offered standard with the house beginning in 1919, when there were only 7.5 million cars registered in the U.S.



Photo from Realtor site.


That nook is the music room, according to the floor plan.  Photo from Realtor site.


Photo from Realtor site.




Photo from Realtor site.



The bay window was a triple window originally. Those two doorways lead to a kitchen and a hallway, just as on the original floor plan. Photo from Realtor site.



The basement steps were moved in the remodel. Photo from Realtor site.



The kitchen was enlarged. Photo from Realtor site.


New family room. Photo from Realtor site.


One of the upstairs bedrooms in the finished attic. Photo from Realtor site.


Full finished basement too.  Photo from Realtor site.


The Ardara in Bloomingdale first shows up in the tax records in 1924. So it was likely built that year, possibly 1923. The original owners were Logan and Selda Reynolds.



1 comment:

Architectural Observer said...

The plan of this house is more innovative than many of the era... the "music room" is a nice feature and the attached garage is among the earliest I've seen. The trellises shown in the catalog illustration really added a lot of interest to an already-interesting facade!

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