What Does This Sears House Have in Common with the "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre"?

63 Sunset, Glen Ellyn. A Colonial Bungalow with a formal, double-columned front porch, the Sears Crescent still appeals to today's buyers. 

Sears Crescent.

The Sears Crescent is the number one Sears house in Illinois by far. You can find one or more of these homes in almost every community, but one Crescent in Glen Ellyn hides a spooky secret in its basement.

The Sears Crescent came with two floor plans, and the one in Glen Ellyn was the larger one.

The door on the left leads to the basement stairs, and the doorway on the right leads to the kitchen (it originally had a swinging door). 

The kitchen area has been reconfigured to accommodate an eat-in area.

The front bedroom. 

The back bedroom now is a master suite with an attached bath. 

Photo courtesy of Katie Keeley.

There are a couple bedrooms upstairs. 

What the real estate photos did not show was the basement. Katie Keeley lived at 63 Sunset for a year, and sent me the following photos.

An oddly placed brick wall in the basement. According to Katie: "The brick wall in the basement was under the main floor fireplace, so we assumed it was part of that. But it was odd that there was no access to the chimney in the basement, despite all the brick there." What's behind that door on the right? Photo courtesy of Katie Keeley.

Oh. My. God. Katie wrote: "[The room] had metal hooks in the ceiling. There were no shelves or anything else in there. Just the one hanging light bulb. Spooky, right?"  Photo courtesy of Katie Keeley.

Closeup of the mysterious hooks, perfect for hanging… something. "My children were scared of this room," Katie wrote.  

This room gives The Texas Chain Saw Massacre vibes! 

Before we panic, let's consider a plausible explanation.

This creepy room could be a curing room rather than a place to murder people. In the early 20th century, curing rooms were used to preserve hams and other meats, salted and wrapped in cheesecloth, and hung from sturdy ceiling hooks.

There is evidence to support the curing room hypothesis. The original homeowner was Arthur F. Swanson, who took out a mortgage from Sears Roebuck in March 1925 for $6,100.

Arthur worked as an office clerk for Swift & Company stockyards in Chicago. A meat packing company! The hooks could very well have been part of a practical curing setup.

Of course, because Arthur is no longer around to ask, we'll never know for sure what the creepy room was used for, so draw your own conclusion. Happy Halloween!

For more Sears houses in Glen Ellyn, click here!

Copyright Disclaimer: All photographs in this post (unless otherwise noted) are from real estate aggregate Redfin.com and are used in this post for the purposes of education, consistent with 17 USC §107.