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.

A Stately Sears Haverhill in Evanston

1010 Isabella, Evanston. Capture from Google Streetview.

Sears Haverhill.

The Sears Haverhill was sold from 1933 until 1940. Sears marketed the Haverhill as an economical Colonial. Considering the Haverhill was launched in 1933, the slowest year for residential building in decades, "economical" was the operative word.

This Haverhill in Evanston was built in late 1932/early 1933.

The dormers are original to the house as the attic was initially finished as a recreation room. The side porch was an option on many Sears models.

The current owners have enclosed this porch and made it a sunroom, but originally it looked like this. The railing is original from Sears.

The same railing seen in the catalog illustration for the Sears Jefferson house.

The front entrance was modeled after the one on "General Strong's home, which was built 'way back in the Revolutionary days," according to the Modern Homes catalog. I took this photo before the current owners purchased the house, and the house needed some sprucing up. 

The Haverhill front entrance as shown in the catalog illustration.

This appears to be an original light fixture.

These railings are original from Sears and can be found on other Sears models.

The Haverhill has an identical floor plan to the Sears Alden. However, the Haverhill exterior is brick, it has a fan-light entrance, and has more windows in the front.

A fireplace came standard with the Haverhill. (The Sears Modern Homes catalog called it "friendly.") The door goes out to the sun porch. Photo from Realtor site.

This kitchen photo was from when the house was sold. Those are original kitchen cabinets from Sears. Photo from Realtor site.

The first-floor half bath with pink tile! Photo from Realtor site.

Three bedrooms on the second floor, and two full baths. The master bedroom has a separate dressing room and two wardrobes.

The master bedroom. Photo from Realtor site.

The master bath with a walk-in shower, as indicated on the floor plan. Only a couple Sears models featured separate showers.

The original owners were Johannes and Grace Krawetz. Johannes received his undergraduate degree in chemistry from Northwestern University in 1923 and he stayed in the area. He was president of the Phoenix Chemical Laboratory.

Johannes and Grace purchased the lot in August 1932. Baby Arthur would be born in October, so they needed a home of their own.

The Krawetz's lived in the Haverhill for the rest of their lives. Johannes died in 1974 and Grace died in 1984.

Dr. Arthur Krawetz and his wife Sallie Posniak lived in the house following his parents' deaths. Like his father, Arthur also worked for Phoenix Chemical Laboratory.

Arthur died in 2015, and Sallie sold the Haverhill in 2016. The house was reported as a Sears house in the real estate listing.

A "Dandy" Sears Princeville in North Aurora

110 Oak St., North Aurora. Capture from Google Streetview.

 

The Sears Princeville, also known as the Sears No. 173.

I believe this to be a Sears Princeville in North Aurora. Technically, it would be a No. 173, since it was sold before Sears Roebuck named their houses, but we will refer to it as a Princeville for the sake of brevity and easier typing.

I know you are thinking right now: Girl, do you have eyes?! Let me just say that the previous owners believed this house to be a Princeville, and they may have some evidence to support that. Let's take a step back and take a look.

Obviously the biggest difference between the catalog illustration and the actual house is the second floor. The original dormers have been removed and the second floor expanded.  

The three piers on the front porch are still there, with original trim. One of the distinguishing features of the Princeville is the square bay window off of the stairwell.

You can see the squared bay window from the front. The house required a 35-foot wide lot, which meant few people in the city of Chicago could build one. Photo from Realtor site.

The Princeville came standard with cypress wood siding. Photo from Realtor site.

 

The Princeville was about 1,200 square feet. It had large living and dining rooms, and a kitchen with a separate walk-in pantry.

A fireplace was not standard with the Princeville. Photo from Realtor site.

There are triple windows facing the front. Photo from Realtor site.

The Princeville has a second set of triple windows in the living room. There once was a colonnade opening to the dining room, which came standard. Photo from Realtor site.

An office was added off the dining room where there once was a window seat. The decorative windows face the rear yard. Photo from Realtor site.

An original door leads to the backyard. Photo from Realtor site.

That is the door to the basement. Note the inset for the original chimney in the left corner as designated in the floor plan.

 

The walk-in pantry. This was a luxury feature in a small bungalow. Photo from Realtor site.

If you walk up the stairs, you come to the box window with the window seat. Photo from Realtor site.

The three bedrooms were small. When the house in North Aurora was expanded, the owners squared off the second floor. This allowed for the bedrooms to be more spacious.  

The door on the right is a hall closet and the other door leads to the front bedroom. Even with the expansion of the second story, the layout did not change here. Photo from Realtor site.

Photo from Realtor site.

The house still has three bedrooms. The ceilings were originally eight feet, but now they have been raised in parts. Photo from Realtor site.

A Pittsburgh toilet is a lonely basement toilet installed in the middle of unfinished basements. I have never seen one in real life other than the one in my grandma's basement in Pittsburgh. Photo from Realtor site.

Dr. Cyrus H. Cutter bought the lot in May 1913. He appears to have paid cash for the house. Cutter was a physician. 

Mooseheart is a residential child care facility near North Aurora. 

Cyrus died in 1934, and his wife, Hattie, died in 1942. In 1946, the Cutter estate sold the house to James H. Voss, who became the mayor of North Aurora a few years later in 1955.