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.

128 1st St., Bloomingdale.  

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.

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.  

The Ardara floor plan. The house in Bloomingdale is reversed, which many Sears customers opted to do.

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.

 

That nook is the music room, according to the floor plan.   

 

 

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.  

The basement steps were moved in the remodel.  

The kitchen was enlarged.  

New family room.  

One of the upstairs bedrooms in the finished attic.  

Full finished basement too.   

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.

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