5.23.2006
good morning and sidebar comments
This is my first post before 9:00am. I just realized that I haven't posted anything in a while. I've been working on putting my "currently reading" list on the sidebar. I've also been trying to figure out how to enable comments on the sidebar, because I want to have comments under the reading list. I've googled and tried copying html from this template, but can't figure it out. Anybody got any ideas?
5.02.2006
detective emily
I've got a mystery to solve.
It's not news to me. I had heard a couple of times that some of the homes in the 100-year-old development that I live in were purchased from the Sears Catalog. But tonight, I took a friend whom I met in Mississippi around my neighborhood. She said that she had seen an episode of "History Detectives" on PBS in which they talked about the Sears homes in my neighborhood. Apparently, these homes were unique to Sears. The man who created the neighborhood initially didn't want to use catalog houses, but he eventually turned to Sears because of its high quality homes at cheap prices. But he used an architect out of New York to design them. Hence the uniqueness. Sears used these homes as the pictures for their catalogues. But you couldn't order the exact ones.
I learned today that Sears kit homes (especially the unique ones in my neighborhood) are rare, as only 75,000 were ever sold. They are collector's items.
Needless to say, it would be a nifty find to learn that my house is one of them.
I'm not sure how to find out, but I did find a potential puzzle piece on the Sears' Archives Web site. My house was built in 1925, so I looked up that year. Check out the house model "The Pittsburg." Click on the drawing of the house to see its floor plan. If you've seen my house, you'll see definite similarities. Triple dormer instead of double, and the upstairs is laid out differently, but all in all the same house down to the bay window in the dining room. I wish mine had the nice brick porch.
This is exciting! I'm not sure where to go from here.
It's not news to me. I had heard a couple of times that some of the homes in the 100-year-old development that I live in were purchased from the Sears Catalog. But tonight, I took a friend whom I met in Mississippi around my neighborhood. She said that she had seen an episode of "History Detectives" on PBS in which they talked about the Sears homes in my neighborhood. Apparently, these homes were unique to Sears. The man who created the neighborhood initially didn't want to use catalog houses, but he eventually turned to Sears because of its high quality homes at cheap prices. But he used an architect out of New York to design them. Hence the uniqueness. Sears used these homes as the pictures for their catalogues. But you couldn't order the exact ones.
I learned today that Sears kit homes (especially the unique ones in my neighborhood) are rare, as only 75,000 were ever sold. They are collector's items.
Needless to say, it would be a nifty find to learn that my house is one of them.
I'm not sure how to find out, but I did find a potential puzzle piece on the Sears' Archives Web site. My house was built in 1925, so I looked up that year. Check out the house model "The Pittsburg." Click on the drawing of the house to see its floor plan. If you've seen my house, you'll see definite similarities. Triple dormer instead of double, and the upstairs is laid out differently, but all in all the same house down to the bay window in the dining room. I wish mine had the nice brick porch.
This is exciting! I'm not sure where to go from here.
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