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.
3 comments:
I actually won a radio trivia question when I was about 18 that was, "What product did Sears sell in their catalog called 'the Craftsman' for $12,000 in 1935?" or something like that. I figured that if it cost that much back then, it had to be a house. I called in and won.
So, that's how I knew that Sears actually sold houses through their catalogs way back when.
OK, I looked at the website you referenced, and obviously my memory isn't very good. I couldn't find a house called "The Craftsman" (although there was a Crafton). Also, the prices were well below my $12,000 memory!
I'm pretty sure the house was called "The Craftsman" though!
I wasn't going to say anything. Glad you found that out on your own!
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