Wardway Homes in Richland County

In my last post, I showed several homes from Sears, Roebuck that I located from mortgage record research in Richland County, Ohio.

Sears offered financing on their house kits from about 1912 until 1933, but they weren’t the only company to offer payment plans.

Montgomery Ward followed Sears, Roebuck into the houses by mail business, then followed them into the mortgage end of things. Here’s the details on “Ward’s” mortgage program from their 1930 Wardway Homes catalog.

I am always happy, and slightly distressed, when I come across a mortgage record from Montgomery Ward, which were recorded under the name Thomas P. Riordan, Ward’s Trustee.

I am happy because I don’t see a lot of Wardway mortgages in my part of Ohio, and distressed because since I don’t see many of them, I am not great at identifying the models!

Thankfully, there is a published book that researchers can turn to to help us out.

“Montgomery Ward’s Mail-Order Homes” – A History and Field Guide to Wardway Homes by Rosemary Thornton and Dale Patrick Wolicki was published in 2010. It’s a little hard to find right now, as it is out of print, but if you want, do a search on Ebay and you are likely to find one.

In Richland County, there were eleven recorded mortgages under the name Thomas P. Riordan, giving me eleven opportunities to locate and identify Wardway Homes.

Right?

Well, folks, in this house research game, it’s not that simple.

This is where the surprises I mentioned in my last post come in, even though at this point, it shouldn’t be a surprise what turns up when we track down a Montgomery Ward mortgage.

It all started back in 2012, when Rose Thornton, one of the Authors of the book mentioned above, got notice that a Sears kit house in Bowling Green, Ohio was going to be torn down. It was a Sears Lewiston model.

Or was it?

Popular Culture building at Bowling Green State University, Ohio ( now demolished). My photo. I went to see it about a week before it was torn down.

Well, it’s a long story, but I’ll make it as short as I can here. The house, a spot on match for the Sears Lewiston, was actually purchased from Montgomery Ward.

Rose did several posts about the house on her website. Here’s a link to the first one, if you have any interest, and you can do a search on her site for the other posts.

https://searshomes.org/index.php/2012/07/27/sears-house-to-be-razed-by-bowling-green-state-university-ohio

What does this have to do with Richland County? Well, you might have figured it out already. Like the Bowling Green example, several of the Riordan mortgages actually led me to homes that matched houses sold by Sears, Roebuck, not Montgomery Ward! I have also found this to be the case in a few other areas of Ohio, including one right here in Springfield, my hometown. Crazy, huh? Those houses will be in another blog post, so I’ll save them, and just show you some of the houses that I identified with Montgomery Ward mortgages in Richland County.

First, a Wardway Salem, a model that is a match to one in the Wardway Homes catalog, but also matches a house offered by Sears, The Puritan. CONFUSING! These competing models are why it is so hard to positively identify kit houses just using a street survey. But, hey, we all do it. We just hope eventually, something comes up that confirms our finds. Now we know this one is the Wardway model.

Wardway Salem, 10 E Jefferson Ave., Shelby, Ohio. Documented with a mortgage record dated 7/24/1927. Built reversed from the catalog image, and has a different front entry. Photo from the Richland County Auditor website.

Another Thomas P. Riordan mortgage I found is also a model from the Wardway Homes catalog.

Wardway Dover, 575 Acker Dr., Mansfield, Ohio. Documented with a mortgage record dated 6/19/1930. Front porch roof extended. Photo from Richland County Auditor website.

After tracking down a Wardway Plaza and a Wardway Warner, both houses needing attention so I won’t show them here, I located a Wardway Barcelona!

Well……..it started out as a Barcelona, but time hasn’t been kind to the exterior details.

Wardway Barcelona, 862 Forest Dr., Mansfield, Ohio. Documented with a mortgage record dated 10/10/1930. Photo from Richland County Auditor website.

You know, I get it. The Barcelona was planned for a stucco exterior, and when stucco gets damaged, it is difficult and expensive to repair. So an owner had to make a decision somewhere along the line, and on goes the vinyl siding.

Sigh…….

Another Wardway model that causes a lot of confusion among researchers is the Mount Vernon, which was renamed the Mayflower in 1929. This design was very common in the late 1920’s and early 1930’s and there are a lot of “look-a-likes” for it. Thankfully, this home had a mortgage record, so we are sure it’s the real thing.

The Wardway Mount Vernon/Mayflower was offered in two floor plans, and had a companion model, The Priscilla/Potomac which was smaller than the Mount Vernon/Mayflower. More confusion!

Wardway Mayflower, 949 Country Club Dr., Mansfield Ohio. Documented with a mortgage record dated 12/3/1930.

from the 1930 Wardway Homes catalog

Now comes the fun stuff! Montgomery Ward mortgage records, but houses that match models sold by Sears, Roebuck. Maybe someday we will find out why this was happening, but for now, we are just guessing.

The first one, unfortunately, has been demolished, but can still be seen in older online views, and on the Auditor’s website.

Sears Jeanette, approx. 376 Third Ave., Mansfield Ohio. Had a mortgage through Montgomery Ward dated 11/13/1930. Photo from Richland County Auditor website.

I am quite familiar with this design, as I owned and lived in this model myself! The one in Mansfield looks like it doesn’t have as much room in the attic as what Sears offered. You couldn’t get there anyway, as there was only a small access panel over the basement stairway.

There were two mortgages that led to what matches the Sears Jewel model. The name changed on this one too, being The Jewell in 1930, then later it was called The Wilmore. I am calling both of these The Jewel, as that is how Sears offered it in 1931, the year of both the Montgomery Ward mortgages.

Sears Jewel, 818 Forest Dr., Mansfield Ohio. This house had a mortgage through Montgomery Ward dated 3/7/1931. Photo from Richland County Auditor website.

Sears Jewel, 513 Clifton Blvd., Mansfield Ohio. This house had a mortgage through Montgomery Ward dated 8/23/1931. Photo from Richland County Auditor website.

This model is the same one that I have a Ward’s mortgage for here in my hometown of Springfield.

I also located a Sears Somers model from a Montgomery Ward mortgage, but the house also needs some attention so I won’t show it here.

Working mortgage records always teaches me something new about these Houses by Mail that I love so much. Hopefully I will find another project soon.

Thanks for following along!

Sears Houses in Richland County

Every Winter, after the busy Holiday Season, I make an attempt to find newly digitized records that will lead to train loads of Sears Houses. 

Some Winters I find them. Some not. Over the years I’ve found records in Ohio and Pennsylvania and New York that led to lots of new houses for our growing list of Sears Homes across the United States.

This year, I stumbled across mortgage record index books for Richland County, right here in Ohio! For those of you that aren’t familiar, the Richland County seat is Mansfield, which is about halfway between Columbus and Cleveland off I-71. 

Since mortgage records are my favorite way to track down Sears Houses, finding those index books on their County Recorder’s website was a like a late Christmas gift.

It took a couple of weeks to go through all the books since they were indexed by the borrower, not the lender, but that’s OK. It was fortunate that the dates for the books were almost exactly what I needed to research for Sears, Roebuck mortgages, which were offered from about 1912 to 1934. The Richland County books covered 1914 to 1935, so there weren’t a lot of pages I didn’t need to review, which can really slow down the whole process.

And…….you could actually read the handwriting! That doesn’t happen all the time.

In Ohio, the mortgages from Sears, Roebuck were recorded under the names of their Trustees, which were Walker O. Lewis from 1912 until late 1929, then E. Harrison Powell, from 1929 until Sears ended mortgages about 1933. We have found a few mortgages that were recorded in 1934, but those are pretty rare. In other states, we find different Trustees. We have a good idea where the boundaries were for the different Trustees, but we do find some overlap.

For Richland County, the oldest recorded mortgage I was able to find was dated April 24, 1919, and the last recorded mortgage was dated Oct 21, 1933. There were 60 recorded mortgages, but a few of them were “Junior mortgages” which is what we call a second mortgage today, and a few were mortgages that were refinanced by Sears at a later date than the original. This happened occasionally when people took one of the short term mortgages Sears offered, usually a 5 year note with a balloon payment at the end. If you couldn’t manage that last large payment, Sears would help you out by refinancing the balance due.

Of the 60 recorded mortgages, I was able to identify 33 homes that matched models that Sears offered in their Modern Homes catalogs. 11 had been demolished over the years, due to road expansions, general commercial development, and a few just due to neglect by owners. Some of the houses I identified we already had on our Master List of Sears Homes across the United States, but many were new, which makes the whole mortgage research project really fun! And of the ones we already had spotted, it is always good to be able to document them.

Like this wonderful example of a Sears Ashland in Shelby, Ohio, a small city northwest of Mansfield.

Sears Ashland, 107 Mansfield Ave., Shelby, Ohio – originally financed through Sears in the amount of $5,550 in 1927. (Photo from Google Maps)

Next door to this Ashland is what appears to be a Sears Dover model, but I didn’t find a recorded mortgage for that home.

Side by side Sears Houses in Shelby, Ohio.

One of the questions that comes up a lot when I give presentations, is “Did Sears sell brick houses?” The answer is yes! At least, they sold ones with a brick facade. The framing would still be lumber, usually cut to the correct lengths at a Sears owned lumber mill, but the finish brick would have been purchased locally.

Here is a brick version of the Sears Barrington that had recorded mortgages of $7200 in 1928.

Sears Barrington finished in brick. 1140 Lexington Ave., Mansfield, Ohio ( photo from Google Maps )

Researchers can easily get confused about this style of home, as not only did Sears sell it, but several of the other kit house companies did too, with minor differences. That’s why documenting is so important.

Another reason why doing mortgage research is a great way for me to find houses, is because even after 15 years, I will still drive right by some models and not recognize them as being from Sears.

Like this Sears Estes, one of the “Standard Built” designs, which were more economical because they required less lumber. The Estes didn’t even have a bathroom! Sears did sell a kit for an outhouse as well. I’m sure the addition on the back has allowed for a modern bathroom now.

Sears Estes, 870 Lenox Ave., Mansfield, Ohio. Originally mortgaged through Sears, Roebuck for $1200 in 1928. (Photo from Richland County Auditor website)

One thing that always makes my heart happy is when local Historical groups have interest in their Sears Houses. The Richland County Historical Society not only is interested, and cares about these houses, they own one!

Sears Fullerton, 334 Oak Hill Pl., Mansfield, Ohio, owned by the Richland County Historical Society. Originally mortgaged through Sears, Roebuck for $3500 in 1924. It’s turning 100 this year! This Fullerton was built reversed from the catalog listing, an option Sears offered at no charge for most models. Note the plaque on the left side porch pillar detailing the house history.

The house below looks a lot like the Sears Fullerton. In fact, for many years, I wasn’t even aware that an alternate floor plan for a different Sears model so closely resembled it. Now, I try to remember that the Sears Gladstone had a second floor plan that was never pictured in the catalogs, but did have a floor plan illustration showing the window and door placement.

Here’s a Sears Gladstone ( B plan ) that was originally mortgaged through Sears for $4400 in 1929.

Sears Gladstone ( B plan ), 520 Wood St., Mansfield, Ohio

The largest dollar amount I found in the Richland County mortgages was for a house we already knew about. In fact it was a model home and well advertised in the Mansfield News on Dec. 18, 1930.

The house was mortgaged through Sears, Roebuck for $13,000 on June 10, 1930.

This photo image of the house from the 2012 Google Maps street view shows the house in good repair, but unfortunately the last few years it has deteriorated and needs a lot of attention now. I hope it isn’t too late for this customized Sears Glen Falls.

Sears Glen Falls, 55 Wellington Ave., Mansfield, Ohio. ( Photo from 2012 Google Maps street view )

The last Sears mortgage in Richland County I found, dated Oct. 21, 1933 was a bit of a puzzle when I located it using the legal description then found the address.

893 Park Ave., West, Mansfield, Ohio.

What the heck was this? I started to think it was a Custom designed house that was never offered in the catalogs, until I checked the side view.

Ha! Now I’ve got it! The house is on a corner lot, and while the address is for Park Ave., West, the house actually faces the side street, Glenbeck Ln. Another instance of the house being built reversed from the catalog listing.

Sears Richmond, 893 Park Ave., West, Mansfield, Ohio.

The Richmond had a bay window off the back of the house in the Dining Room, and that feature can be seen in the Park Ave. view of the house, even though it does have an addition next to it now.

This is just a small sampling of the Sears Houses in the Mansfield area. Working on the mortgage records for Richland County led to some interesting homes, and a few additional surprises, which I will share soon.

Thanks for following along.

Reviewing a few houses

So many houses….so little time.

I’ve only really featured a small percentage of the Sears Houses I have seen in person here on this little blog. Since I’m in Ohio, the Heart of it All and the Heart of Sears Houses, I can’t go too many places around my area without seeing one, or two, or a dozen, depending on where I go. 

So when life takes me out and about on an errand, I always try to glance over at houses I already know about. Once in a while, if I am near one, I will purposely go a block or so out of my way to do a drive by. Yeah…..it’s kind of like stalking.

This past year, I’ve had a few pleasant surprises. Since the real estate market is good, several houses near me have changed owners and have had much needed improvements made. A couple have had updates made by long time owners as well. 

Here’s a few that I have blogged about previously that have made me smile in 2023. I hope they make you smile, too.

This Sears Westly was included in a blog post I did about Westly models in Ohio on Feb 15, 2016. It was one I located from mortgage records in Clark County way back when I first started researching Sears Houses. 

This Sears Westly is located on old St Rt 70, not far outside the Springfield, Ohio city limits, but it’s a road I don’t travel very often. It’s been in sad shape since ever since I have known about it.

Here’s what it looked like a while back when I did go past it. I was stunned! Work was still in progress, so I’ll need to check on it again in the Spring. 

My photo, from late in 2022 actually.

Google Maps photo from Aug of 2023

In June of 2022, I blogged about a very sad Sears Langston model in Urbana, Ohio. I located it from a real estate listing, and couldn’t believe I had missed locating it since I thought I had driven all over Urbana through the years. Urbana is the next town north of where I live. 

Here’s what it looked like when it was for sale in 2022. Pretty much original, but pretty much worn out.

Here is my photo from Feb of 2023. Hooray! Another one I will check on again this Spring.

Another house I blogged about in July of 2022, was a kit home from Gordon – Van Tine, a competitor of Sears, Roebuck in the mail order home business. It also was for sale when I blogged about it. It is located in Richmond, Indiana, which is only about an hour away from me if traffic on I-70 is OK. 

Here’s my photo from when it was for sale. It also needed a lot of love.

And my, oh my, it got a lot of love, and a wonderful new owner, who I stopped and talked to in November of 2023. 

Here are a few of the owners “before” restoration photos. 

And…….after getting all that love. What a beauty! 

Another company that sold houses as kits through mail order catalogs was the Aladdin Company of Bay City, Michigan. Fortunately, the sales records for that company were donated to the Clarke Historical Library in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan when the company closed in the 1980’s and you can go there to do research. I did, years ago, and was able to locate quite a few Aladdin Homes in my general area. 

One was a Pomona model in the Village of Alpha, which neighbors Beavercreek. There are several kit homes in Alpha, and I do try to drive by them occasionally, since I am in that area quite a bit.

I love the Pomona model. It’s probably my favorite design from Aladdin, so I was really happy when I found out this one has been undergoing a LOT of restoration by the long term owners. 

I blogged about this house in March of 2016, but this photo predates my blogging days and is from March of 2013.

Since the house was white with white trim, it was hard to see the original brackets, which are unique and are seen on several Aladdin models. That’s been changed!

Here are some of the owner’s photos taken during restoration. 

The brackets were in bad shape, but have now all been rebuilt by the owners.

The diamond paned windows were also hard to see since the grilles were painted dark red. The owners removed the windows, made repairs, and painted the grilles white, so they now stand out. What a job!

In the owners own words!

A few more of work in progress.

Here’s the front door. Wow!

What an absolutely beautiful restoration.

Putting this blog post together made me smile on this dreary Winter day in Ohio. I hope it put a little brightness in your life, too.

My thanks to Luana and Cait for supplying photos of the restorations of their homes. 

And my thanks to all of you who follow this little blog. 

2023 – the year in review

Well, here it is 2024 already. The New Year and once again I didn’t achieve my goal of posting at least once a month in 2023. For the last week or so, I have been seeing all kinds of top 5, or top 10, things for the year. Photos, movies, newspaper stories, cars, stocks…….the lists go on and on. Those lists made me want to have a look at my top 5 on this little blog. 

Ha, Ha!

I didn’t even have 5 posts in 2023. Only 3. So obviously I can’t share my top 5. But what I can do, is have a look at the posts that had the most views in 2023, going all the way back to when I started this website in 2015.

I was pretty sure I knew which of my older posts would be number 1, since it has had views consistently since I first posted it, but I was wrong!

What I discovered when I checked on my stats for the year, was that a couple of my older posts must have gotten shared somewhere in social media land, and had a bunch of views. And….since I only had 3 posts in 2023, I am only going to do a top 3 list. 

#1 ) The post that had the most views here in 2023 was one I did on September 23, 2021. That post was full of houses in Lima, Ohio. Here’s the link.

Some “Sears Houses” in Lima

What I like about Lima is that is has documented kit homes from companies besides Sears, Roebuck, including Aladdin Homes and Bennett Homes. I’m sure there are more to be found there.

#2 ) The post with the second largest number of views here in 2023 was one I did on July 1, 2016. It’s all about the great selection of houses in the Pleasant Ridge neighborhood of Cincinnati. Here’s the link.

The Sears Houses of Pleasant Ridge (Cincinnati)

Since it’s been so many years since I took those photos, I really need to go back down that way and see what kind of updates there have been recently. 

#3 ) Coming in third for the number of views in 2023 was the post I thought would be number 1. This post has been number one in views every year here since I first published it on Sept. 29, 2015. It’s that amazingly original Sears Vallonia in Springdale. Here’s the link.

A Sears Vallonia in Springdale (Cincinnati)

I have often wondered why this post has had so many visitors over the years. I think it must be that the Vallonia was probably the most popular Sears model and there are train loads of them out there, so people Google this model more often than others and end up on my blog. 

I did check on this house recently, in October, and took updated photos. Don’t worry! It’s still original. Here’s my newest photo of it. 

Once again, I thank those of you who follow this little blog, and I really will try to share houses more frequently.

Happy New Year!

A Sears Avondale in Hamilton

I can’t believe Summer is almost over and I haven’t been out and about looking for Sears Houses in Ohio! It IS still Summer though, according to my real calendar, even though most of us equate Summer ending with Back to School, Labor Day and the start of football, all of which have already happened.

I thought I would have a lot of time for this little hobby of mine after we retired, but life challenges got in the way, and I’ve had less time, along with waning interest.

But now, I have to get motivated, because I was asked, long ago, to do a short Presentation about Sears Houses in Butler County, and it’s coming up!

So after spending some time reviewing our list for houses that were already located, and re-checking my spreadsheet of mortgage records for Butler County, hubby and took a drive down to Hamilton to find the place where I would be speaking soon. Of course, I also wanted to check out a few of the houses I was going to show off in my Presentation while we were there.

The first house I wanted to stop and see was a Sears Avondale that apparently I located some time ago, but I don’t remember when. It must have been from Google driving because once we got to the street, Maple Ave., I was sure I hadn’t been there “for real” before, either by myself, or with other members of my research group.

The reason I wanted to see this house in person was because it was partially hidden by trees on Google Maps and I wanted to get my own photos of it from the sidewalk.

As an aside, I do want to mention that years ago, I was told by one of the original researchers of Sears Houses, Rosemary Thornton, to always check out streets with tree names because you were likely to find them there, as they were in older neighborhoods. I, myself, haven’t found that to always be true, but I still look anyway.

In this case, it was true! Thanks, Rose.

Another reason I wanted to see this house in person was because during my review of already located Sears Houses in Butler County, I came across an older real estate listing for it, which turned it from being a “probable” house from Sears, to a “definite”.

First, here’s the catalog listing for the Avondale.

Sears had a pretty detailed description of the Main Floor in the catalog.

Here’s some photos from the real estate listing that document several of those details.

1. brick fireplace with seats on both sides – check
2. colored leaded art glass sash over each seat – check
3. arch opening with four massive columns and balustrades – check

Photo from MLS listing

4. Craftsman oak buffet with plate glass mirror – check

Photo from MLS listing

Now you might say that lots of old style bungalows from the early 1900’s had those types of features, and you would be right, but…..I was able to match up the art glass window to one that was offered in the early Sears Building Materials catalog.

It’s a beauty, and this home has lots of them!

Photo from MLS listing

And here is the Craftsman oak buffet. Both the Art Glass windows and the buffet catalog images are from the 1912 Building Materials catalog.

The Sears Avondale was offered for quite a few years, from 1911 until 1922, according to Houses by Mail, the field guide for Sears Houses published by the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 1986.

I always want to know what year a house was built after it is located, and when I went looking for that I discovered that Butler County has added some older real estate records to their Recorder’s Website. Using those I was able to pinpoint the year of build……..because the house was originally financed through Sears, Roebuck!

Walker O Lewis was the Trustee for Sears that signed mortgages that were issued, and this record is for the parcel that the Avondale was built on. The mortgage was issued on July 21, 1919 and construction usually started immediately with Sears Houses, but I’m not sure if that was the case with this one. Jacob Waldvogel, who got the original mortgage, wasn’t living in the house in the 1920 Census or the 1921 City Directory. I did finally find him living there in the 1923 Directory and he was listed as a Carpenter, so that might mean he built this beautifully detailed home himself!

How cool is that?

Jacob was listed as a machinist in the 1930 Census, living in the home with his wife, daughter and father- in- law. All three adults were immigrants. I have seen many Sears mortgages written to immigrants and women, something that local banks weren’t always willing to do.

The Waldvogel family retained ownership of the home until 1986, when Jacob’s daughter, Adele, sold it.

The MLS listing I found for the house was from 2020, and comparing my current photos with the ones taken by the Realtor then, I am sure the house has a great new owner. The wide front porch has loads of hanging baskets and flower pots, and I was given permission by the owner’s family to get a few photos of the house. My thanks.

Sears Avondale on Maple Ave., in Hamilton, Ohio

I consider these short triple pillars the signature of a Sears Avondale. The ones on this house are in great condition.

Here’s a couple more photos from the 2020 MLS listing that show off the beautiful woodwork in the home.

Photo from MLS listing

Photo from MLS listing

And of course, since it’s Ohio, the Heart of it All and the Heart of Sears Houses, I spotted a Sears Somerset just about across the street from the Avondale, that we didn’t have on our list.

Sears Somerset on Maple Ave. in Hamilton, Ohio

I also got photos of a Sears Lebanon, that we already knew about, also on Maple Ave.

Sears Lebanon on Maple Ave., in Hamilton , Ohio

I could go on…… but I won’t. You’ll just have to check back occasionally and see if I have posted anything new. And as we all know by now, that isn’t happening very often!

Thanks for following along.

Could it be? The No. 123….. in Sharonville?

Way back in the beginning……the beginning of my crazy hunt for houses purchased as kits from Sears Roebuck, I found a tidbit in one of the early Modern Homes catalog about there being a Sears model No. 123 being built in my hometown of Springfield (Ohio).

The No. 123 is a pretty distinctive design, and as far as Dutch Colonial style homes go, it’s pretty large.

Here’s the catalog image from the 1914 catalog.

You would think it would be pretty easy to spot on a street survey, but actually there a lot of plan book designs that are similar, so you have to really stop and take a close look at a house to be sure it has all the correct details. I know this, because I drove around Springfield for a couple of years, and reviewed a LOT of large Dutch Colonial homes around town, before I finally stumbled across the real deal one on an errand in a part of town I rarely went to.

It was a perfect match!

Sears No. 123 in Springfield, Ohio

Here’s the floor plan sketch that was shown in the 1914 catalog, that lists the other cities where this model had already been built.

For those of you that don’t know, Sharonville is in the northern part of Hamilton County, which is the heart of Sears Houses in Ohio. You know…..Cincinnati. And Sharonville is really not a large area geographically, so it should have been no problem to drive around and spot this house.

Right?

Wrong!

Over the past 15 years (yeah, I’ve been at it about that long now), myself and a couple other avid Sears House Hunters have driven around Sharonville, for real and virtually, with no luck. We had pretty much given up hope, figuring it had been torn down somewhere along the way.

Then a couple years ago, right before the whole COVID thing started, I got an inquiry from a homeowner about a house in Sharonville. The owner had found a mailing label from Sears, Roebuck on a trim board on the inside of an upstairs bedroom closet and started doing some research about it. We emailed back and forth a bit, and I got an invite to tour the home and see what was what.

Well, the house was one I was aware of, because it was one of those large Dutch Colonial style homes that I had looked at, more than once, to see if it matched the No. 123, but it didn’t. And since there was an identical house almost directly across the street from it, I assumed it was a local design or from a plan book of the time.

Here’s the mailing label. It’s a little hard to make out the details, but it states it is an order of S R & Co., shipping to Sharonville OH. The address on the left confirms it a Sears mailing label as 925 Homan Ave., was their address of record at the time.

My planned visit didn’t happen in March of 2020. We all remember the stay at home orders that came out right about that time, but I reconnected with the owner recently, and a few weeks ago I finally got to check out an amazing, lovingly cared for home.

Probable No. 123 that Sears said was built in Sharonville, Ohio.

OK, so there are a lot of differences from the No. 123 as it was shown in the catalog. Lots. But, there are a lot of things that are right, too. Here’s what I think might have happened.

The original owner, who was going to build a house, bought the plans from Sears.

Send them $1.00 and you are going to get the plans. If you then buy millwork, you get the $1.00 credited towards your order.

Now that the home buyer/builder has the plans, he figures out that the house ( No. 123 ) is too big for the lot he owns. Remember, this is a BIG house. While the 27 foot width was OK, the 41 foot depth was a problem.

I couldn’t find an occupation for the original owner in census records, but he did develop a small portion of Sharonville, so he must have had access to local builders. What could they do to make the house work.

Here’s what I could see from my complete interior inspection of the house.

See if this makes sense to you. It does to me, but I’m no architect.

In the Reception Hall, the front closet was omitted. That area is open to the room with a window at the base of the stairs and a window seat in the corner. There is no closet under the stairs as that is where the stairs to the basement are located.

In the Living Room the fireplace was moved to the outside wall. There are double pocket doors where the fireplace is shown in the catalog sketch.

The first floor bedroom probably was a bedroom originally, based on the fact that the original floors in that space were pine. Oak was used in the Living Room. That first floor bedroom is now the Dining Room. The flooring has been replaced in both the Living Room and current Dining Room due to bad things happening to them over the years.

The Dining Room from the original floor plan is the kitchen. There is no side bay window in the kitchen and the basement stairs are accessed from that room.

The entire back portion of the house, about 14 feet, that would have been the kitchen, pantry, back entry and rear stairs, were omitted. This would have severely changed the roof line of the house, which would account for there not being the bay window, the overhanging extension, and dormer on the right side of the exterior of the house.

On the second floor, the room arrangement is pretty much correct, with, again, the back bedroom and rear stairs portion of the house omitted. The bedroom and bathroom on the left side are swapped, and the wall between them moved forward. This may have been needed for stability due to the roof line change.

I know all that seems crazy, but if you had the plans and a local architect and builder to assist, I think it could be done. The house in question was started in 1912, and at that point in the sales of Sears Modern Homes, you were just getting lengths of lumber for the framing, not the pre-cut sections that were provided just a few years later. The year of build also works for this to be one mentioned in the Sears catalogs, as the first year it was listed was 1913.

So what else do we know was purchased from Sears, Roebuck besides the trim boards in the upstairs closet?

The stairway. It’s the exact same one as the one in the No. 123 here in Springfield.

Stairway in the Sears No. 123 in Springfield, Ohio

Stairway in the modified Sears No. 123 in Sharonville. Note that the one in Springfield has a different newel (starting) post. Those were options when you purchased the stairway assembly.

Here is close up of the scroll work on the stairway stringer. Both houses have this design.

The house also has amazing original doors and woodwork, and some built in cabinets, but it’s hard to say for sure they were purchased from Sears, since the designs were common for the time period. I am just assuming they were since there was a Sears label on one of the trim boards.

Our other solid connection to Sears building materials comes from the house across the street that is the same design. From a recent real estate listing, I determined it has the same layout of rooms, the same stairway, and a stained glass window that matches one of the many lovely styles in the Sears catalog.

photo from real estate listing

We may never know the whole story of what happened to the No. 123 model that Sears said was built in Sharonville, but I’m going with THIS IS IT! How would Sears ever know that the buyer didn’t actually build the No. 123 if he bought the plans, then building materials. And if this is actually what happened, there may be other houses out there that we’ve been looking for, that were never built according to the plans.

My research group will continue to look though, because that’s what we do!

Some day, maybe soon, I will tell you a story about Anderson, Indiana. It will be a long story, too.

Thanks for following along!

A Sears Richmond in Upper Arlington

Over the Winter months I usually try to go back through some of my old mortgage research spreadsheets to see what I wasn’t able to locate the first time around. With new records being digitized regularly, sometimes I can find a house after an additional search several years later.

Last week I had a look at my old research documents from Franklin County. There weren’t a whole lot of missing houses, since that county has deed records available for the “Sears Years” on their Recorder’s website, which resulted in exceptional results from the mortgage records I was given access to several years ago in their office.

But since there were a few missing pieces to the Sears puzzle in the Columbus area, I hopped onto their Recorder’s website and did another search for the Sears Trustees for that area.

Boy, am I glad I did!

Franklin County had uploaded some new records which enabled me to locate several more homes with Sears mortgages that I didn’t already have on my original spreadsheet.

And one of those was a Sears Richmond model, a rare one in the Sears Modern Home world. To date there were only two on our Master List of Sears Homes in the United States, both in Illinois, which were located by Lara of Sears Homes of Chicagoland.

http://www.sears-homes.com/

Now Ohio has one as well! And it’s a nice one!

The Sears Richmond was only offered for two years, to my knowledge, in the Sears Modern Homes catalogs. 1932 and 1933.

Here’s the information on the model from the 1932 catalog.

In 1932, Sears gave some very nice descriptions of their homes, in just a few paragraphs.

Below is the floor plan, which really gives you the feel of the home based on the description above. I can just “see” the garden out back, beyond the bay window in the dining room.

Here’s how I located the one in Upper Arlington. I compare mortgage record research to a pick a path book, as sometimes you get where you are supposed to be quickly and sometimes you have to back track and do it all over again. This one was actually pretty easy.

Franklin County now has mortgage release records (not the actual mortgages ), but those are great starts to picking the right path.

Above is the release of the mortgage held by Sears, Roebuck for a parcel owned by John H. and Dorothy H. Garland. The mortgage was written on May 3, 1932, and released on Sept. 27, 1939.

Next I searched for a deed record for John H. Garland, recorded shortly before the mortgage was issued, figuring if you were going to build a new house, you would have to buy the lot first. Found it!

Next, I pulled up the Plat Map for Guilford Place. Those are also available on the Franklin County Recorder’s website. It takes a bit of back and forth, sometimes, between the Plat Map and Google Maps, to figure out exactly where the parcel is, in this case, lot number 37, especially since I’m not really that familiar with Columbus area neighborhoods. But I got it. And the Auditor’s website confirmed the address after I figured it out, as the tax card lists the Plat and Lot number.

I told you it was like Pick a Path!

The Auditor also has some great photos of houses to go along with the tax information. Below is one from 2014. They have a newer one, but there is a car in the driveway, so this one shows more of the house. It’s a great match. There has been an addition added onto the back and the side porch enclosed since the home was built in 1932.

I really like the look of this house, and the floor plan, too. Lara from Chicagoland thinks the style of the home was already outdated by the time Sears offered it, and it didn’t sell well, which would explain why we haven’t found many. Still, there are probably more out there. Somewhere…….

I did do a little research on the couple who built this house. It’s amazing how you can track people from old newspapers with a little practice. Especially if they are the kind of people who made the business and social sections. This couple did!

John H. Garland first showed up in my newspaper research in 1928, when a small item stated he had recently completed his 2nd year at the University of Chicago. ( Later research would show he was there working on his Master’s Degree. ) In September of 1929, he was appointed to be an Instructor of Geography at The Ohio State University. In August of 1930, he moved to Pullman, Washington to be an Instructor at Washington State College. In May of 1931, he got a leave of absence from his position at Washington State. A couple weeks later, on June 19, he left for a trip to Europe with twelve members of his class from the University of Chicago. On August 7, 1931, his engagement to Dorothy Hutchinson was announced. The wedding was to take place on August 22. John H. returned from his trip to Europe on August 19, only three days before the wedding!

It was quite a wedding.

These articles say John H. was an instructor back at Ohio State, and indeed further articles confirmed he was heading back to the Columbus area.

Since he was married and had a good job, now was the time to build his new home, purchased as a kit and financed through Sears, Roebuck.

The Garland’s lived in their Sears Richmond until Sept of 1939, when John J. took another teaching position in Cleveland at Western Reserve University.

I was able to find a couple of pictures of him in the Cleveland Plain Dealer from his years there.

This is just one example of how much fun my research team members have tracking down these houses from Sears, Roebuck and from some of the other kit house companies.

I know. We’re nuts! But thank God I’m a Buckeye, and not just any nut!

Thanks for following along, and I really hope to share more in 2023 than I did in 2022. Because Andrew, another member of our research group reminded me recently that while we love to find these houses, we really need to share them with the rest of the world.

Catching up………..

Days and weeks go by and I won’t think about this little blog of mine. Then I will get an email notification that some interested reader has left a comment about one of the houses I posted, and I realize I should check in on it once in a while!

Earlier this year I made mention of a self-imposed goal of doing one blog post a month, but that hasn’t happened. It’s not like I don’t have anything to blog about. It’s more like I have too much to blog about.

In August and September, I had some great House Hunting trips. It started out with me spotting a real estate listing for a Gordon-Van Tine kit home in Richmond, Indiana that I already knew about. I did a blog post about it here on July 31, using the photos from the Realtor, since they were pretty awesome. But I still wanted to see it in person, so on August 3, my hubby Frank took me on a day trip to see it, then we continued on to Muncie, Indiana, where I spent a couple of hours doing mortgage record research. Delaware County, Indiana had 22 mortgages for homes purchased through Sears, Roebuck and I have been able to locate 14 of those homes so far. A couple are gone, and a couple need additional research to track down, as the legal descriptions were vague and will require extra time in the records room.

The very next week, I spent a couple of days checking out Northern Kentucky, Cincinnati, Hamilton and Middletown with Nigel, a member of our research team from Michigan, and my Dayton area partner in all this, Marie. Nigel and I started out day 1 with a trip across the river to try to get mortgage records in Kenton and Campbell Counties in Kentucky. That part of the day didn’t go great. Neither County had mortgage records for the years we needed that were easily searchable. We were able to get a few deed records from Kenton County but it was a bit complicated, as their records room was undergoing renovation and the books weren’t on their shelves. Nigel spent quite a bit of time hunting up the volumes we needed from the stacks on the floor. I almost lost him one time!

After a quick lunch at Skyline Chili, we headed back into Cincinnati for a great afternoon checking out loads of Sears Houses all over town. And of course, since it’s Cincinnati, and we had Nigel’s good eye, we located a few more houses for our list. Below is a Sears Langston model with a partially enclosed front porch in Norwood that escaped numerous pairs of eyes on previous drive abouts.

On day 2 Marie joined us for a tour of Hamilton and Middletown, and again, we were able to locate additional homes purchased from Sears, Roebuck. Here’s a couple we spotted in Hamilton. An Osborn and an Alhambra.

We also made sure we drove past a Sears Lakeland model that another member of our research team, Judith, had located previously. I had never seen this model in person before and it’s a nice one.

In Middletown, I got updated photos of a few houses we had already located, an Ashmore and an Avoca.

These are just a few of the houses we drove by over 2 days. If we had stopped for photos of all of them, it would have taken 2 weeks!

The Cincinnati area is loaded with Sears Houses, and I really need to get down there more often. But then there are areas I haven’t been and really want to check out, and that’s what I did in September.

It wasn’t Ohio, but it was great! My next post will be about the couple of days I spent in Anderson, Indiana.

Thanks for following along.

On the south side of Markbreit Ave. (Cincinnati)

It takes a group……..a group of dedicated Sears House researchers…….to locate and document homes purchased as kits from Sears, Roebuck. And the group I am in is just that.

When we locate a new primary source of information, we are anxious to see what we find. But first, we have to figure out who is doing what. Some projects are more complicated or time consuming than others, and need to be shared. Other times, it makes more sense for one person to handle the project, especially if they are familiar with the area to be researched.

That’s what happened recently, when Andrew located digitized editions of a trade magazine that published information on building permits that had been obtained in the Cincinnati area for the years we research. He turned the project over to me, since I have become pretty good at navigating the records in Hamilton County and have become familiar with a lot of the neighborhoods where we find Sears Houses in Cincinnati.

There are several ways to document a house purchased from Sears, and one of them is to find their name listed on a building permit.

Like these.

Usually when we find a permit with Sears, Roebuck listed, it is for one house, though I have seen some with more than one. In this case, the first permit was for five houses, with one on the second notice, all to be built by C.W. Kibler on the south side of Markbreit Ave.

And the best part of these six houses? They were built in 1909!

The first Sears Modern Homes catalog was published in 1908, and these permits were issued in April of 1909, so this was truly an exciting find.

We know the Cincinnati area is loaded with Sears Houses due to the Norwood Sash and Door factory that was owned by Sears, but that didn’t get started until 1912, so these homes pre date that.

In the world of co-incidences, Andrew had just located three early Sears models on Markbreit Ave., because one of them had recently been for sale, and he thought he recognized it from the Realtor pictures. Then he checked out the rest of the street and spotted two more. And they were all on the south side of Markbreit.

I messaged Andrew about the permit, and back we went to see what else we could find. And….we found them all.

Since these are early models, they are identified by a model number, not a name. Sears didn’t start using names until about 1917.

Here they are! Some of these photos were taken today (Aug 24, 2022), by our newest research team member, Matthew, who just happens to live in the Cincinnati area. Some of the photos are older ones from the Auditor’s website and show some of the original details that aren’t there now. And some are from Google maps. The next time I go to Cincinnati, I will have to drive past them myself. Too bad we didn’t know about them a couple weeks ago, when I went there with another member of my research group for a full day’s drive around the area.

The Sears No. 103 – later called The Lucerne – there were two of these built at 3131 and 3139 Markbreit Ave.

3131 Markbreit Ave. (photo by Matthew)

3139 Markbreit Ave. (photo by Matthew)

The Sears No. 121 – later called The Altona

3121 Markbreit Ave. (Auditor photo from 2014 because it shows the details on the side, which are now hard to see due to landscaping)

The Sears No. 133 – later called The Springfield – there were 2 of these built for sure. We think there is a 3rd one on the block but it isn’t quite right so I’m not adding it to this post.

3127 Markbreit Ave. This is a two family home now, which explains the second entry door and extra windows. (photo from Google maps)

3143 Markbreit Ave. (photo by Matthew)

The Sears No. 111 – later called The Chelsea

3117 Markbreit Ave. (photo from Auditor – 2003 )

side of 3117 Markbreit Ave. (photo from Google maps)

After finding the building permits for these houses, of course we were curious about why somebody from North Carolina was building multiple Sears Houses in Cincinnati. A quick search on Newspapers.com gave us a little information.

The Cincinnati Post – Feb 10 1909

Of course now we have more questions. If our Mr. Kibler had lumber in North Carolina, did he just purchase plans from Sears? Maybe. Unless we get inside one of these homes and find some train mailing labels, we’ll never know where the lumber actually came from. But there were a lot more materials needed besides the framing lumber, so Mr. Kibler probably did purchase that from Sears. In any case, this is an important and exciting find for our group.

Eventually, I will get around to telling you about my day trip to Muncie, Indiana, and share some houses from a mini meet up with Nigel and Marie, also earlier this month. It’s been a Sears House August!

Thanks for following along.

A Gordon Van Tine No. 104 in Richmond, Indiana

Hello All. In my last blog post, dated June 12, 2022, I said I was going to try to hold to my original goal of having one post per month. I made it! At least I will if I get this finished and up by midnight tonight, July 31.

I have been writing a blog post in my head for a couple of weeks now. That’s usually how I get started. I go over all the details I want to write about, think about the houses I have seen, then sit down one day, or evening, usually, and put it all down in words. Sometimes it just flows out. Sometimes it’s a struggle.

But this post isn’t the one I have been building in my head for a while. That one will be kinda long and I will have to hunt up photos I took long ago to make it what I want it to be. So……this post will be short on thought, but long on photos that are not mine, but are from a real estate listing I saw today.

I did locate the house though, quite a while back. I just have never seen it in person. I don’t usually do posts using photos from real estate listings, but the listing pics of the house are so well done that I won’t have to go get ones of my own!

Thanks to the listing agent, Tyler Fortman, for putting together a nice listing for this old home that needs a little love.

https://www.coldwellbanker.com/Coldwell-Banker-Lingle-43301c/Tyler-Fortman-3563553a

The house is a kit home design from the Gordon Van Tine Co. of Davenport, Iowa. If you have been following this little blog, or have researched mail order kit homes on your own, you should recognize that company name. GVT, as researchers refer to it, was a competitor of Sears, Roebuck in the mail order home business, and in the 1920’s and 1930’s, supplied the kit homes sold by Sears larger competitor, Montgomery Ward.

GVT published their own catalogs for many years. In 1916, they had two catalogs, one for Ready Cut Homes, which featured kit houses with factory cut lumber for a quicker building time, and another catalog featuring “Standard Homes” which did not have the lumber pre cut at the factory. These houses are still considered kits, as all the lumber and everything else you needed was supplied, but you had to cut the lumber to size on site. This type of kit home would require additional skills and tools by the builder.

The 1916 GVT Standard Home catalog is available to the public on Internet Archive. Here’s the link.

https://archive.org/details/GordonVanTineStandardHomes0001/mode/2up

I located this house by researching one of the testimonial letters found on page 51 of the catalog, which is for house model No. 104.

The letter is the middle one on the left side, from the builder J. N. Hodgins

It’s pretty vague where in Indiana the house was actually built, but that is where years of hunting down these houses and good resources come into it.

Using Ancestry, I searched for W. B. Hadly in Indiana, hoping to spot him in a 1920 Census record. I didn’t find him, but I did find a William B Hadley in Richmond, but in the 1900 Census, followed by a Wm. B Hadley in the 1910 Census. There was no listing for him in the 1920 Census, which was what I was really hoping for, since the house was built probably not long before the 1916 GVT catalog was published, and that would have given me an address. Maybe. It’s not at all unusual to see names misspelled in the catalog testimonial letters. I was hopeful. Then…….using Newspapers.com, I did a search for W. B Hadley in the Richmond newspaper, many of which are digitized and available.

And I found him!

Now I have an address, 125 North Ninth St. Fingers crossed!

When I put that address in Google Maps, here’s what comes up.

There it is…..just down the street a ways. I don’t think W.B. Hadley lived in the GVT house though, as the Ninth St address was listed for him in the earlier Census records. I think maybe he had the house built next to his, maybe for one of his children, and his home is gone. No matter. The GVT house that matches the photo in the 1916 catalog is there.

I did all this research a while back. I don’t really remember exactly when, but it’s been a couple years ago, I think. Then today, while doing a cursory check of houses on Realtor.com, I added Richmond to my list of area Counties that I check. I do that sometimes, because, hey, Richmond is almost in Ohio, and if I find a Sears House for sale there, that will occasionally generate a trip to Today’s Harvest for donuts.

Here’s the catalog illustration of the floor plan.

Now I will inundate you with the Realtor’s photos of the house, because they are great!

Yes, it needs love, but it’s over 100 years old and still has the original leaded glass windows, interior doors, and non painted woodwork!

Here’s hoping it gets a new owner that will appreciate the quality of the lumber and building method, and brings it back to life.

Real estate listing link – https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/907-N-B-St_Richmond_IN_47374_M37040-88232?ex=2945820820

I am hoping to post more than once in August. The post that is rattling around in my head for one, and one with a lot of newly located homes, as the Sears House Hunters are getting back on the road!

Thanks for following along.