Oh Cincinnati, I haven’t forgotten you. In fact, no serious Sears House researcher would ever forget about Cincinnati. Why? Because it’s the home to the most Sears Houses ever built. That have been located so far, that is.
I’ve been on numerous day trips to Cincinnati to get pictures of some of the houses that have already been located, and every time, I spot a few more.
And as several researchers, including myself, are still diligently going through a bunch of old mortgage books on line looking for the houses that were financed through Sears, we are continuing to document some of the houses already found, and locate even more. It’s never ending.
Just in the last couple of days, researcher friend Andrew Mutch located a couple of Sears Houses through those old mortgage records, on Woodmont Ave in Cincinnati. When he posted them in our little tiny Facebook research group, he wondered what neighborhood Woodmont was in. So…..right to the Hamilton Co Auditor’s website I go, and look it up. It’s in Pleasant Ridge.
Well, on my very first day trip to Cincinnati several years ago, I met up with a fabulous lady named Donna Bakke, and she took me to several Cincinnati neighborhoods, Pleasant Ridge being one of them. But we didn’t go down Woodmont, which is a “No Outlet” street. Did Donna know about the Sears Houses on Woodmont? We’ll never know for sure, as she has since passed away, and all her knowledge has been lost. Sad.
But, I do have my great memories of that first Sears House hunting day trip to Cincinnati, and a whole bunch of pictures. Yes, they are old pictures. At least three years! But they are new to this little blog, and I want to share them with anybody who happens to stumble across this site. Houses we didn’t go past, or ones located after my trip are shown with Auditor of Google Map photos.
Here they are, in alphabetical order, mostly.
A possible customized Sears Kilbourne. The front porch and the dormer have been swapped from what is shown in the catalog. This change would be possible as this model is basically a rectangle, and the porch and dormer are simply design elements. Or maybe……they put the house together wrong.
There are two other Sears Marinas in Pleasant Ridge. One is at 3137 Gloss Ave. but there are a lot of trees in the front yard, so views are not great. The third is located at 3151 Auten Ave.
There are three Sears Puritans in Pleasant Ridge.
The other two Puritans in Pleasant Ridge are at 3265 and 3281 Beredith Pl. Neither are documented. Yet.
There is another Roanoke at 5622 Lester Rd.
Cincinnati has loads of Rodessa models, but there is one in Pleasant Ridge that is my all time favorite.
There is a second Rodessa in Pleasant Ridge at 5553 Bosworth Place.
Another popular little Sears House was their Starlight model.
Pleasant Ridge has a nice one.
There are two Vallonia models in Pleasant Ridge.
Another great bungalow model from Sears was The Westly.
Hard to see this one due to the landscaping.
Just located this Windsor model while I was reviewing the Pleasant Ridge houses for this blog post. It’s right next door to a Rodessa that had already been identified. And that’s how it goes in Cincinnati! We find new ones every time we look around! The roof line looks a little off, but the window arrangement and the exterior dimensions of the house match. I will need to take a look at it in real life some day.
And last, but not least is this sweet little house. The body of the home appears to be a Sears Delevan, but the front porch is more like the one on The Somerset. Sears would make changes to models for a small fee.
There they are! 26 so far in Pleasant Ridge. Bet we find more.
Cindy, you must have been so happy to see all these Sears finds. They are lovely!
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I surely was Sue! And I’ve seen many more since.
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Hi Cindy,
I am trying to find out what model my home is. We purchased the home three years ago. I have seen similar homes but not quite look exactly like mine. Can you help me out? I will email you a photo! Thank you from Warren, Ohio
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I currently own the Rodessa home on 3114 mapleleaf I would love to send you a new picture if you like
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Adam, that would be awesome. My email address is cyn.catanzaro@gmail.com Thanks!!!
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Did you start from scratch identifying these homes?
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Sandy, no I did not. About 500 Sears Houses in the Cincinnati area were identified by Beatrice Lask back in the 1990’s. 20 of that 500 were in Pleasant Ridge. A few more were identified later by another Sears House lover, Donna Bakke. In the last couple of years, a few more were located by myself, and yet another Sears House researcher, Andrew Mutch. Currently there are 30 identified, and about half of those have been documented with mortgage records and newspaper notices. I’ve noticed Pleasant Ridge is now an up and coming area in Cincinnati. So nice to see that and I’m hoping that will mean good things for the Sears Houses in the neighborhood.
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I really enjoyed looking at this list of Sears homes! I never realized that there were so many different models! My Mom lived in a Sears home from the time after she was born in January of 1936 in Mt. Airy on North Bend Rd (which now is at the corners of North Bend & Ponderosa because Ponderosa wasn’t around during the time that my Mom, her parents & siblings lived there)! She lived there until she was in the 7th grade. Her parents rented the house & when their landlord decided to put it up for sale, my Mom was very upset about this & she used to tell us the following true story. When the realtor was there this one time she took the bathtub drain stopper & threw it as hard as she could down in back of their house into the woods & she also tried to kick the realtor because she loved living in this house & the area around their house was all meadows & woods which she loved!!
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Oh Mary, that is quite a story! Thanks for sharing that. 🙂
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Love this
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Mary, my family and I recently bought a house at 6264 Kincaid Rd and there are rumors of it being a Sears home. Do you have a recommendation of how to validate that? Thanks in advance!
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Doug, I looked at the Real Estate listing with photos which is still up on Realtor.com. Your new home doesn’t match any known Sears models, but it’s a beauty! I would call it a Craftsman Bungalow, which some people mistakenly think means it came from Sears.
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Cindy, the Sears house features in your blog located at 3123 Mapleleaf Ave. is listed for sale. Thought you might want to take a peak at the pictures.
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Thanks Yvette! I did have a look. Pretty nicely updated.
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My wife and I are the “new” owners (since just before the pandemic) of this home. I’d been meaning to come back to this site to express thanks: the former owners didn’t know this was a Sears kit home, and we found out after we were under contract (but before closing) by landing on this page from a Google search on the address.
The first floor has been kept pretty close to the original. The only change was converting the full bathroom to a combination half-bath/laundry room. The second floor is completely different–three beds, two full baths. The balcony was eliminated to create a small walk-in closet for one of the bedrooms. And we believe the original cast-iron tub was taken upstairs, and is in a jack-and-jill bathroom between the two guest bedrooms.
Still no documentation for you: the basement has been completely painted, so there’s no hope of finding a label or stamp in the joists. One of these days I’ll swing by the courthouse and/or the auditor’s office to research the early history of the home.
Anyhow…we’re delighted to be part of the Sears kit home legacy. Thanks so much for your work documenting these homes.
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Thanks for your information! It’s so nice to find an interested homeowner.
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I grew up in Pleasant Ridge as a kid. Later bought a house on Woodmont Ave. I noticed back then in the 80’s all the different Sears home. No wonder Cincinnati has the most, Norwood Door and Sash was close by.
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I loved seeing this “inventory” of so many Sears homes in Pleasant Ridge! I’d missed some of these! I’m a realtor in Cincinnati, and one of the perks of the job is discovering Sears homes all around town. 🙂 The Silverton neighborhood, very close to Pleasant Ridge, has a big clump of houses that are either Sears or close “cousins.” Loved discovering this little clump!
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[…] The Sears Houses of Pleasant Ridge (Cincinnati) […]
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Thank you this really helped me on my architecture project!
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