I love finding Sears Houses through mortgage records.
A couple of years back, I made a trip to the Butler County Records Center for that very purpose, and ended up with a bunch of new finds. Several of the houses I identified were in Oxford, Ohio, which is home to Miami University.
Ever since then, I have been telling myself I needed to go to Oxford and check out what I had located, but until today, that didn’t happen.
It was a nice day for a drive, so my husband Frank and I headed out for a day trip. My brain has been in overload lately with work projects (we re-hab houses), and a volunteer project , so it was good to get away for a bit.
Since my head hasn’t been in the Sears House game for a couple of weeks, and we did this on short notice, I went pretty unprepared. I did take along a few addresses of houses I had located, and was hoping to find a few new ones along our path.
While I did spot a couple of houses to check out when I got home, we really only ended up getting a close look at two Sears Houses that were on my list. Oh well. I’ll get the rest another time.
We took a walk down Walnut St. to get photos of the two houses and as happens sometimes here in Ohio, I discovered I was not the first researcher to locate one of the homes.
The first house we came to is a Sears Cornell.
Sears Cornell at 7 W Walnut St., Oxford, OH. This house is documented with a mortgage record.
Sears Cornell at 7 W Walnut St., Oxford, OH. This house is documented with a mortgage record
The second house on our path is a Sears Fullerton.
Sears Fullerton at 225 W Walnut St., Oxford, OH. Documented as a house from Sears, Roebuck with a mortgage record.
The Fullerton model is the one that had previously been identified. That happens a lot here in Ohio, as houses from Sears, Roebuck are well known.
Thanks to the homeowners for the wonderful Preservation effort, and to the City of Oxford for recognizing that Sears Houses are, indeed, part of our Architectural History.
Now…..if we could just get the rest of Ohio to do that……
Thanks for following along!
Sears Houses in Ohio 
I’m looking for a photo and plan for “The Chester” kit house by Sears.
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To my knowledge, there was never a full page devoted to The Chester in the Sears Modern Homes catalogs. I will send you what I have by email. Thanks for commenting!
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This was our family home in which I was raised in along with my brother . We are Bourne, and my Great Grandfather OE Bourne owned the house and gifted it to my dad Russell Bourne in Approximately 1949 when he married my mother Sharon Sharp. I lived my entire life life from my birth in 1951 until I left for college in 1970. My five year younger brother then lived there with parents until they sold the house in approximately 1975 for an approximate price of 32,000. We had never discussed or had knowledge
It was a Sears house. Ironically my profession became as a banker handling Mortgages and later Andrew who is the individual who ultimately restored the house with great effort and attention to detail, actually found me personally as a lender , PRIOR TO ANY KNOWLEDGE I had any history with the House! Small world . Thanks to Andrew! Dan Bourne
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That’s a great story, Dan. Thanks for commenting!
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