125 Imperial St.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
About Me
- Annie Eriksson
- Greetings! My name is Ann E. Eriksson and I study the phenomenon of mail-order catalog homes. My overarching interest resides in the concept of home ownership and tracing its symbolism of representing the "American Dream."
Many nice photos here, but you've got a few mistakes. Part of the challenge of finding Sears Homes is that you must be incredibly precise when comparing extant house to catalog image. There are a few houses on this page that are definitely *not* Sears Homes.
ReplyDeleteRose Thornton
author, The Houses That Sears Built
co-author, Montgomery Wards Mail-order Homes
Hi Rose,
ReplyDeleteI feel very honored that you have seen my page given that I consider your book "The Houses That Sears Built" to be one of the most sacred and returned to most on my bookshelf!
Thank you for creating such a valuable resource for the curious folk, like me, just pining to learn anything more information on the fascinating, yet scantly written about subject in-depth on the Sears Catalog Homes.
As I am working from lists of apparently "documented" mail-order homes from the Park Ridge Public Library, Park Ridge Historical Society, City Hall, and from my fellow catalog home aficionado and researcher Rebecca Hunter, I am ever in the process of updating and correcting the official list of apparent catalog homes still standing in our community.
As I'd love to discuss this matter further with you in the future, please do not hesitate to contact me directly via my email address is eriksson.aee@gmail.com
Thank you for visiting and please check back for more updates and corrections to the site as you can see it currently is an enduring discovery work in progress!
Kindly,
Annie Eriksson
My nephew owns this design of house. I notice the picture has a reverse floor plan. Is this indeed The Walton. I do not see in the advertisement that they offer it with a reverse floor plan.
ReplyDeleteHi Keith,
ReplyDeleteThank you for visiting my blog!
One of the most fascinating features and benefits of ordering a house from the Sears Catalog was the ability to "customize" the proposed design in the catalog to suit the specific needs and/or desires of the individual's preferences.
Whether it be reversing the floor plan or adding an extra window or choosing the specific paint color for each room to picking out the type of bathroom…towels, soap, waste basket, and shampoo…to the lighting fixtures, etc., Sears encouraged the customer to individualize the catalog house in order to promote the idea of making the catalog house one's own personal "home."
At the time, Sears was the epitome of customer satisfaction. An outstanding company shining proudly the principles of "the customer knows best," Sears was a servant to whatever needs the customer may have requested: ask and he or she shall receive!
To see a clearer picture of Sears promoting this idea of customizing the catalog home to become a more personal "home," check out the advertisements for the "The Puritan" or the actual documents of alteration notes to "The Vallonia" located on 418 N. Knight Street.
Lastly, I appreciate you raising attention to this idea of customization as your nephew (is it for certain that he lives in a Sears Home?). Since Sears encouraged their customers to customize the homes offered in their catalogs, each and every Sears Catalog Home is unique!
The inherit individuality of the mail-order catalog homes from Sears fuels my natural curiosity by not making my research easy as those houses still standing today can take on many forms. The basic architecture and design of any Sears Catalog Home may appear the same, but the story and stories of individual families who made that particular home are never the same.
Always learning,
Annie
Hi Annie, I just wanted to say THANKS! for your post.. I had never seen the interior view of the Walton before. (mainly in part, because I've yet to purchase any of the books that focus on Sears catalog homes. LOL no room for that in the budget when you're renovating) I live in Eastern PA (phila-burbs) and I am 99% sure the house my husband and I own is the Walton. The floorplan matches 100% ..but we have a different porch --same footprint/different material used(we believe it was possibly changed at a later time. it is built out of stone and concrete. The fireplace was done in the same stone. It doesn't take away from the bungalow character at all, quite possibly it adds even more to it!) We also have a few differences in details, such as, a door was added between the two back bedrooms. Judging by the way the house has settled over the years, this was not a later add on, but rather something that was installed at the time of the build. We also found some newspapers from 1925 in the basement. We were always curious about the age of our home, as the land was deeded in 1918, but I would suspect it's quite possible the house was built at a later time. Do you want to know something funny? We had not seen a plan of the Walton..yet when we bought our house, we knew we needed to gut the kitchen (it had been redone in horrible white cheap cabinets in the early 90s, with 1948 cement bed tile in black and white behind it)..when we designed the layout of the room, it just felt natural to move the stove to the little alcove. Well, imagine our happiness, when we did finally locate the plan for the Walton, and low and behold, that's where the stove would have originally stood! :) thanks again! -xan
ReplyDeleteThis is my neighbors home, still there too! I'm surprised by the number of catalog homes here in PR. I wonder if mine is even tho it's brick, I see one brick home posted!! Too cool.
ReplyDelete