| Author | Message | ||
     tom Citizen Username: Tom Post Number: 3439 Registered: 5-2001 |
Are there any in Maplewood that anyone knows of? In Essex County? | ||
| gj1 Citizen Username: Gj1 Post Number: 208 Registered: 11-2003 |
Check out this list on Sears Archives which includes houses in Madison and Fanwood (none listed in Essex County). Sears opened a lumber and millwork plant in Newark in 1925 to serve the Eastern US, though, so there must be more in the area. Also, Drew is offering a continuing education course this fall that includes tours: NEW! 05FHPW26 Preserving the Recent Past: Sears Modern Homes Catalog Houses in New Jersey (AH/H) .6 CEUs. The Sears catalog house made a significant contribution to New Jersey's residential suburbs between the two World Wars. These well-built homes have become newly popular with today's homebuyers. This course provides an overview of the history of Sears' ready-cut houses and touches on their numerous competitors with examples from New Jersey. It provides information on design characteristics, styles, and interior features which help to identify these houses. A tour of selcted local Sears ready-cuts will be led by Marilyn Wittlinger, who has extensively researched this subject matter. Instructors: James Massey and Shirley Maxwell Date: Saturday, October 29 Time: 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. Cost: $100 (includes lunch) | ||
| jem Citizen Username: Jem Post Number: 1395 Registered: 5-2001 |
I'm swooning over some of those houses in the archives! I believe that there's one Sears Kit home on Midland - a stucco bungalow between Richmond and Summit. The house right next to it (closer to Summit) looks alot like some of the more modest houses in the archive. | ||
| Bob K Supporter Username: Bobk Post Number: 9245 Registered: 5-2001 |
Interesting about the plant in Newark. Since Maplewood/South Orange grew trememdously in the late 1920s and early 1930s I would be surprised if there weren't some Sears houses in the towns. This subject comes up every year or so on MOL and nobody has authenticated a Sears house in SOM. The joists and beams were clearly stamped or branded with the Sears name so it should be relatively easy to identify the homes. Sears also had at least two competitors and builders in that era used plan books (most of the houses in the Tuscan and Clinton area came from them) that often looked similar to the manufactured styles. | ||
| tom Citizen Username: Tom Post Number: 3446 Registered: 5-2001 |
The house on Midland looks like it's one of these: http://www.searsarchives.com/homes/images/1927-1932/1927_p12050a.jpg There's also a house on Prospect Place, two doors up from Academy, looks like this: http://www.searsarchives.com/homes/images/1927-1932/1930_13050-3240.jpg. | ||
| jem Citizen Username: Jem Post Number: 1396 Registered: 5-2001 |
The one on Midland does look pretty much exactly like that, but I'm not so sure about the match for the Prospect Place house, which I love. | ||
| tom Citizen Username: Tom Post Number: 3451 Registered: 5-2001 |
I just did a drive-by with the picture and you're right about Prospect Pl., it's definitely not it. But nice nonetheless. Jem, I think you and I are destined to a bidding war over one of these someday. | ||
| jem Citizen Username: Jem Post Number: 1397 Registered: 5-2001 |
Here are some other favorites: on Lancaster between Parker and Midland, middle of the block on the eastern side of the street, and also the one with the green tile roof on the corner of Midland and Suffolk. There's also a sweet house on the south west corner of Parker and Lancaster. And, BTW, Tom, your bungalow and mine are not such bad examples of the style, themselves. But I agree, I'd love to own one of the ones we've been drooling over here. I'm afraid, though, that you or I would lose out in any bidding war these days.  | ||
| Bob K Supporter Username: Bobk Post Number: 9251 Registered: 5-2001 |
Are you talking bungalows or potential Sears homes? Mrs. K and I share your enthusiasm for arts and crafts styple bungalows. The Midland Park area was developed in the late 1920s so that would be a logical place to find Sears houses since they opened a factory in Newark in 1925. According to a neighbor when we lived in that area it was an apple orchard before development. The original name of the subdivision was Summit Park. | ||
| jem Citizen Username: Jem Post Number: 1398 Registered: 5-2001 |
Just bungalows, not necessarily Sears homes. I've never seen my particular bungalow among the Sears models. I am constantly on the lookout for bungalows, and I was practically in heaven when we took a trip to Boulder last year. They were all over the place, and we stayed at the Colorado Chautauqua Association, which is totally a community of bungalows. I am just a little obsessed.  |
