When I first started this Sears House gig, I lived in Alton, IL (near St. Louis) and some of my first discoveries were in the St. Louis area. Below are the Sears Homes I’ve found in the Kirkwood area (part of St. Louis). If you enjoy the link, please share it with friends!
What is a Sears Home? These were true kits containing 12,000 pieces of house. Each kit came with a 75-page instruction book that told you how to put all those pieces and parts together. The houses were sold out of the pages of the Sears Roebuck catalog, and the houses in St. Louis were shipped from Cairo, Illinois. Sears offered these houses from 1908-1940 and there were 370 different designs. Today, the only way to find these homes in literally one by one.
These photos were scanned from slides, taken in 2002 and 2003, so they’re a little faded.
Enjoy the photos! And if you want to learn how to identify kit homes, click here.
One of the reasons there are so many kit homes in St. Louis is because there was a Sears Modern Homes sales center in St. Louis. There were only 40 of these in the country, and these were only placed in areas where sales had been strong. And once a Modern Homes sales center opened, sales were even stronger!
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In the late 20s, there was one at 8th and Olive Streets (from the 1928 catalog).
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And in the early 30s,it had moved to the Wainright Building.
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A full listing of the Sears Modern Homes sales centers appeared on the back of the 1930 catalog.
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The Sears Lynnhaven, as seen in the 1938 catalog.
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This Lynnhaven has had a not-so-thoughtful addition, but there's no mistaking it as a Sears Lynnhaven.
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Another Sears Lynnhaven in Kirkwood. This photo was taken in 2003.
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The Cedars was a beautiful tudor-esque cottage (1928 catalog).
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And here's a *perfect* Cedars! Fortunately (as of 2003), it still has its original siding - CEDAR shakes!
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The Chatham was a cute little Dutch Colonial.
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A comment below from Judith (shown below) points out that the shed dormer on this little Dutch Colonial extends out too far and it is probably not the Sears Chatham! I'd have to say - she's right, and I am WRONG! Oops!
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The Sears Mitchell was one of their most popular models!
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Is this a Sears Mitchell or one of its pattern-book twins? Rachel Shoemaker took a good long look at it and said she thinks it's probably the pattern book version. Good for her for figuring this out!
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The Sears Berwyn was also a very popular house for Sears.
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Sears Berwyn in brick! I'm not certain, but I think this house is actually in Richmond Heights. If you know its location, please leave a comment below!
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The Sears Montrose (from the 1928 catalog) was not a popular house!
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A perfect Montrose tucked away in the pines!
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Sears Brookwood as seen in the 1933 catalog.
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A picture-perfect Sears Brookwood in Kirkwood!
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Barrington, from the 1928 catalog. The Barrington and the Brookwood look very similar. The Barrington is a little bit bigger than the Brookwood. For a time, I had trouble keeping these houses separate in my mind. And then I thought of this visual clue. The Barrington has three windows in the living room (on the first floor front). The Barrington is a three-syllable word. The Brookwood has two syllables and two windows! Voila!
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The Sears Barrington, with its three windows!
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Someone told me this was a Sears kit house. My, but I stared at this house for hours and hours and I could not figure it out. Then finally, the owners invited me to come into their home and take a better look. That's when I discovered - it WAS a Sears Home - slightly altered.
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The house in Kirkwood is a Sears Wilmore, turned sideways on the lot!
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Notice the bellcast (swoopie) roof on the end of the house? This house is turned sideways on the lot, with that bellcast (shown in the catalog picture above on the left) turned out to the street. In other words, the house in Kirkwood was placed on this lot at a 90-degree angle to the catalog image. The main gable (shown above with the two windows) has been extended out several feet to make a larger living room. The front door was easily moved into that front gable. Pretty interesting changes!
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To learn more about Sears Homes, click here.
To buy Rose’s book, click here.
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Wow–this took some real spatial reasoning and imagination skills to figure out, but seems so clear once you’ve got it! It’s always so fascinating! (I could so often swear something is a kit house I’ve seen before and absolutely can’t figure it out.)
LOVE that tip on the Brookwood and the Barrington! I was just google walking a neighborhood and found what I thought was a Brookwood, but the year was too early.
A second look revealed three windows, and a chimney in the Barrington location, perfect for a 1930 build year!
Saddened to say this house sold recently for a whopping $22,000. Hoping it’s getting renovated as we speak!
Maybe knowing it’s a Sears house will motivate them. š
And wonderful sleuthing on the Wilmore!
The Sears Barrington model was a popular design with similar models available from Wardway, Aladdin and numerous Plan Books.
If you didn’t see pre-cut marks, that suggests it was a Plan Book design. I have made the same mistake many times myself!
@Sears Homes
How FUN to get a tour of the home and see all of that stenciled lumber! I hope you will find that box of interior photos and if nothing else but at the very least share those with the Sears Homes Group
Thanks to your wonderful books and facebook group as well as this blog you have opened the eyes of so many people and the search for the truth and authenticating of kit homes is growing every day š
Windshield surveys themselves are very time consuming and with the long list of those possible homes from those windshield surveys people can now do a little detective work and digging to verify without all of the work of memorizing the hundreds of models of patterns and plans out there!
Thanks for making continued research so much easier.
Have I told you lately that you are awesome? š
I’ve passed by this house for 25 years. It’s my favorite in the city. Will finally get to go in for the open house.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/where-we-live/wp/2016/09/09/a-cleveland-park-gingerbread-house-is-for-sale-for-the-first-time/?hpid=hp_regional-hp-cards_rhp-card-realestate%3Ahomepage%2Fcard