When I was a little girl, my mother and I would often watch “Star Trek” together on television, and when the credits rolled at the end, the name “Gene Roddenberry” appeared (as creator, writer and producer). My mother would often tell me, “That‘s the man you should marry: Gene Roddenberry. And then your name would be Rosemary Roddenberry. Plus, I bet that guy’s a lot of fun.”

My beloved mother passed on before my first books on Sears Homes were published, but had she been aware of these little houses, I suspect she would have told me, “You should change your last name to Roddenberry, and then buy a Sears Roseberry, and then you’d be Rosemary Roddenberry living in a Roseberry.”

She sure was a lot of fun.

The Sears Roseberry is a cute little house, but apparently, it wasn’t too popular. I’ve only seen one Sears Roseberry outside of Carlinville, IL (which has a large collection of Sears Homes, built by Standard Oil), and that lone Roseberry was in the Milton section of Alton, Illinois.

Sears Roseberry as seen in the 1916 catalog.

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Five years later (1921), the Roseberry's price had doubled.

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As you can see from the floorplan, it's not a big house.

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This vintage photo of Carlinville (1920) shows a Roseberry under construction.

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One of 150 Sears Homes in a 12-block area, this Roseberry sits in Carlinville. There were eight models built by Standard Oil (for their employees), and the Roseberry is one of them.

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Some of the Roseberrys in Carlinville are in a little bit of pain, and need a little love.

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And some of them are in a lot of pain, and need a lot of love.

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The Roseberrys in Carlinville have two large windows in that gabled dormer, whereas the Roseberrys in the catalog image have one big window flanked by two smaller windows. None of the Roseberrys in Carlinville are a perfect match to the catalog image. Perhaps Standard Oil didn't want the houses to look "just like the catalog," so they made this one change on the Roseberry.

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To learn more about Carlinville and Standard Oil, click here.

To see more vintage pictures of Carlinville, click here.