My buddy Dale found and photographed this Sears Priscilla in Glenview, Pennsylvania three years ago and shared it with me. Good thing he did, because I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Priscilla “in the flesh.”
This classic Dutch Colonial had about 1,600 square feet and a spacious attic, too (due to the steep pitch of the roof). As is shown by the floor plan (below), it had a very large living room (25′ by 14′), a fireplace with a tiled hearth, built-in china hutch in the dining room, and a built-in ironing board in the kitchen.
Upstairs, there were three bedrooms and a sleeping porch (which was probably converted into a bedroom in later years). To learn more about why “sleeping porches” were so popular, click here.
Very few Sears kit homes had functional shutters, but the Priscilla was one of them.
It was a beautiful home and it was one of the more expensive houses that Sears offered, which may explain why it wasn’t a more popular house.
To learn more about Sears Homes, click here.
To read about how to identify kit homes, click here.
Raise your hand if you had to look up “pulchritudinous.” 😉
The Priscilla (1928 catalog)
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The living room spans the full width of the first floor.
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The second floor has four good size rooms.
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Close-up of the Sears Priscilla (1928).
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The pulchritudinous Priscilla in Glenview, PA. Notice the details around the front porch, the fan lite and side lites. Lots of distinctive features here. (Photo is copyright 2009 Dale Wolicki and may not be used or reproduced without written permission.)
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To see more pretty pictures, click here.
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I didn’t know it was a Sears Priscilla when I took the picture!
@Dale Wolicki
Ah, but the house *spoke* to you, didn’t it! 🙂 And you weren’t even wearing one of my Sears House Hunting Caps™ such as my “colander hat” (as you jokingly called it) with the brass spigot welded to the front…
You always said I’d get better reception if I left that little spigot in the open position.
I currently live in a Sears Priscilla and enjoyed your article!!
Laura K – well now you’ve got to tell Rose and me where your Sears Priscilla is located.
It was just by chance I found the one in Glenview, Pennsylvania.