Amongst the 370 designs that Sears offered, more than a dozen of the houses were foursquares. One of the lesser-known foursquares is the Sears Rockford. I’ve seen three (and photographed two), and all three were in Virginia and all three were brick.
In fact, the original catalog page shows the house in brick (see below).
Most of the Sears foursquares were pretty simplistic-looking affairs, but that’s not true for the Rockford. The distinctive bracketing under the eaves is unique to the Rockford. The other models (Gladstone, Fullerton, Hamilton, Chelsea, Cornell, etc), didn’t have eave brackets.
Another unique feature are the three very small windows in the dining room. And also notice that there are two small windows flanking the chimney, and three large windows in the living room (front wall).
As with any house identification, the most important aspect is – the details. Study the details and make sure the house is a good match!
To learn more about the Sears Homes in Hopewell, click here.
To read about Virginia’s own ghost town (Penniman), click here.
The Rockford - as seen in the 1928 catalog.
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The Rockford wasn't a very big house. It had about 725 square feet per floor, for a total area of 1,450 square feet on both floors.
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A tiny hallway upstairs maximized space.
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Note the three small windows in the dining room (rear of house).
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The tiny Eastern Shore town of Cape Charles (Virginia) has a Sears Rockford.
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And there's one in Hopewell, Virginia, too.
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Is there an abundance of kit homes in Hopewell? Well, kind of. Hopewell had a large number of Aladdin kit homes, but many were torn down. There are not very many Sears Homes in Hopewell. To learn more, click here.
Norfolk, however, does have a bunch. In fact, Norfolk has more than 75 kit homes. WOW!
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These eave brackets on the Rockford are a bit distinctive.
Want to learn more about the Sears Homes in Hopewell? Click here or here.
If you’d like to see an abundance of kit homes in a small town, check out Roanoke Rapids!
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There is a city in Illinois called Rockford. (Home of Cheap Trick.) I wonder if there are any Sears Rockford houses there?
LOL – funny you should ask (about Sears houses in Rockford), we live in Elgin and I think we have a Sears home in Freeport. When I look at this house, I think ‘Wow, this looks like any number of houses in Rockford.’
I think we’ve been inside dozens of them!
I owned (and lived in) a ‘Rockford’ in Greensburg, PA (415 Center Ave).
The Rockford in Hopewell is mine.
My husband is a realestate title examiner, so he traced the title back to when the house was built. The documents show that Sears bought the three lots, and built these three houses, then sold them.
We suspect they were spec houses, or model homes, but we don’t know that part for sure.
But we do know that Sears bought the property without improvements and sold it with houses on it.
Raised my family in this house! It’s a wonderful floor plan.
I stumbled on your site looking for ideas to revive a fireplace in a 1927 four-square brick we recently purchased on the Eastern Shore of MD.
I think it might be a Rockwell, although the side dining room windows are regular-sized.
Could it be a copy? Floor plan looks exactly the same. I am going to dig for clues using your info. Thanks!
There is a Rockford in Cape Charles.
Is that YOUR house? I don’t remember the address.