There are more than 600 blogs at this website, with the great majority focused on Sears Homes. There are 3,000 photos of kit homes to be found here. As the author of all those blogs, I can tell you, this website is an incredible time sink.
And yet – since day one – the whole Sears House gig has consistently been a labor of love.
Three weeks ago, a handful of folks contacted me (via email and Facebook) to let me know that a very interesting kit home was threatened with demolition at Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio.
For several days, I wrote blogs and I wrote emails and I even made a few phone calls, doing all within my power to save this very interesting and historically significant house.
Countless others joined the fray, and put forth a herculean effort to save the house. An online petition garnered more than 2,100 signatures in a very short period of time. And yet, the house was torn down.
In fact, BGSU tore down this kit home AHEAD of schedule.
That was August 10th, two weeks ago.
And now a new school year is starting there at BGSU, and new students will walk past the vacant lot and have no idea that their college demolished a kit home. And the house I invested so many hours in trying to save is now just another pile of scrap at an Ohio landfill.
This isn’t the first time that I’ve been down this road. It’s about the fifth time that – despite my best efforts – a kit home has been bulldozed.
It’s wearying. And depressing.
The house on BGSU campus was a Montgomery Ward house, custom designed to be a spot-on match to a Sears House, The Lewiston.
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This is the Sears Lewiston, as seen in the 1930 Sears Modern Homes catalog.
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On Friday, August 11, 2012, it was reduced to a pile of rubble in no time at all. (Photo is copyright 2012 Marsha Olivarez and can not be used or reproduced without written permission.)
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To read more about the house that BGSU destroyed, click here.
Your labor of love meant a great deal to us in the Popular Culture Department.
I keep telling myself that this was all a bad dream, a nightmare and I will wake up. I am still in shock.
I think they knew better and feared losing the battle and razed this house as quickly as they could.
Such a tragedy.
Thanks, Montana. I appreciate your taking the time to comment. It’s just so disheartening. I guess I have to just stop thinking about it.
Rachel, it’s just such a senseless waste of resources. Just 100% senseless.
It’s a crying shame! And shame on the officials at BGSU for not realizing what a wonderful historic treasure they had there!
@House Crazy Sarah
I don’t think its a case of “realizing” anything. These “leaders” obviously had some reason to rush the demolition and tear it down. They had no regard for the the history of the house or what it meant to the people there or across the country. That’s really sad.