According to the 1921 Sears catalog, there’s a whole neighborhood of the prettiest little Sears kit homes in Plymouth Meeting House, PA (about 30 miles from Philadelphia).
In the not-too-distant future, Mr. Ringer and I will be heading up North to visit family and we’re planning to swing by Plymouth Meeting House and see if we can find these homes. But before we drive several hours out of our way, we’d sure like to know if these homes are still standing!
Any ideas where to look?
It looks like a dandy bunch of kit homes.
In the 1921 Sears Modern Homes catalog, Sears highlighted several communities where large numbers of their kit homes had been built. Plymouth Meeting House (very near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) was one of those communities.
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In addition to Plymouth Meeting House, there were also large number of (modest) Sears Homes sold in a little community called "Chester, Pennsylvania."
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The accompanying text says these homes were purchased by the American Magnesia Company.
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Here's the photo showcasing the homes in Plymouth Meeting House.
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Close-up of some of the houses. Note, the street has not been paved yet.
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The other side of the street.
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According to that vintage photo, there are several Gladstones in that collection in Plymouth Meeting House. This house should be easy to spot! The Gladstone has the unique columns (with those blocks at the top) and also note that third window on the first-floor front. On the side, you'll see that funky little window upstairs. Have you seen this house?
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The Marina shouldn't be hard to find in this bunch! Note the interesting window arrangement in that shed dormer. Those are two closet windows.
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And the Somers is also an easy house to identify! Look at the lines on the porch roof!
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Are these houses still intact? Did they survey the intervening decades? If you know, please leave a comment below.
To learn more about how to identify Sears Homes, click here.
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Rose-
Maybe if you can find an address for the AMC factory, you could look on the streets close to it??
I am assuming they were built for workers and would be in walking distance.
@Donna
Donna!!
You’re brilliant! Yes, these were built for the workers, so they had to be fairly close to the plant.
Now how do we find a 100-year-old magnesium plant? 🙂
It’s probably easier than finding these old houses!
Thanks so much!
Rose
It’s called Plymouth Meeting, PA. I’m not too far from there (maybe 10 miles, tops). I could go driving around and try to spot these homes. Is there any more info available about where they might be? Plymouth Meeting has turned into a business hub right near I-476.
Chester, PA (different from west Chester, Pennsylvania and not in Chester county, Pennsylvania) is an immediate suburb of Philly and it’s a dump. Really, not a nice area to go driving sound even in the middle of the day. The houses very well still might be there but they PROBABLY won’t be in an kind of decent condition.
Also, I just found this in an article from 1991:
“A group of 12 Sears homes built in Plymouth Meeting for employees of the former American Magnesia Co. – a development called Peach Run – has since been razed for the construction of the Pennsylvania Turnpike.”
http://articles.philly.com/1991-10-27/news/25816622_1_sears-homes-sears-house-affordable-homes
@Katie
OH!! Sad! I was just looking for them.