When Frank Strassler (Historic Staunton Foundation) was driving me around Staunton on May 1st and 2nd, he pointed out this little bungalow with the blue shutters not once but twice, mentioning that the homeowners had been told – several times – that their home was a Sears kit home.
After looking at it for a moment, I concluded that it was not a Sears Home, but I took a few photos anyway, hoping I could match it up after I got home (where I have more than 2,000 catalog images from other kit home companies).
Thursday night, after the lecture, the homeowners talked with me for a moment and showed me more photos of this very same house, repeating what Frank had said. They’d been told by several people, their home was definitely a Sears House.
I told them that I’d taken several photos and would try to identify the house for them when I got home.
And then tonight (Saturday, May 4th), I was searching through my catalogs for another kit home when I saw an image that rang a bell! It was the little bungalow with blue shutters from Staunton.
So it was a kit house, but it was not a kit house from Sears!
How often does this happen?
Well, about 80% of the time, people who think they have a Sears Home are wrong, but the majority of the time, it turns out that they do have a kit home, but it’s not from Sears.
In the early 1900s, there were six companies selling kit homes through mail order catalogs. Sears was just one of them. Gordon Van Tine was another. The little blue bungalow in Staunton came from Gordon Van Tine.
To read more about the kit homes in Staunton, click here or here.
To contact Rose, please leave a comment below.
A little PS: The night of my talk (May 2nd), I told the Sears and Roebuck Tombstone Story (a perennial favorite) and someone mentioned that there are a couple Sears and Roebuck tombstones in Thornrose Cemetery in Staunton. I’ve spent many years hunting down a S&R tombstone! If you know where these tombstones are, please leave a comment below.
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Apparently, it was widely believed that this was a kit home from Sears, but in fact, it was from Gordon Van Tine (another kit home company).
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In fact, it's Gordon Van Tine Model 587 (as seen in the 1918 catalog).
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"Notice also the odd touches in the design which make it distinctively different."
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The addition on the side of the house (shown in the first photo above) apparently was put right off the side porch. That bathroom is mighty small.
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Close up of the house shows what a fine match it is!
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This picture was taken before that Nandina got so tall and hid the side windows! Photo is from the Staunton Auditor's office, and I am really, really hoping that the fine folks in the Staunton's Auditor's office don't mind my using this photo.
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A side-by-side comparison of the little house in Staunton and the catalog image.
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And you'll notice that the front door is original, too! Beautiful landscaping, too!
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Check out the details around the front porch.
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This close-up shows the detail of the lattice work around the columns. It's amazing that this lattice work is still intact. The pergola is gone, replaced with a solid roof, but this is a common modification.
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What a pretty house! And now we know - it did *not* come from Sears, but from a mail-order company in Davenport, Iowa: Gordon Van Tine!
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I sure do hope the owners come back and check my blog!
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To learn more about Gordon Van Tine, please visit Dale’s website here.
To learn more about the kit homes in Staunton, click here.
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Very Nice! Those #587’s are tough to find.
Rosemary,
I can’t tell you how thrilled I am that you took the time to research this and write this wonderful article.
I am amazed how little the house was changed when we bought it (1985). We did add a master suite on the back and in 2009, we bumped out the kitchen area by 6 feet; after 20 years we gave up ‘closet cooking’
Thank you, thank you, thank you!!
Oh, lets not start walking through cemeteries looking for Sears tombstones! We have enough to do driving around looking for kit homes!