William & Mary College and Kit Homes

Recently, I was on the William and Mary College campus doing research on Penniman, Virginia. (You can read more about that here.) As part of the research, I was reading through the early 1920s college yearbooks and happened upon an interesting photo in the 1922...

Missing: “The Projectile”!

The hunt is on. We’re working on a new book about a piece of Virginia’s regional history that is utterly and wholly captivating. Penniman: Virginia’s Own Ghost Town. In 1916, DuPont opened a new munitions factory on the old Bechtel Farm, on a piece...

Waynesboro: WOW!

On October 17th, I gave a talk in Waynesboro on their kit homes. The day before, Anne (local history lover and kind soul) had driven me throughout the city, looking for kit homes. And we found a bunch! There are more than 40 photos below, so I’ll let the...

The Sears Elmhurst, Part II

Recently, Rachel Shoemaker was looking through a Sears Modern Homes catalog (1930) when she discovered a testimonial for a Sears Elmhurst built in Flushing, New York. She then did some extra digging and was able to glean the home’s current address. In fact,...