Blog Feed
Another “Sears House” Featured on HGTV, Part II
In my prior blog, I mentioned that HGTV's House Hunters featured a "kit house" that was in Nashville. A Facebook friend and fellow Sears House lover shared some additional information on the program, enabling me to figure out what exactly HGVT was talking about. Let...
Another “Sears House” Featured on HGTV?
An update! It's not a "Sears kit house," but a Penniman house. Kind of. 😀 And "Sears House" is in quotes, because we all know, 99% of the time (or maybe 100%), these horrible TV shows get it wrong. And they are horrible. One of the first rules of old house ownership...
Flipping Insane…
Back in the day, "Flipper" was a television show, featuring a bottle-nose dolphin. Flipper was, in fact, a lot like Lassie with fins. I remember crowding around the television with the fam to watch Flipper on Saturday nights. (As I tell my daughter, ours was the last...
Hey – You There – How’d You Get Here?
In the beginning, I joined Facebook under protest and only with the stated purpose of creating a stronger internet presence for me and my books and my career. Subsequently, I've found that if I write a blog and do NOT post a link on Facebook, this site gets...
The Open Floor Plan and the Downfall of Society
Last February, as Robert, Pat and I sat together in Robert's Sears Home, he said, "The open floor plan will probably be considered one of the most heinous atrocities ever committed against American architecture." A man after my own heart. When historians write about...
Here’s Your Chance to Give Rose Some Advice: The City or the Country?
For months, I've been looking to buy a house - somewhere. It's my hope to stay in the area (Hampton Roads) but get far away from Norfolk. I've been looking in Zuni, Windsor, Suffolk, Smithfield and areas nearby. Thus far, I've not found anything that sent me. Ever...
C’mon Realtors…You Can Do Better
For the last few weeks, I've been on the hunt for a house in a quiet place with a little bit of land. I've been working with a true real estate professional, Tracie Gaskins, who is not only a queen among real estate agents, but an angel let down from heaven. When you...
That Rascally Haskell
Today, despite all the publicity about recycling, we're still a very wasteful society, and even more so when it comes to housing. More than 35% of all debris at modern landfills is construction debris. HGTV is the worst offender, encouraging millions to rip out and...
The Bungalow in the York River
Bunny Trails: They're one of the best parts of doing historical research. And while researching Penniman, Virginia, I read newspaper accounts from Pennimanites, talking about a house "sitting on stilts" in the York River. And while systematically reading through every...
Christmas in Carlinville (Illinois)
In an effort to be "anywhere but here," I traveled to Illinois for the holidays and spent them in Carlinville, Illinois, home of a large collection of Sears Homes, built by Standard Oil. It was a treat to find the Town Square all lit up for the holidays.
Book Orders Delayed
If you place a book order through this site, please expect a 4-6 week delivery time due to a personal tragedy. Thanks.
Richard Nixon’s Childhood Home in Yorba Linda, California
Every now and then, I get a call about someone famous who grew up in a Sears kit home. In 2009, I was contacted by a big-deal rock star (through his representative). This musician wanted to know if the house he'd grown up in was a Sears kit house! That was a lot of...
“Barn Builders” Blunders Badly
Last week, my buddy Milton saw an episode of "Barn Builders" (DIY TV, Season 2, Episode 9), which featured a short bit on a Sears Home. According to the episode guide that accompanied the program, "the guys restore an 1856 log cabin." The log cabin sat on a spacious...
Thanks to Jim, We Found Sears Modern Home #158
Twice in the last several months, I've done a blog on a Sears House that I'd never seen, but had hoped to see, and both times, readers have found those houses! The first one was the Sears Monterey, which Jennifer successfully found and identified in Pennsylvania. And...
Where’s Rosie?
That might be the question on my friends' lips, as I've well nigh disappeared from polite society for the last several weeks. I didn't realize how long I'd been "under the radar" until last night, when I glanced at an entry in my personal journal and saw that I went...
A Penniman Bungalow – in Larchmont!
Larchmont is a prestigious neighborhood in Norfolk, filled with stately Colonial Revivals, Cape Cods, Dutch Colonials and Neo-Tudors from the 1920s and 30s. As far as older neighborhoods go, Larchmont is one of Hampton Roads' most expensive communities, and prices...
The Great Atlantic Fleet – Parked at Penniman
While reading the Newport News Daily Press, I stumbled upon a little item in the 1923 paper that connected a lot of dots. In the article (from the Associated Press), Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels explained that during The Great War, the Navy had stationed...
Pottstown and Penniman and A Mystery School – SOLVED!
We found Pottstown, and it isn't the one in Pennsylvania. About a month ago, I wrote a blog about a mystery school house mentioned in the Newport News Daily Press. The story, from December 1922 said that the school would soon be built for African-American children in...
Finding the CUSTOMIZED House That Sears Built, Part V
Fellow Sears House Hunter Carey Bullock found this one-of-a-kind customized Sears House in Canton, Ohio by doing a search at the local courthouse for mortgage records. It's one of many ways to find Sears Homes, and one of the better ways to find a customized Sears kit...
The Croydon: A Spanking New Outlook!
So read the liner notes for the Sears "Croydon," a darling Tudor Revival from the late 1930s. From what we can discern, the Croydon was offered only in 1939 and 1940, the final two years of the Sears Modern Homes program. These post-1935 Sears Homes are scarce as...
“Thou Shalt Not Destroy Good Old Work – Or Houses”
Here's the Reader's Digest version: Local Arts Center buys 105-year-old house in historic river town of Mathews, Virginia. After a careful analysis, officials of this Arts Center determine that the old house they bought is an old house and must be demolished. Perhaps...
And Then Jennifer Found an “Ellison” in Hershey, Pennsylvania!
Almost as exciting as finding an Ellison (a fancy Sears house I've never seen before) is that this "Ellison" is in Hershey, Pennsylvania, and (this just gets better and better), the Sears "Ellison" that Jennifer found is at 266 Maple Avenue, less than a half mile from...
Oh Dear Ethel, What Were You Thinking…
According to newspaper accounts, Ethel didn't die easy. For 10 days in November 1918, she lingered in a Richmond hospital before succumbing to her injuries, caused by two bullet wounds through her left lung. In the last days of her life, between labored breaths and...
Finding the CUSTOMIZED Houses that Sears Built, Part IV
Recently, I posted several images of a customized Sears House in Glen Ellyn that we found earlier this month. Subsequently, Rachel managed to find a slew of high quality photos online, at Keller Williams Realty Company (Glen Ellyn), so it's with a hopeful heart that...
Finding the CUSTOMIZED Houses That Sears Built, Part III
Updated! We have some beautiful photos now!! * Click here to see the new pictures! * Thanks to a remarkable and rare document that came into my life, Rachel Shoemaker and I have been able to find several customized Sears Homes. One of these is in Glen Ellyn (a Chicago...
Tudoring
Recently, this meme made the rounds on Facebook, and it's fast become one of my all-time favorites. * * * * * * * To learn more about how to identify kit homes, click here. Click here to join our merry band on Facebook....
Was This School for African-Americans Ever Built in Pottstown?
Update! Mystery solved! Click here to read the latest. "Mr. W. L. Jones, chairman of the Williamsburg school board, said that he...purchased the bricks...[from the demolished Penniman smokestack] to build a public school building [in Pottstown] for the colored...
A Penniman Murder Mystery: Ethel and Ralph
Ralph and Ethel were married, but not to each other. About 7:00 o'clock, standing on a sidewalk at a busy intersection in downtown Richmond, Ralph and Ethel got into an argument. Ethel had just stepped off the train, and the two started quarreling. Ralph pulled a...
Sometimes, It Takes a Village of Historians to Document a Hillrose…
Until just a few months ago, I'd never seen a 1920s Sears Hillrose in real life. And then in August 2015, I had the delightful opportunity to visit a stunning Hillrose in Brandy Station, Virginia. Shortly after I wrote that blog, Greg Decker and Carrie Milam (from our...
The Sears Monterey – In Real Life!
Just two months ago, I wrote a blog lamenting the fact that I'd never found a Sears "Monterey." Last night in our Facebook group, I learned that Jennifer Hoover-Vogel found one of these very rare Sears kit homes in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania! Now as you feast your...
Recent Comments