Blueprints of Sears houses are scarce. And many Sears blueprints list the architect and draftsmen initials, rather than their full names.
Architects and Draftsmen of Sears Homes
- Alexander H. Bacci
- William Arthur Bennett
- L. Cosby Bernard
- David S. Betcone
- George Beihl
- Ernest Braucher
- Z.N.B.
- A.J. Caron
- Howard L. Cheney
- S. Merrill Clement, Jr.
- Leslie L. Deglow
- Randolph Evans
- Harford Fields
- Albert L. Flegel
- M. G.
- John W. Green
- R.S.G. (Philadelphia area)
- W.G.
- G.B. H.
- H.F.H.
- H.W.
- Ralph H. Heth
- Andrew F. Hughes
- S.K.
- Norman Kandl
- George Fred Keck (Sears custom home)
- C.J.L.
- Clarence W. Lampe
- Bernard T. Lourim
- R.L.
- D.M. (poss. David Mahaffey?)
- William F. McCaughey
- McMurray & Schmidlin (NJ area)
- Frederick Mertz
- R.N.
- George C. Nimmons
- J.A. Parks
- Jens C. Petersen
- Spencer W. Phelps (Washington D.C. area)
- Quinn & Christensen
- Saville? Sarille?
- G.S.
- H.S.
- Ray Simms
- Joseph Earl Stith
- R.H.T.
- R.H.H.
- John Van Bergen
- Harry M. Veix
- W.N.L.
- Lewis E Warner
- White & Christie
- Henry Lawrence Wilson
- F.Z.
3 comments:
I have the blueprints for my Sears home in the Chicago suburbs. It lists that it was #3273 for Mr. G. O. Ehlers, Forest Park, IL. (We don’t live in Forest Park, so I Imagine that this man must’ve had the house built and sold it— he’s not one of the previous inhabitants that we are aware of at least.) Then, what’s kind of interesting is that I have two sets of blueprints— one that was used in the construction of the home and has pencil markings made on it — presumably by the builders, and a second that is a clean copy. They both have different dates just days apart. Until coming to your page and checking for the architect (after my son asked who drew our home) I never realized the dates on our two sets of blueprints differ. Anyway, they state the home was drawn by O.N. 10.16.1930 CH by R.L. 10.17.1930 on the copy used. The other states it was drawn the prior week— maybe they made last minute changes?
R.L. is on our list as a draftsman who often worked on Sears blueprints. The architect of the no. 3273, the Claremont, was David Betcone.
So I looked up George O. Ehlers. He was a longtime mail carrier in Forest Park. I don't think his house in FP was a Claremont (only had two bedrooms). However, Ehlers was buying land in the farther west suburbs. He was reselling an acre of land in Clarendon Hills in 1926, for example. So it's conceivable that he was building Sears houses speculatively in the western suburbs during that time.
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