A Sears Puritan in Libertyville

Libertyville has 14 Sears houses and a smattering of kit homes from other manufacturers. One of the Sears houses is a Puritan model.

415 W. Cook, Libertyville.

Sears Puritan.

This authenticated Sears Puritan was built in 1925. The sun room turned into a large addition at some point. It still has the original shutters with the moon cutouts.

The fireplace was not standard in the Puritan. 

The original attic window on the Puritan.

On top of the huge addition is a rooftop garden. 

This appears to be the original Sears garage.

In 1925, Sears Roebuck gave a mortgage to Isabelle Carpenter Kendall for the Sears Puritan. She worked for the Chicago, Milwaukee & Puget Sound railway as as the editor of their in-house publications. She had a degree in journalism from the University of Illinois, but it was so unusual for an editor to be female at the turn of the century, Isabelle concealed her gender by writing as "Carpenter Kendall" during most of her tenure.

Isabelle in 1938 when she revealed her true name--no longer known as the pseudonym "Carpenter Kendall".

Isabelle retired from the railway in 1940 and died in 1944 at age 80.

A book Isabelle wrote as a promotional vehicle for the railroad in 1903.