This Hamilton You Can See for Free in Glencoe

1155 Green Bay Road, Glencoe. Photo from Realtor site.

Sears Hamilton from the 1916 Modern Homes catalog. That year it was called No. 264P150. Scan courtesy of Daily Bungalow.

Side angle from Google Streetview. This is a perfect match to the catalog illustration. The house is stucco.

The Sears Hamilton was sold from 1908 to 1919. In the early years, the model was known as a No. 102 or 150 (depending on the type of wood trim used--pine or oak). In 1918, the house was renamed the Sears Hamilton. 

Sears often advertised that there was a Hamilton built in Glencoe, starting in the 1913 catalog. No researcher ever identified where this Hamilton was located in Glencoe, or whether it was still standing.

Reference to Glencoe in the 1913 Modern Homes catalog.

The Hamilton is on Green Bay Road in Glencoe. It sits on a diagonal to the main road, which makes it hard to see.

The house was owned by the Clavey family from its construction in 1910 all the way to 2005. The current owners report that the house is from Sears, and there is solid evidence to support that (catalog testimonial, exterior appearance, details inside the house). I believe this is the Hamilton everyone has been searching for.

Even better, this is the first Sears Hamilton ever identified "out in the wild".
 

Photo from Realtor site.

The front door appears to be the Phoebe front door sold by Sears.

The front entrance has a living room on the left and a parlor on the right. This is the parlor. 

Photo from Realtor site.

The window in the parlor matches the leaded crystal window sold by Sears around 1910.

 

Photo from Realtor site.

Closeup of the original cabinets from Sears. Photo from Realtor site.

Photo from Realtor site.

Newel post, as sold in the Sears Building Materials catalog.

This bedroom shows the original Sears window trim and door. 

Photo from Realtor site.

Gerhardt Clavey built the house around 1910, according to family lore. Gerhardt worked as a building contractor. Sears mentioned the house in the 1913 catalog, so the house was built between 1908-1912... 1910 seems realistic. Robert Sideman of the Glencoe Historical Society was able to confirm that Gerhardt owned the house in 1915.

Gerhardt died in 1934, but his wife, Mary, continued to live in the house. Then ownership passed to the Clavey children. The Clavey family sold the house in 2005, passing along to the new owners the fact that the house was from Sears Roebuck originally.