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| 641 Highview Terrace, Lake Forest. |
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| Sears Lewiston from 1932. |
Sears sold the Sears Lewiston for 11 years--from 1929 to 1940.
Authors Robert Schweitzer and Michael W. R. Davis characterize the Sears Lewiston as a "Composite Tudor" style, which became popular in America in the 1930's. Composite Tudor is a combination of an English Tudor and a Colonial Revival. The Lewiston has Tudor features such as a chimney of brick and stone and an arched door. It also has Colonial features such as white wood shingles, decorative shutters, and a half-moon gable window.
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| Hard to see, but that's an original door from Sears Roebuck. |
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| Closeup of the original diamond-paned windows. The current owner made the replica clover shutters.. |
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| The shutters that Sears sold in 1930. There's the clover. |
In its Modern Homes catalogs, Sears said that the Lewiston was designed for "gracious living." It was an attractive five-room bungalow. There was an option to put two additional bedrooms, a bathroom, and more closets upstairs for an extra cost, and the Lewiston in Lake Forest has those extras.
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The Lewiston in Lake Forest is an authenticated Sears house built in 1929. The original owners, Albert and Paz King, took out a mortgage from Sears in May of that year for $8700.
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| Young Albert and Paz on their wedding day in 1911. Photo from Dignitymemorial.com. |
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| Albert in 1919. |
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| Paz in 1919. |
Albert was a chemical engineer and Paz was a physician. They had five children, so now we know why they needed the extra bedrooms on the second floor.
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| Paz with her two eldest children in 1922--Joan and Albert Jr. Joan died of cancer at age 40, and Albert Jr. was decapitated by the Japanese during World War II at age 29. Paz, on the other hand, lived until age 97. |
The Kings didn't stay in the Lewiston very long. They went into foreclosure in November 1930.
7 comments:
Oh, my heavens. The sad things we learn during our research. I'm glad I got to see this young family, and can associate them with their happy years in their Sears Lewiston.
Judith
Sears House Seeker blog
The original shutters add a lot to this house; it's amazing that they survived. I'd not heard the term "composite Tudor" before, but I have seen a lot of houses from that era that combined Tudor Revival and Colonial Revival detailing... this is one of the nicest examples I've seen. The present color scheme is also very flattering to the house.
I've never heard the term either--I think the authors invented it. :) The colors in 2012 were white shingles, green shutters, red door--see here on Google Streetview:
http://tinyurl.com/y7mdder7
Judith, you have a newspapers.com subscription, right? Here's more of that sad story:
http://tinyurl.com/yd74xbkg
If there was ever tangible proof as to the power of the judicious selection of color on a house, than these "before and after" images are it! Thanks for the Streetview link - it's always fun to see things from different points in time. Like Judith, I'm also saddened by the tragic story associated with this house... words fail me.
Hello, I currently reside in this residence. Can you shed some light on what tragedy occurred in this house? I’m trying to do research at the moment & it’s tough to find anything so any help is greatly appreciated!
Hi, I don't know anything about a tragedy occurring in the house, sorry. PLease let me know if you uncover anything. A link to my email is at the top right corner of this page.
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