I Do Take Requests... Here's Highland, Indiana

Sears Homes of Chicagoland reader Traci asked if I could feature a Sears house in her town of Highland, Indiana.

U.S. Steel Corporation founded the city of Gary in 1906, and the population of Northwest Indiana began growing rapidly. Highland was incorporated in 1910, soon after Gary. 

Many builders and homeowners in Northwest Indiana turned to Sears Roebuck for building materials and kit houses. The vast majority of Sears houses in the state of Indiana are in Lake County, and Highland itself has 15 of them still standing.

I am going to spotlight a Sears Parkside in Highland.

8827 Carolina, Highland IN. Photo from Realtor site.

 

Sears Parkside from the 1940 Modern Homes catalog.

 

Photo from Realtor site. The Parkside had a side "service door". Photo from Realtor site.

 

Closeup of the original Sears front door. Capture from Google Streetview.

 

 

Hilarious catalog copy from the 1940 Modern Homes catalog. Four windows?!

 

There have been no additions to the Parkside in Highland. The only change they made to the original floorplan was combining the breakfast nook and the kitchen into one room.

 

Photo from Realtor site.

Photo from Realtor site.

Photo from Realtor site.

The two bedrooms in the Parkside were identically sized. Photo from Realtor site.

Photo from Realtor site.

Photo from Realtor site.

 

Elgin Tomorrow door hardware, sold by Sears.

I believe the original owners were Stephen and Barbara Verosik, and the Parkside was built in late 1940. They were Hungarian immigrants, and Stephen worked for--you guessed it--a steel mill.