The Only Sears Winthrop in Illinois

848 Charles, Aurora. Photo from Realtor site.

 

Sears Winthrop from the 1928 Modern Homes catalog. The Winthrop front entry is easily recognizable with its six beams and keystone detail. Sears used this same entry on other models as well.

A closer look at the original thin beams and batten shutters. Sears recommended that the siding be white and the shutters green. Photo from Realtor site.

 

Sears Roebuck sold the Winthrop model from 1928-1931. This authenticated Winthrop in Aurora was built in 1929. It is the only Winthrop in Illinois at the time of this writing.

The 1928 catalog had an odd, rambling description of the Winthrop model:

The Winthrop home presents a modernized edition of early American architecture, when simplicity and perfect balance featured that period. Examples of this really fine type are found in many sections originally settled by our ancestors. Yet, in spite of the changing times, this style of architecture is still considered one of the best. A visit to some of the better suburban communities of our largest cities reveal the fact that handsome profits are made, when houses of this style are on the market.

The floor plan of the Sears Winthrop. The living room in the Aurora house has been made smaller and a wall was put in to split it in half. 

 

There used to be an interior fireplace on the wall next to the dining room arch. The beams on the ceiling are not original. Photo from Realtor site.

 

Photo from Realtor site.

 

There's the chimney from the fireplace. It works as a brick accent wall today. Photo from Realtor site.

 

A closet door still has the original Narcissus door hardware from Sears. Photo from Realtor site.

 

The Winthrop came with two upstairs bedrooms as delivered, and each had its own dormer window. Photo from Realtor site.

Robert and Viola Blackwood took out a mortgage for $4,000 from Sears Roebuck in June 1929. Robert was the owner of the Blackwood Motor Service trucking company.

A Sears House Tycoon in Aurora

In 1928, George E. Barnes bought not one, but two Sears houses to build on either side of his existing house in Aurora.  

One house, a Sears Fullerton, was built as a rental. The other, a Sears Crescent, was built for George's daughter and her new husband.

A Sears Fullerton at 807 W. New York St., Aurora. Photo from Realtor site.

Sears Fullerton.

Photo from Realtor site.

The Sears Fullerton cost $6,000 in 1928.  The Fullerton is known for its tapered brick piers supporting the porch and the dwarf columns. There are wood shingles on the attic dormer and exposed rafters in the roof eaves.

Photo from Realtor site.

The living room. Photo from Realtor site.

Closer look at the telephone stand and coat closet. Photo from Realtor site.

Photo from Realtor site.

Photo from Realtor site.

Photo from Realtor site.

Original tub from Sears. Photo from Realtor site.

George also purchased a Sears Crescent. (George had a good job as a butter maker/foreman at the Aurora Dairy Company.) He gave the house to his daughter Ola and her husband Donald Reed.

The three houses share a backyard. New York St. used to be known as Walnut St.

Ola's house at 108 N. Lancaster Ave., Aurora. Capture from Google Streetview.

Sears Crescent.

The Crescent in Aurora is a perfect match to the catalog illustration almost 100 years after it was built. It has the original pediment and columns. Original multi-pane wood windows and sidelights around the front door remain. If you look closely, you can see the original medallion above the front door.

Previous owners found stamped lumber in the basement and “Sears” stamps under the plaster. 

The Disappearing Sears Dundees

The Sears Dundee was a small, affordable bungalow that was sold 1920-1930. As was the Sears approach, the architects tried to add style with an ornamental porch, decorative railings, and brick porch piers. The charming little trellis on the side was also included.

The Sears Dundee from the 1928 Modern Homes catalog. In the early years, the Dundee did not have a bathroom, but by 1928 it was included as more square footage was added to the house.

The later floor plan with the bathroom.

We don't have many Dundees in the Chicago area, and there are not many to be found nationwide either. Clearly the house was a strong seller since Sears offered it for 10 years. I suspect that the little bungalows are disappearing over time and are being replaced by larger homes.

807 Iowa Ave., Aurora. This Dundee was built in the summer of 1926 and was financed by Sears Roebuck. The house still has the non-functional third brick pier. Another feature that indicates a Dundee is the horizontal attic windows on the sides of the house. Photo from Realtor site.

 

Rear view of the Dundee. If the house has not been added onto, this arrangement of door-window-window is another unique identifier. Photo from Realtor site.

5109 W. 155th St., Oak Forest. This Dundee still has the ornamental porch.

631 Keep, Elgin. This Dundee was built in 1927 and was financed by Sears Roebuck. Photo from Realtor site.

Photo from Realtor site.

657 Harmony Lane, Glenview.  Ouch!  Photo from Realtor site.

Google Streetview shows the Dundee in Glenview a few years ago when it had the original scalloping detail on the porch.

The One and Only Sears Letona in Illinois

Sears Roebuck sold the Letona (a.k.a. No. 192) from 1911 to 1918. Early model Sears houses are uncommon, but the Letona is exceedingly rare. There are four known to exist in the United States, and only one in Illinois--Aurora, to be specific.

604 Concord, Aurora. Photo from Realtor site.

Sears Letona.

The Letona had a decent-sized living room and an open staircase. The pantry was a luxe feature not normally seen in houses of this price range. There were two bedrooms upstairs, each with what appears to be a walk-in closet.

In 1914, Charles H. and Leuanna Stiles paid $1200 for the Letona. Charles was a bricklayer. They lived in the house until 1923.

Former owners report the existence of stamped lumber in the house.

The Letona was built in other cities, but are the houses still standing? The ones in Aurora (obviously!) and Gibsonburg, OH have been located.

The architect of the Letona was likely William Arthur Bennett. He is known to have designed other Sears models of the period. A house very similar to the Letona was shown in the October 1915 issue of The National Builder. (Thanks to Judith Chabot for the information!)

 

The Sears Home Leaderboard

Researchers have compiled a substantial list of Sears houses located all over the United States (over 16,000 to date).  I want to share with you the largest totals for communities in Illinois. Please note that these totals can change. We discover more houses daily; we lose houses to demolition or fire.

Here are the top six from Illinois:

Community          Number of Sears Homes
Elgin                                    209
Rockford                             173

Carlinville                            149
Aurora                                 142
Downers Grove                   67
Joliet                                    57
West Chicago                      57


Elgin, Rockford, Aurora, Joliet
These communities were population centers in the 1920's and 1930's, and they experienced consistent growth.

Rockford in 1930 was the second largest city in Illinois behind Chicago. With a 1930 population of almost 86,000, Rockford was the 100th biggest city in the United States.

Aurora clocked in at almost 47,000 residents in 1930, and grew 28% over the prior decade. Joliet's 1930 census tallied almost 43,000 residents. Elgin had almost 36,000 residents in the 1930 census.

Many employers were based in these areas, and there was a healthy supply of well-paid workers with steady jobs who wanted to be homeowners rather than renters.

It's no coincidence that these four Sears house leaders have not experienced the magnitude of teardowns that other suburbs have.  They have not lost the same amount of early 1900's housing stock like Winnetka or Western Springs or other communities, some of which have entire blocks of homes decimated. This helps account for their relatively high number of extant Sears houses.

Sears established Modern Homes sales offices in areas in which housing sales were strong. There were sales offices in all four of these communities for many years. Sales office in town = more Sears houses.

Finally, the vast majority of Sears houses in these communities have been identified. Author Rebecca Hunter conducted full architectural surveys in Elgin and Joliet. Hunter and other local researchers have searched county records for Aurora and Rockford properties that Sears financed.  This detailed research resulted in the high tallies of Sears houses.

A Sears Westly at 626 May, Elgin. The house was built in 1927, and is authenticated by marked lumber in the attic. Photo from Realtor site.

Sears Westly.

Carlinville
In 1918, Standard Oil opened the first of four coal mines in the Carlinville area. The company wanted to ensure its workers had adequate housing and placed an order with Sears Roebuck for 156 houses. The houses were built as a new addition to the town of Carlinville, rather than near the mining areas, because Standard Oil wanted the workers to have the advantages of electricity, municipal water and sewers, and schools for their children. The blocks that contain the Sears houses were named the "Standard Addition" to Carlinville.

Standard Oil constructed 14 different models in the Standard Addition. The houses were further varied by modifying the roof and porch designs. Excerpt from The Bulletin of the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers, 1919.

The same Sears Madelia and Sears Carlin on North High Street, Carlinville. Still looking good! Image from Google Streetview.

Carlinville was prospering, and everything was looking up... until the mine closed in 1924. Carlinville had a population of 5,212 in 1920, and proceeded to lose 20% of its population after the mine's closure. 

However, the Sears houses are still standing as a memorial to those boom years. Of the 156 houses that Standard Oil built, 149 exist today.  Tours are often given of the Standard Addition if you happen to be in the area, and there are Facebook groups devoted to those Sears houses.


Downers Grove
Downers Grove in 1930 had a population of 8,977. However, the suburb grew an impressive 153% over the previous decade! Housing was needed desperately, and many new Downers Grove residents turned to Sears Roebuck.

Downers Grove resident Chuck Holtzen spent hours pulling the deed records from DuPage County, and she managed to uncover many Sears houses that were previously unknown. That research contributed to Downers Grove ending up in the top six locales for Sears houses in Illinois.

All the Western suburbs have a substantial number of Sears houses, including Lombard, West Chicago, Elmhurst, and Glen Ellyn. All these suburbs have also had a significant number of teardowns as well. We'll never know which of these suburbs officially had the most Sears houses, but Downers Grove has come out on top today.

Sears Elsmore at 5210 Grand, Downers Grove. Photo courtesy of Chuck Holtzen.

Are you interested in finding the hidden Sears kit houses in your community? Email me!

One Man's Trash is Another Man's Treasure

730 E. Downer, Aurora.

Sears Modern Home No. 126.

This poor, neglected Sears No. 126 is located in Aurora and was built in 1908-1909.

It still has the original windows that Sears described as "Queen Anne style" and possibly the original front door as well. Can you imagine how charming it would look fixed up with all the garbage removed? Let me help you picture it...

Another Sears No. 126 at 745 Atalanta, Webster Groves, MO. To date, there have been 11 Sears No. 126 houses located nationwide. Photo from Realtor site.

Sears sold the No. 126 from 1908-1914. It has an interesting layout for such a compact house.

A spacious reception hall leads into a 27' living room. Sears said that the large room was meant to serve as a combination living room/dining room, although it was not marked as such on the floor plan. The bathroom is located between the two bedrooms. Each bedroom has a corner closet to make the sides of the rooms symmetrical. The kitchen is decent sized for the time at 11' x 13'6".

In the Modern Homes catalogs, Sears listed the cities in which the No. 126 was built. Aurora was one of those cities listed, and this was likely the actual house.

The original owners were Michael P. and Lena Schiltz.  Michael was a sheet metal worker (a.k.a. a "tinner"). The Schiltz's lived in the house until 1913 when they sold to Henry and Mary Dissell.

This is the Way a Sears Winona is Supposed to Look

It's so refreshing when you come across a Sears bungalow that hasn't lost its original charm after 90 years. This Sears Winona in Aurora exemplifies why Sears houses were so popular with American consumers in the 1920's.

228 S. Commonwealth, Aurora. Photo from Realtor site.

Sears Winona.

Photo from Realtor site.