An Authenticated Sears Sheridan in Barrington’s Historic District

221 Coolidge, Barrington. This is an authenticated Sears Sheridan built around 1925 (Google Streetview). 

Sears Sheridan from the 1928 Modern Homes catalog.

The Sears Sheridan was marketed as a practical Craftsman-style bungalow with wide eaves, large porch, and a comfortable floor plan suited to middle-class families of the period. 

Today, the large porch is enclosed. 

French doors lead into a warm and welcoming interior. 

The Sheridan living room, as shown in the 1925 Modern Homes catalog.

The living room could be built as a separate space or combined with the dining room, according to Sears specifications. 

Three bedrooms upstairs could be finished at an extra charge of $243. Those are original doors from Sears, so I suspect they were finished at the time of construction.

This bathroom was originally a small third upstairs bedroom.

What makes this house especially interesting is its provenance. The original shipping label survives, showing that the materials were shipped to Irving Schumann, a master carpenter for the Chicago & Northwestern Railway. 

The shipping label with Irving's name on it. Photo courtesy of Matt Hader.

Schumann likely built the house himself, applying his professional skills to construct his family’s home. By 1930, Irving and his wife Frieda had moved to Forest Park. 

Copyright Disclaimer: All photographs in this post (unless otherwise noted) are from real estate aggregate Redfin.com and are used in this post for the purposes of education, consistent with 17 USC §107.

A Custom Sears Home on the Hill!

Beginning in 1930, Sears began heavily promoting their custom home design and construction services.  Instead of choosing from standard house plans, customers could work directly with a Sears architect to design the house of their dreams. Sometimes, these custom houses would loosely resemble kit house models found in the Modern Homes catalogs.

Chicago Tribune ad from 1931. Sears could build you a custom house "costing from $35,000, down to homes that may be owned for a little as $6.00 a week." 

One custom Sears home from this era still stands on a hill in Highwood.

43 Pleasant Ave., Highwood. The house was built in 1930.

In the springtime, this home nearly disappears behind lush foliage!

This custom Tudor Revival cottage features a steeply pitched cross-gabled roof, prominent front chimney, arched entry door with stone surround, and asymmetrical brick-and-limestone façade. The walls are multi-toned brick with limestone blocks. Its tuck-under garage takes advantage of the hilly lot.

The house resembles the Sears Colchester, capturing the same Tudor aesthetic found in many Sears kit homes of the early 1930s.

The Sears Colchester, from the 1930 Modern Homes catalog.

The house has three bedrooms in total.

The house was purchased in July 1930 by George C. and Ruth Kenry, shortly after their marriage. The couple financed the house through Sears Roebuck, taking out a mortgage for $3,350.

George was the chief train dispatcher at the Highwood station for the Chicago North Shore and Milwaukee Railroad. Ruth owned a candy shop in Waukegan.

Beyond his work on the rails, George was also president of the Waukegan Flying Club. The club helped found the Waukegan airport in the summer of 1928 when commercial aviation was still in its infancy.

The Kenrys sold the house in June 1933 to James F. Gherardini.

Nearly a century later, the house on the hill still reflects the dreams of its first owners and the vision of Sears’ architects. 

Highwood has more Sears homes to see!

Copyright Disclaimer: All photographs in this post (unless otherwise noted) are from real estate aggregate Redfin.com and are used in this post for the purposes of education, consistent with 17 USC §107.

The House That Roy Built

The nationwide search for Sears Roebuck houses began in the mid-1970's after The Wall Street Journal published an article about them. Before that, few people knew about Sears houses since they had not been sold in almost 40 years.

However, one group who did know about them were the original owners.

In October 1977, the Detroit Free Press ran a story about Roy Weese and the Sears house he built in Royal Oak, Michigan. The article was distributed nationwide through the Knight-Ridder wire service.

Roy holds the blueprints in front of his house. At 86 years old, he was still living in the Sears home he had built half a century earlier. 

Nearly a century later, Roy’s Gladstone still stands today at 1408 Maxwell Avenue (Google Streetview). 

Back in 1926, Roy purchased a Gladstone model and financed it directly through Sears Roebuck. The Gladstone was a two-story, six-room home with an efficient floor plan and no wasted space.

Roy had never built anything in his life.  Undeterred, he moved his family into a tent on the building site and began the project. The first task was to dig the basement. He dug the 24' x 24' hole with nothing but a hand shovel. When the foundation was complete, the family moved into the basement while construction continued.

Roy told the reporter: 

“You look at the roll of blueprints and you’d think I was going to build a factory. Sometimes I thought I bit off more than I could chew.”

According to Roy, he paid a total of $3,996 for the Gladstone – $2,796 for the materials and $1,200 for add-on costs like hiring a plasterer and electrician.  Occasionally, he paid a carpenter to teach him how to tackle certain tasks, such as hanging a window. He also got help from his nephew and brother-in-law.

Despite the challenges, Roy managed to finish the home, starting in June and completing the house in spring of 1927.

Only two pieces were missing from the house kit: an exterior trim piece and a floor support. Sears instructed Roy to get replacements from a local lumberyard and send the bill directly to them.

Roy’s story is just one of thousands. Across the country, Sears houses still stand, symbols of an era when determination turned blueprints into family homes.