Category: Kit Houses

This Aladdin Needs A Magic Lamp

Catarina Bannier Kit Houses , , , , ,
Kit Houses in Washington DC

It was an exciting moment last year when we discovered this inconspicuous little 1918 American Foursquare in Silver Spring, Maryland. [Click on the thumb prints for larger pictures.]

After much writing and talking about the many Sears and Lewis mail-order homes we have in the DC suburbs, we’d also been looking for evidence of Historic Aladdin kit houses for a while. In archives, we had found a series of picture ads in the Washington Post from the 1910s. They showed how the company — in the pre-cut kit house business even before Sears — had tried to charm the city’s potential home owners and builders. So clearly, there must have been a bunch of those houses built here.

Eventually, we did succeed in finding some truly amazing specimen (pictures to come soon!) as Aladdin offered some of the largest and most luxurious models  of all kit house companies.

The “Standard” was certainly a more moderate house, but the discovery was nevertheless exciting because it was the first Aladdin we spotted here. The playful, pointed yet swinging pitch of the roof and dormer and its 2-foot overhanging extension were the tip-off. They’re less common in other homes from that time, kit or not.

“BEE-UUU-TI-FUL!” cheered Rosemary Thornton, leading kit house expert and author of a bunch of books on the topic, when I shared pictures in a national kit house forum. What we were thrilled with was the fact that the house appeared – at least from the outside – preserved in almost original form. Despite the vinyl siding, it seemed likely that much of the original structure and detail was preserved.

Well, little did we know. Until a couple of days ago, that is, when I discovered that the house was for rent. Marcie and I ran off to have a look. What we saw was not at all what we had expected. The good news: the house was reasonable well maintained, comfortably and in healthy shape. Floor plan, blue grease pencil markings on the lumber and a few other little details confirmed that it was indeed the Aladdin “Standard.” The bad news: other than the walls and door trim, there was nothing left of the house inside. Absolutely nothing.

Hollow-core doors, epoxy hardware, Pergo floors all over and pseudo-contemporary glass light fixtures made it clear that the owner might have appreciated the house as such, but certainly not for its historic value or beauty. I’m not going to ruin this post with the interior pictures we took (although we ended up laughing so hard that it might warrant a follow-up piece here). You can, however, check out the listing agent’s MLS pictures here.

The “Standard” — off Georgia Ave in Downtown Silver Spring — is currently available for rent at $2,200/month by Josh Andrew of Streamline Management in Bethesda.

Fullerland Or Wooderton? A Case Of Hybrid Sears House

Catarina Bannier Kit Houses , , , , ,

 

Customized Sears Woodland-IMG_3066
This 1927 Sears “Woodland” Kit House in Silver Spring, MD, was customized to incorporate features and design elements of the smaller but popular “Fullerton”

There’s a lot of discussion in the historic kit house community about custom built kit houses, and the difficulty they pose when it comes to authenticating a mail-order home. “Custom kit” sounds like a misnomer, but it actually isn’t. The customization was done not on site by the builder but before shipment by a Sears (or Lewis or Wardway, etc.) staff architect, and the kit was then cut, sorted and packaged according to those changed specifications.

All the major mail-order house companies, including Sears and Lewis, the  most popular brands in the DC area, offered such options to the consumer. In fact, national kit house expert and historian Rosemary Thornton (“The Houses That Sears Built”) believes that 30 percent all all ordered kit houses came with some kind of customization.

Some of those customizations were upgrades (like brick veneer instead of wood siding), others had to do with lot restrictions or a family’s size requirements (making a house a couple of feet wider or narrower, or working extra additions like sunrooms or pantries into the  floor plan).

Woodland - 1925 Sears Honor Bilt HomesAnd then there were the ones for the more picky kit house buyer, who just couldn’t find the perfect model in the 135 or so page catalog. The ones that wanted a “Martha Washington” portico on their “Rembrandt”  or different windows, or liked one model but preferred the staircase location of another.

In some cases, the result was a hybrid of different models of the same mail-order catalog. One of those just came on the market in close-in Silver Spring, MD. It’s a 1927 Sears “Woodland” (by dimension, structure, footprint and architectural detail), but received the facade, smaller entry area and stairs of the  (overall much smaller) “Fullerton” model. Obviously, someone did not want to waste space on a useless, if stately, reception hall!

It’s a pretty house, and many other modifications have been made since (such as a powder room in the former first-floor closet or the transformation of one bedroom into a master bathroom). Some of the origins can still be traced nicely–as in the sturdy kit house window trim or the original built-in “medicine case”–, other elements–such as all the door hardware–have been obliterated. You can see excellent pictures of the listing here. The 4-bedroom, 3 1/2-bath house is offered by Re/Max Plus for $699,900.

Fullerton - 1925 Sears Honor Bilt HomesAs always, if you’d like to tour this “Woodland” or any other DC/MD home on the market — kit or contemporary — just let us know!

If you’d like to learn more about the historic 20th century mail-order homes, or if you think you live in one and would like help authenticating it, check out some of our other kit house blogs and posts.

And if you’re thinking you would like to live in an original Sears catalog home… maybe even a Woodland, please get in touch with us.  We are constantly scouring the marketplace for authentic catalog homes, and would be delighted to help you find one of your own.  Fill out the form below, or simply pick up the phone and give us a call.

A Pretty and (Almost) Pure Sears “Puritan”

Catarina Bannier Kit Houses , , ,
Sears "Puritan" catalog house in Washington DC
Sears "Puritan" catalog house in Washington DC
For Rent in Shepherd Park: 1924 Sears Kit House with open kitchen and fenced-in backyard

Cute rental houses with a little yard, on a sweet block and in walking distance to the Red Line metro are hard to come by in Northwest Washington DC these days, let alone at a reasonable price. Thus, we have no doubt that this charming 3-bedroom, 2-bath Sears “Puritan” will be snatched away quickly. It was built in 1924 and just hit the market for rent in Shepherd Park for $2,500 per month.

Pages from 1925 Sears "Honor Bilt" Modern Homes catalog

It’s a smaller model, though perhaps not as small as it seems, but it seems to have been extremely popular. We’ve come across nearly a dozen of them between Takoma Park and Bethesda.

There are currently no MLS pictures online of the Dutch Colonial-style frame home, but when I saw the house last year, it pretty much still looked like in this 2006 photo tour.

Click on the thumb print of the mail-order catalog pages above to see a larger PDF version.

Sears Kit house garages No. 13043 found in aleey in Shepherd park, Washington DC

While the house has been adapted to a more contemporary life style (the kitchen has been opened up at some point, and sliding doors off the dining room now give access to a deck), many details have been preserved. Most doors still have the original “Strathmore” hardware; the front door and many windows as well as much of the trim are intact as well.

Sears kit house garages
“Star Garage” No. 13043 as seen in the 1922 Sears catalog

A charming touch, at least for those of us in the know, is the garage — accessed from the alley — that comes with the house. It was also ordered from the Sears catalog — check out the characteristic 5-piece Sears eaves brackets and the little window above the door. It was offered in several different sizes and with then-high tech tri-fold doors (which didn’t survive).

Wondering why there are two of those garages? Well, the house right next door is a Sears “Fullerton” built at the same time, but in rather sad shape today. Surely, they either had the same builder, or the owners coordinated their efforts.)

As always, if you’d like to tour the “Puritan” or any other DC/MD home on the market — kit or contemporary — just let us know!

If you’d like to learn more about the historic 20th century mail-order homes, or if you think you live in one and would like help authenticating it, check our some of our other kit house blogs and posts.

And if you’re thinking you would like to live in an original Sears catalog home… maybe even a Puritan, please get in touch with us.  We are constantly scouring the marketplace for authentic catalog homes, and would be delighted to help you find one of your own.  Fill out the form below, or simply pick up the phone and give us a call.

 

 

Winsome & Walkable Winthrop

Marcie Sandalow Kit Houses , , , , ,
1928 Beauty- an authentic Sears Winthrop

Painted bright yellow with sky blue shutters, you won’t want to miss this little time capsule of a home, located in the Crestwood section of Bethesda… within walking distance of downtown Friendship Heights. .

The exterior of this particular Winthrop could be lifted directly off of the Sears Kit House catalog page.  The shutters look to be original.  The porch is pristine and still sports the same thin beams.  The front door looks like it might have changed, but the arc of the entryway is spot on, as are the dormers and the chimney.  Inside are a bunch of markers of Sears homes… such as the famous junction blocks at the  stairway trim, the plain-bottom, back band window moldings, the “Narcissus” door knobs or the “Colonial fireplace” the home was endowed with –check out the catalog and real-life pictures below. (Also, you can see the MLS pictures here.)

What really caught my eye, however, were the markings under the basement stairway.  It’s a good thing that I’ve been dieting lately, because I had to squeeze behind the furnace to get a good look.  Why I didn’t think to send my elfin partner Cati in for the task speaks to my reckless enthusiasm upon discovering the markings!  This is the first house where I’ve seen an actual catalog number written in grease pencil on one of the beams.  So, hey- this is an authentic Sears catalog home!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Built in 1928, the original house offered up 2 bedrooms and one full bath. Today it has 3 bedrooms and 2 full baths, thanks to an addition in the back.

On our way out of the house we ran into the owners.  They bought it from the son of the fellow who originally built the house. They actually had heard it was a Sears house, and had even tried to find images, but were unable to identify the house. (Well, actually, if all the kit houses we have here were as easily identified as this one…) The owners told us the house hadn’t been in the best of shape when they purchased it. They tried to preserve as much as they could but the siding unfortunately was beyond repair.

The “Winthrop” is available for $699,500, or you can rent it for $3,125 per month.

Door handle from a Sears Winthrop house in Bethesda
Bedroom door knob (upper left) from the house, and pictures from the1928 Sears catalog

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you’re thinking you would like to live in an original Sears catalog home… maybe even a Winthrop, please get in touch with us.  We are constantly scouring the marketplace for authentic catalog homes, and would be delighted to help you find one of your own.  Fill out the form below, or simply pick up the phone and give us a call.

The Fabulous Tale Of One Family’s Kit Home

Catarina Bannier Kit Houses , , ,
History of a Sears Kit Home

History of a Sears Kit HomeAs Marcie and I have been chasing (and writing about) kit houses for a while, we’ve always been interested in their history, or better: their connection to history. sometimes, I have found an old ad in the Washington Post that advertised a house we identified, or that promoted the local mail-order offices from Sears and Lewis. Sometimes information about the people who lived there in the early years can be found, about their successes or their death.

Most of the time, however, there’s a blank. We can only speculate (and we often do!). More often than not, current kit house owners have no idea their home was built from a kit, and sometimes they have no idea what that even means. (We’ve been asked whether that meant it was “kind of manufactured” or “prefabricated.”) Other people, however, who have heard of kit homes and are excited about them, frequently have come to believe their house is a kit when in fact it’s not.

Rare House HistoryThat said, it’s always delightful to come across a real kit house history, like the one that’ so lovingly documented on this little website. The Troyers of Kansas are telling the almost 100-year old story of their Sears “Concord,” complete with lots of pictures. Gee, I love this. Really.

Romantic Rodessa in Northwest DC’s Kent

Marcie Sandalow Kit Houses , , , ,

If Cati and I had our druthers, we would write about local kit houses on a weekly basis (this has  always been the goal).  Work, however, has a way of interfering with our plans.  I guess we shouldn’t complain!

So, about three weeks ago I headed out with my trusty tape measure to pay a visit to 5414 Hawthorne Place, NW in the District, right along MacArthur Blvd. Had I been a bit speedier with my posting, some of you might have chanced a visit.  As it stands now, the Sears Rodessa (see a pdf of the original catalog page here) bungalow is under contract.  Rats.

Built in 1925, this modified “Rodessa” (click here for MLS pictures) offers up 3 bedrooms and 2 full baths.  It would appear that it started off with a simple 2 bedrooms and 1 full bath (hey- count your blessings. Sears also offered a version without a privy).  Along the way, someone added some really unfortunate faux-stone siding, which remains to this day.  At the same time, they appear to have expanded the front porch to accommodate the massive FormStone® posts, so perhaps it was a good trade-off?  Naah.

Identifying this Sears Rodessa was pretty easy, given all of the clues (again, see pictures at the very bottom of this post):

  • Many exterior finishes survived the not-so-pretty faux stone dress: the exposed pegged rafters under the clipped gable roof and decorative blind boards for instance
  • The front door matches the exact classic bungalow-style door in the Sears catalog.  With 8-glass panels sitting atop a small “shelf”, this one is in the bag
  • The original Sears medicine cabinet with its plain bottom and three-member crown… a dead give-away
  • All the interior window and door trim and much of the hardware (such as the “Stratford” door plates–see pictures in the slideshow below) are preserved, and some are more unusual, for instance the “door butts” or closet hinges.  To be honest, these had us fooled, until Cati spied them in a long lost catalog
  • Many exterior finishes survived the not-so-pretty faux stone dress: the exposed pegged rafters under the clipped gable roof and decorative blind boards for instance
  • The measurements of all the (unaltered) rooms in the front of the house “check out,” meaning, a clone would not adhere to Sears specs

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kent is a popular, if not sleepy little section of Washington, DC.  While it’s hard to know how the Hawthorne house came to the neighborhood, remnants of the old Capitol Transit #20 trolley line (Union Station to Cabin John) are to be found throughout the Palisades, the neighborhood next to Kent. The #20 was a popular route though the Palisades out to the Glen Echo Amusement Park. Chances are strong that the Sears kit house was transported on this very rail line.

 

 

 

 

 

If you think you’ve got a kit house, or if you are interested in living in a kit house- get in touch!  Fill out the form below, or give us a call (yup, we still answer our phones).

reCAPTCHA

 

 

Sears From The Palisades To Silver Spring — A Couple Of Neat New Kit House Listings

Catarina Bannier Kit Houses , , , , ,
Authentic Sears “Colchester” (a 1930s brick version of the popular “Lewiston”) kit house in Silver Spring, Maryland

No matter how busy we are, we always seem to make time to feed our kit house addiction. This week, the scouting produced  two fun early 20th century Sears mail-order houses that hit the market for sale. One of them is a 1925 “Rodessa” in the Kent neighborhood of upper Washington DC  priced at $759,000 which Marcie visited. The other — a listing from our own Evers & Co. office — is a fabulous, updated 1936s “Colchester”/”Lewiston” (pictured left) with 6 bedrooms and 3 full baths in Washington’s Silver Spring suburb, priced at $489,000.  We’ll post more pictures and some exciting details later. For now, you can get some info from the linked MLS fact sheets.

The “Rodessa,” located at 5414 Hawthorne Pl NW, has an Open House from 2 – 5 pm today — you might still make it! And if you’d like to see the “Lewiston,” just let us know!

For those of you who are celebrating the Jewish New Year tonight —  Shana Tovah!

Update on 9/21/2012: You can find the post on the Colchester/Lewiston here.

The Sears “Colchester” as seen in the company’s 1930 mail-order catalog

 

Mysterious Lights Of The North

Catarina Bannier Kit Houses , , ,
push buttons on old light switch in washington DC

push buttons on old light switch in washington DCToday’s Photo Of The Week is a bit of a mystery, and we’re looking for help. Can you explain what this switch was designed to operate? Just the ceiling light (which would be, kind of, north of the person operating the switch)? Or does “N” stand for “no,” i.e., “off?” But if so, what’s with the NE?

Or was it part of the “heating plant?” Or perhaps it connected phone calls to different parts of the house? Or was it connected to a buzzer that summoned the maid?

We found the plate in the upper hall of a 1920s colonial in North Cleveland Park, and it appears to be original to the house that was built from plans by the DC-based Standard Homes Company. The writing that circles the “N” on the buttons on the left spells, “HART & HEGEMAN MFG CO.”

Any ideas?

Citizen Kane and the Vexing Vallonia

Marcie Sandalow Kit Houses , , , ,

We’ve got a new listing in town, and it’s a Sears Kit House… a Vallonia.. perhaps.  “1928 Sears Bungalow” proclaimed the listing description. I was a little puzzled when I first spied it on the MLS because it appeared to be brick, and I’ve only ever seen Vallonias with wood siding.  Lo and behold, when I got a closer look, I discovered that the “brick” was, in fact, fake brick– more like asphalt siding. Sears actually sold brick veneer, then called “face brick” since the 1910s.  It’s also possible the surface was added later and that, as a national kit house expert likes to say, “some siding salesman had his way with it.”

Still, the charm of the house was able to shine through.  The distinctive exterior posts have endured, along with some original windows and doors, and the interior remains pretty true to the catalog drawings. Things started to fall apart when I pulled out the old tape measure.  Room sizes were off an inch here, a foot there.  And while I could explain away the dip in the rear roof to an addition, the second double window at the front should have been my first clue.  I am vexed.

According to the public record, this house was built in 1928.  Back in the day all 12,000 pieces of the Vallonia (give or take) could be had for $2,071.  As always, options were available for improvement (heat, electricity).  An addition has been put on the back of the house, and they modified the stairway to the 2nd floor and basement somewhere along the way.  I didn’t come across any grease pencil marks or identifying stamps on the exposed beams, though there was some writing on one of them… it appeared to be stained.  And if I had my guess at what it said (upside down, of course) it would be:  651 FALLIED.  What the heck does that mean?  Might this be the kit house equivalent of “Rosebud”? We may never know.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This lovely house resides in Brookmont– one of the prettier riverside communities in Bethesda and home to a lot of kayak enthusiasts.  Erich Cabe of Coldwell Banker is the listing agent.  This Sears Catalog House/Sears knock-off boasts views of the Potomac (if you can see through all of the trees!).  It’s got 2 bedrooms and a full bath on the main floor (like the original) and 3 bedrooms and a half bath on the second floor.  The basement is walk-out, and has a few finished rooms, but needs a little more work.  Also to be found: pretty hardwood floors, original trim work in most rooms, and a couple of decks.  Available for $849,000.

As always, let us know if you would like help authenticating your mail-order home or if you like to live in an authentic kit house (or a close copy)!  We would be happy to help you find one.

(September 2017 update: After the discovery of a Sears & Roebuck mortgage for the original construction, we are now 100% certain that the house is indeed the real deal! You can see pictures of other authenticated Vallonias in the DC area here.)

 

The Sears Kit Houses Of Takoma Park

Catarina Bannier Kit Houses , , , , ,
Kit House in Takoma Park MD
A perfectly preserved Sears “Westley” in Takoma Park, Maryland

Washington DC’s streetcar expansion years in the early 20th century went hand in hand with a construction boom and the development of the city’s first suburbs. The Palisades, Chevy Chase, Shepherd Park and Takoma Park were some of the more prominent ones, and they all have one thing in common: an abundance of Sears catalog homes and other kit houses (namely from Aladdin and Lewis Manufacturing Co.). An abundance in relative terms, that is, because so many of them turn out to be copies or look-alikes.

Others are authentic but might have been modified so much over the years that they will be hard to spot and thus will go unrecognized and forgotten. As sponsors of the Takoma Park House & Garden tour, we have been working together with Lorraine Pearsall and Diana Kohn, president and VP of Historic Takoma Inc.. Over the past couple of years, Marcie and I have started to put together a catalog (no pun intended) of mail-order homes in the Takoma Park Historic District. What could be more fun, and what could be a worse thief of sleep than poring over pictures, old listing records and piles of 1920s catalogs?

While we now a list of about five dozen candidates in North Takoma alone, only a fraction of them has been identified and authenticated beyond a reasonable doubt. There are some mysteries we have discovered together, as well as some amazing historic finds.

Historic Takoma will feature our work in a special section on their website once we feel we have enough solid information assembled.

If you think you own (or live in ) a Sears house or other kit home and would like some assistance in authenticating it, I’ll be happy to help! Just fill out this form and I’ll be in touch shortly.
If you provided a phone number, how do you prefer to be contacted?