The Garage In The Mail

1920s Mail-order Garage

1920s Mail-order GarageIf you ordered your house in the mail, some 90 or 100 years ago, and you had enough land (and money for a car) left, you might have wanted a garage as well.

So, not surprisingly, all the major kit house manufacturers–in the DC area mainly Sears and Lewis, but also Aladdin and Gordon-Van Tine–sold garage kits in their catalogs as well. The styles often neatly matched the homes with their exposed rafters, hipped roofs, pretty cedar siding or whatever features the house itself sported.

This blue garage here I spotted during the Takoma Park House & Garden Tour yesterday, in the backyard of a lovely Sears house. (Note that the former driveway had long been blocked by a deck; most modern cars no longer fit into these garages.)

1920s mail -order garage in catalogTrying to verify that it was indeed a kit garage, I went through stacks of 1920s catalogs last night–only to find out the model was actually sold not by Sears but by one of its biggest competitors.

“Ready-Cut Garage No. 102” was offered in the 1923 catalog of Gordon Van-Tine.

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If you own (or live in) a Sears house or other mail-order/ kit house, please click here

2012 Takoma Park House & Garden Tour

Cati and I had the pleasure of meeting Diana Kohn (President) and Lorraine Pearsall (VP for Preservation) of Historic Takoma, Inc.*  Cati has been involved in the upcoming Takoma Park House & Garden Tour, having sold one of the houses on the tour (and discovering in the process that it belonged once to the daughter of Frederick Douglass!).  Long story short, she was able to identify several houses on the tour as Sears Kit Houses (our specialty!), much to the delight of an owner or two.  We were treated to a mini walking tour on Wednesday.  It was a lovely indulgence!

Anyway, the Takoma Park House & Garden Tour is this Sunday, May 6 from 1-5 pm, rain or shine.  For ticket and tour information, visit HistoricTakoma.org

There are some real beauties on the tour, ranging from old to new.  Don’t miss it!

(If you own (or live in) a Sears house or other mail-order/ kit house, please click here)

*(Historic Takoma, Inc. [HTI] is a membership-based, all-volunteer, 501(c)3 non-profit organization, founded to preserve the heritage of Takoma Park, MD and the Takoma Park neighborhood of DC through educational activities and the preservation of historic landmarks and artifacts, especially documentary archives).