They’re all over the Twin Cities, as there was a huge housing boom among the relatively affluent in the 20’s. I lived in a Craftsman bungalow for almost 20 years. Beautiful place. There are also some in the SF Bay Area, but the big booms there were more in the 30’s and 40’s when Standard Oil was moving in, so people built little 1- and 2-bedroom stucco houses.
Oh, I see what you mean.
For the record, it’s not a Sears craftsman home, either. They stopped selling the houses in the 1940s.
Last year I supervised the remodel on a 1929 for my buddy Jack. There are a ton of them here in the Houston Heights. I also lived in one c1920 while I lived in Dallas.
Capt
Hmmmm. Were there other catalog homes in the 50’s? I’m questioning my information now. I don’t know jack about Mid-century architecture, so i hope i can learn something here.
Aladdin Company was going in the 50s.
Habitat for Humanity did some semi-prefabbing after Hurricane Katrina.
As for nobody building small houses, anyone heard of the “Tiny House” phenomenon? They range from less than 100 to more than 1,000 ft2.
We almost bought one six years ago. It was spectacularly gorgeous. The guy selling it was going though a divorce, had it priced really high and wasn’t willing to budge. We figured he didn’t really want to sell it and was just going through the motions.
My grandpa bought and built one for his family in the 20s or 30s. One of the houses I grew up in was made by Sears, it also had a full, hand dug, basement. It was on a farm. One of my good friends grew up in one. It was a two story one. All of these were in the Willamette Valley in Western Oregon.
I like them, they are well made and ours was very warm in the winter. If I were to find one while house hunting, I would count it as a plus. If I could find one that needed a new yard, I would buy it and relocate it on to my property.
My Mom bought a Crescent my freshman year of college, so it was permanent / summer address for a while. The attic had one big room (we called it the dormitory) and 2 smaller bedrooms.
After my Mom passed away a sister bought it as vacation home.
Brian
Yeah, it’s interesting stuff, but not really mainstream at this point.
One of my relatives owned a Sears catalog home. He loved it. I thought it was kind of crappy, but then I don’t like old houses.
I believe he told me they tended to be along railroad lines, for obvious reasons. Lots of 'em in my area.
I do! You wouldn’t be able to tell if there weren’t a few numbers stamped on some wood in the basement.
I live in a kit house from the 50’s. Didn’t know it until we went to remodel and the house was stripped down to bare boards, then we saw the numbers and letters and the contractors working on the house said there were several “Sears kit houses” in the neighborhood. But when I tried to look up and see what model I had, none of the Sears houses from any decade matched. Aladdin had several models that looked close to mine though and the attic stairs match up with the Aladdin style. So I’ve always wondered if this was an Aladdin house. We’ve never found anything stamped on it anywhere to prove beyond doubt though.
There are lots of Sears houses in the older part of town where I work. I’ve been in quite a few of them. They’ve held up pretty well.