Maplewood Matters

Sears Shelter
Several local properties are hauntingly familiar, and for good reason.
by Maria Morrison Heningburg

Today, it is not unusual to order anything for your home on line - basically, from a catalog. But folks have been ordering household goods, even their actual homes, from catalogs for a hundred years. In our area there are a sizable number of homes that were built from kits, most notably from (surprise!) Sears, Roebuck and Co.

Ordering directly from the Sears catalog, prospective buyers enjoyed the convenience and affordability of a pre-fabricated dwelling. The purchaser would receive all of the necessary supplies in shipments by rail car (a typical house could fit into two boxcars) for assembly either by the new homeowner or a local contractor. But since Sears had its own lumberyard in Newark, which occupied 40 acres, getting a kit home to Maplewood was neither difficult nor expensive.

The first Sears catalog, issued in 1893, featured watches and jewelry, and quickly became an important source for Americans to buy nearly everything they could imagine: canned preserved meats, Nottingham lace curtains, Winchester shotguns, even opium. By the turn of the last century, Sears presented building plans, and everything needed to finish and furnish a home. Then in 1908 Sears introduced their first specialty catalog devoted to houses, featuring 22 styles. The catalogs assured customers that "a man of average abilities" could assemble a Sears kit home in about 90 days. One could hire professional homebuilders, but those who did it themselves saved about 30 percent off the cost of a conventionally built home. In 1908, a contractor charged about $450 to put a kit together. Even then it was considered a bargain.

The Sears catalog homes were made with the finest materials, including cypress for all exterior components such as the window trim and clapboard, and first-growth, top-grade southern yellow pine for framing. Kitchen and bath floors were solid tongue and groove maple. The bungalow on 13 Hudson Street in Maplewood is a lovely example of one of Sears's biggest sellers; today it is owned by Carol Joseph-Arthur.

"When I first stepped inside," she says, "it was the sweetest, calmest house I ever experienced." The open, airy home has lots of big windows, and she knew it was special the moment she crossed the threshold. The bungalow house plan first appeared in the 1915 catalog for a price of $1106. But by 1918 the price for the kit house had almost doubled, to $2192.

The ready-cut housing industry presented consumers with a more cost effective option for new home construction. And while there were several firms who offered "kit" homes, Sears, Roebuck and Co. sold nearly 75 percent of the approximately 100,000 that were built in the United States between 1908 and 1940.

A Sears Osborn model, in Maplewood's Midland Park, is loaded with Arts and Crafts influences such as the stuccowork on the porches, red brick coping, gables and chimneys and a Craftsman front door. Early Sears' models were widely influenced by the Arts and Crafts movement. Architectural historian Virginia Kurshan, chair of the Maplewood Historic Preservation Commission, notes that the Stickley inspiration can be found in many of the Sears home designs and that Maplewood has many "stylistically interesting Sears homes."

Maplewood resident Rick Wessler has enjoyed the detective work involved in determining the history behind Sears houses. He has discovered a kindred spirit in Susan Newberry, long time local history champion, and the tireless president of Maplewood's historic Durand Hedden House & Garden Association on Ridgewood Road. The two teamed up, with many other volunteers, to research and mount a recent exhibit that showcased the works of the prolific architect Kenneth Dalzell, whose work helped to shape early 20th century Maplewood. Along the way they discovered several Sears kit homes.

In Maplewood one of the most popular designs is what was called the Four Square. Akin to a Georgian center-hall colonial, it has a more modest adaptation, usually with the entry off to one side. One stands on Woodside Road, built in 1925; the blueprints survive, archived at Maplewood Town Hall. Another Four Square is located on Essex Avenue and a third, on Salter Place, is owned by Mary Pat Porinchak and Doug Amedeo.

"The house is about to celebrate its 100th birthday," says Porinchak, adding that it was "built in 1911 as the station master's house, with its twin for the South Orange stationmaster."

The former owner, Walter Bach, was a sea captain, and a descendant of composer Johann Sebastian Bach. When they first looked at the home, she says, "There was a large organ in the living room, with a bust of Bach sitting on it." Early real estate ads mention a large chicken coop, which she had briefly considered rebuilding. "We are stoop-sitters, she says fondly. I love sitting on the porch at night listening to the distant sound of train whistles. " The house is on the golf course and they enjoy finding errant balls, amassing quite a collection of Titleists.

The Horowitzes have lived in their Sears home since the 1950s. "I knew it was my house when I peeked in the living room window," Rita Horowitz recalls. However, they did not learn of their home's history until she attended a lecture at Millburn Library. "Someone showed us a photo in a Sears book of the plans of our house. We were stunned, and thrilled." The Horowitz home, on Wyoming Avenue, has been modified in recent years.

"My seven-year-old grandson recently introduced us at Grandparents' Day by describing, in great detail, how our house is very old and when he walks up the tall staircase it goes squeak, squeak, squeak. That just tickled us that even at his age, he recognizes the uniqueness of a home like this."

The Sands family live in what was called a Sears "modern" home. Lynn and Henry's charmer, located on Oakland Road, matches the Barrington style that was offered in the catalog in 1926. Their home was built in 1929.

"I fell in love with my house the moment I walked in the front door," says Lynn Sands. "To learn it was a Sears home was very interesting. I've always appreciated older homes because of the families who shared their lives in them, but the fact that there was a central idea for many homes in our town makes it feel part of the community plan."

A Sears kit home is genuinely a special find. While architectural elements may indicate an authentic Sears kit home, proving this can be daunting, as many homes of the same time period incorporate Sears elements and finishes. Competing kit home manufacturers borrowed heavily from others' designs. And Sears was nearly always willing to customize a house.

Numerous books have been published featuring the styles that were offered. Sears hosts a web site, searsarchives.com, with extensive data on the homes as well as the facts needed to determine if a house was indeed built from a Sears kit.

Striking and well built, a Sears home is an American treasure.

Researching Sears homes has been a very long, exciting adventure for Maria Morrison Heningburg. If you think that you live in a kit home, feel free to contact the author at Heningburg@aol.com.

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