Canton’s historic Ridgewood neighborhood features some of the city’s most beautiful and elegant residences of the early 1900s, and at least one of those houses came from Sears. M.J. Albacete in “Historical Architecture in Canton 1805-1940” says the Sears Magnolia, at 424 19th St. N.W., a design adapted from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s house in Cambridge, Mass., was the top of the line in the 1918 Sears catalog. Contractor Clarence R. Swallow supervised a two-man crew and said it was like a “giant jig-saw puzzle.” The materials were top quality, he said, but sometimes it took as long to find the right piece as it would have to cut the wood.
“The Magnolia was Sears’ most elegant model, with eight spacious rooms and two and one-half baths behind its Southern-mansion facade,” write H. Ward Jandl and Katherine Cole Stevenson in the article “Special Delivery — Houses by Sears” in the February/March 1989 issue of “Timeline.” “This Magnolia was built for a Canton lawyer in the early 1920s.”
Six two-story Corinthian columns, three per corner, support the porch roof, a cornice wraps around the entire building, a fan light and side lights grace the front door, and the larger porch roof shelters a small balcony above the front door. Drawings in the advertisement portray an elegant colonial-style interior that could have come straight from Williamsburg if not for the electric lights. Painted wood panels, crown molding and interior columns decorate the living room and reception hall, French doors divide rooms, and servants quarters connect by a stairway to the kitchen. “We furnish oak flooring, birch doors and birch trim for the reception hall, living room, dining room and sun parlor,” says the ad.
Sears sold house kits from 1908 to 1940. Hodgson Company, Aladdin Homes, and Montgomery Ward also sold architectural plans and houses, but Sears was the largest, with sales at 30,000 in 1924 and 50,000 in 1930. The package contained plans, specifications and materials — nails, shingles, hardware. Precut lumber reduced labor when power tools were less common than now, says “Timeline.”
Customers could order from catalogs, and in 1919 Sears opened its first office specializing in houses sales, in Akron. By 1930, 350 salespeople worked in 48 sales offices east of the Mississippi and north of the Mason-Dixon Line, including Canton, Youngstown and several other Ohio cities. Customers could select the model that fit their taste and wallet, including two-room cottages, Craftsman-style bungalows, Prairie-style houses following the designs of Frank Lloyd Wright, and several revival styles. The longest lived style was the Winona, sold from 1916 to 1940. Customers could modify floor plans and substitute materials.
All materials were shipped by rail, one house worth of material fitting into two boxcars if it were to be shipped in toto. Material was shipped in groups so materials were delivered as needed. About 30,000 parts, including nails and screws, were used for each house.
Honor Bilt Modern Homes were of the best quality and were the best selling houses, using cypress siding and red cedar shingles. Standard Built houses usually used the same designs but lower grade material, were more lightly framed, and were recommended for warmer climates, and lumber was shipped uncut. Simplex Sectionals were small cottages or garages fabricated at the factory and were more lightly framed than Standard Built houses.
The Timeline article says there was no typical Sears house, but they had a few similarities: ceilings were 9 feet on the first floor and 8 feet 2 inches on the second, rooms were small, many models had built-in bookcases in the living room and a built-in buffet in the dining room, leaded glass windows often flanked the fireplace, and kitchens sometimes had breakfast nooks.
The article says company records for the Modern Homes program were destroyed when Sears stopped production and identification of the houses is difficult. Sears marked bathroom and hardware fixtures, and the back of moldings may bear the Norwood Sash and Door Manufacturing Co. imprint. Catalogs are rare, but I found a few books about Sears homes in an Amazon search. Evidence may be found in mortgage records and the property abstract.
Martha McClaugherty, chair of the Alliance Area Preservation Society, said she has found houses in Alliance that may be Sears kits, but she has no proof, and acquiring that proof requires a large amount of time and inspection of property records. Anyone who has a Sears home is invited to contact me at The Review, and if enough are found, I would like to produce a photo essay for a future issue.