A Clutch Of Columbines

Today, I'm going to present a small group of Columbines. A clutch... of Columbines.

Not this Columbine:

Which, according to Martha Stewart Weddings, looks nice in a bohemian clutch, with pansies and brodiaea....

But, rather, the Sears Columbine... a nice little house that they offered from about 1918-1929:

The Sears Columbine, as shown in the 1929 Sears Modern Homes catalog.
Bedrooms on the upper floor were an available option, for about $220 more, in 1925.

I've been doing a good bit of mortgage research in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania of late. I've run across a couple of examples of a model that I really like, and then my co-researcher, Andrew, ran across one, too... and then I realized that we've found a good number of this little model, especially in Pennsylvania. This model is the Sears Columbine, offered in the Sears Modern Homes catalogs from about 1918-1929.

So, let's take a look:

We've found them in stucco:

40 W. Wissahickon Avenue, Flourtown, Pennsylvania (Springfield Township).
This house is authenticated. Frank and Emily Sanson took out a $4,800 mortgage with Sears, in 1924, to build this house. 

same house, at 40 W. Wissahickon Avenue -- The wrought iron eagle may have been added in the 1960s, when Early American design elements were very popular in the east. My family had one over the fireplace.

Another authenticated Columbine in Flourtown, Pennsylvania: 6332 Arlingham Road (located by Andrew Mutch)

 We've found them in wood:

This one is in Delaware, Ohio, at 248 West Lincoln Avenue, and is also authenticated. The earliest catalog examples included the dentil trim along the curved roof of the porch.  Both Andrew Mutch and Cindy Catanzaro brought this beauty to my attention.

This one is in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, at 205 Irene Street, found for us by Karen DeJeet.

 We've found them with wings:

Karen located this Columbine, as well: 921 Fawcett Avenue, McKeesport, Pennsylvania

another view

...and without:

Another example with the triptych window upstairs, in the front gable: 849 Edkin, West Chester, Pennsylvania

And, we've even found them in brick (veneer, that is):

Sears Columbine at 205 Parkside Avenue, Reading, Pennsylvania

Another view of that same house, and, again, this house was located by Andrew Mutch.

Inside The Columbine
Here is the floor plan, which didn't change over the 11 years that the Columbine was offered:

And, bedrooms could be finished off upstairs, for an extra fee:

This is from the 1925 catalog. This option cost $236 in 1929.

And, here's what the standard price included:

This is the base price that the Sansons would probably have paid for their Flourtown, PA, Columbine, in 1924. Their mortgage of $4,800 probably included the extra cost for stucco, and the price of construction labor. I believe that wiring and bathroom fixtures were an extra fee, as well.

The Other Porch Option
The Columbine is one of the few Sears houses that offered a different style porch as a standard option, not a specialized customization. If you ordered the B model of the Columbine, you got this look to your front porch:

This is from my 1929 catalog (actually, it's Cindy Catanazaro's catalog, scanned for me by Lauren, of Daily Bungalow ).

The catalog shows an off-set gabled porch roof for option B. But, we've found an authenticated, 1925 Columbine, in Maryland, with a wide, centered gabled front porch roof. It looks great:

7719 Carroll, Takoma Park, MD • 1925
This house was located through mortgage research by Andrew Mutch, and is an authenticated Sears house.

To close up, here's the view of the Columbine that was shown in the earliest years that it was offered. This is from the 1922 catalog:

As Cindy always says: Thanks for following along!

And, if you're interested in seeing a collection of Sears Clyde examples, check out her latest blog post, here, at Sears Homes in Ohio.