Three Pennsylvania Kit Houses: Shadow Lawn, Alhambra, Elsmore

Aladdin Shadow Lawn • 1536 W. Ingomar Road, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Aladdin Shadow Lawn in the 1920 Aladdin Homes catalog

We have a new researcher in our group, and today I'd like to showcase three of her finds: an Aladdin Shadow Lawn, a Sears Alhambra, and a Sears Elsmore.  

Sara  Fortnam grew up in a Sears Yates (that I wrote about, here), and has been a secret Sears homes researcher for a good while.  We brought her out of the closet! 

In addition to finding Sears homes, Sara has been keeping an eye out for other kit homes, and found us this great Aladdin Shadow Lawn on West Ingomar Road in Pittsburgh.  We don't have anything to authenticate it, but the Shadow Lawn has a very distinctive look, and this one fits the size, the window and door placements, the height, and the bracket placement of the Shadow Lawn.  

• To see a Zillow listing with interior photos of this house, click here

• To see a beautiful, authenticated Shadow Lawn in Bennington, Vermont, and learn more about the Shadow Lawn, and its predecessor model, the Aladdin Massachusetts, click here.

• To see a Zillow listing for another authenticated Aladdin Shadow Lawn (with gorgeous interior photos!), this time in Greensboro, NC, click here

Sears Alhambra

Sears Alhambra • 6830 Church Avenue, Ben Avon, Pennsylvania (Greater Pittsburgh area)

There's nothing we like more than a beautiful Sears Alhambra ! This one, in the Pittsburgh suburb of Ben Avon, is a real beauty with that pale blue stucco.

• You can see the Alhambra in the 1921 catalog, here

• You can see a beautiful Alhambra in Hopewell, NJ, here, with interior photos, in a previous blog post

Let's take a look at some additional views of our Ben Avon Alhambra. All images with the awning are from Bing maps, and those without the awning are from Google maps streetview.

Sears Elsmore

Sears Elsmore • 1686 Philadelphia Street, Indiana, Pennsylvania

The Elsmore is at the top of everyone's list as a favorite bungalow. And, look at this one! Sara tells us that this home was in danger of being demolished when road work was being done in Indiana Borough, but the town went to bat for it, and saved it from the wrecking ball. Thank heavens! 

The Elsmore is an early model, and shares a floor plan with the early Sears No. 126. There were two floor plans of the Elsmore, one with a flat-front entry on the first floor, inside the porch, and another with a recessed center section for the entry, with big sidelight windows on either side of the front door.  The catalog image above, is from the 1923 Sears Modern Homes catalog. 

Here are a couple more views of the Indiana Borough Elsmore... featuring the town's beautiful "35 MPH" speed limit sign ;)  These images are all from Google Maps streetview, so we take what we can get, eh?

• To see an authenticated Sears Elsmore (my very favorite Sears home in the St. Louis area!), and learn more about the Elsmore model, click here to read my previous blog post.

• To learn more about historic Indiana Borough, Pennsylvania, click here. The majority of the buildings in their historic district date from 1870-1930, with a few from as early as 1824.

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

For more information on who we are, and what we do, visit our website: SearsHouses.com