Gordon-Van Tine Dunham, In Bennington, Vermont

Gordon-Van Tine Dunham • 1929 • 924 Gage Street, Bennington, Vermont

Looking around the streets of Bennington, Vermont, I came across this beautiful little house, sold by the Gordon-Van Tine company, as the Dunham. Isn't that the most charming entry porch?

Here's the Dunham in the 1931 catalog, next to the house on Gage Street. There's no mistaking it, that's got to be a Dunham.

 

Those two gabled bump-outs on the right side, are for the dining room, and the breakfast room off of the kitchen. That's an unusual thing to find on one of these small homes, a breakfast room. It looks larger than the workspace of the kitchen.

I found a real estate listing online for our little Bennington Dunham, and here's a photo of the kitchen, with its breakfast room at the end:

I really like the pale, creamy yellow walls, with the pale green tile. And, that woodwork! And the solid-wood door!

And, a view of the kitchen, from the breakfast room. That door leads into the dining room, and the one on the right opens into a broom closet.

Speaking of the dining room, here it is, looking into the kitchen. On the left, the doorway leads into a short hall, with the door that you see straight ahead, opening to a linen closet. To the left, of that closet, is a door to the back bedroom.

Gordon-Van Tine

Gordon-Van Tine was a company based out of Davenport, Iowa, though they also had a large lumber yard in St. Louis, that they used for manufacturing kits. I've learned much of my background on the Gordon-Van Tine company, from research done by Dale Wolicki, and posted on his GordonVanTine.com website. He explains that GVT was the supplier of the wood for the kits sold as Wardway Homes, by the Montgomery Ward Company. 

Source: GordonVanTine.com

Because of the GVT association with Wardway Homes, GVT and Wardway marketed many of the same home models in their catalogs, but with different names. However, 1931 was the last catalog year for Wardway, and, so, no doubt somehow related to that, beginning with the 1932 Gordon-Van Tine catalog, the names in the GVT catalogs changed, and the Dunham became the Erie. I don't believe that Wardway ever sold a model that resembled the Dunham/Erie (I may be wrong -- Dale, if you know differently, please feel free to leave a comment), and didn't run across one in a quick look through the Wolicki/Thornton field guide to Wardway homes.

Here is the same model, marketed in 1936 as the GVT Erie .

Looks like the same floor plan.

The two bedrooms are on this side of the house.

More Kit Homes In Bennington

To read about some of the other kit homes in Bennington, Vermont:

• Here's a post about beautiful Aladdin Shadow Lawn

• Here's a post about several Sears models: The Saratoga and the No. 225