Sears Hawthorne In Berwick, Pennsylvania

Probable Sears Hawthorne  • 1401 Spring Garden Avenue, Berwick, Pennsylvania

Sears No. 201 (early name of the Sears Hawthorne )

Today, I found a possible Sears house in a real estate listing. I wanted to get a better look, by going to the address on Google maps streetview. Darn! That address, in Berwick, Pennsylvania, was not viewable on Streetview, but I decided that I would plop my cursor down here and there in this sparsely-mapped town, and see if I could find any Sears houses. Third click, and Bam! A wonderful Sears Hawthorne appeared before me!

As I always like to point out, unless we have authenticating materials, like blueprints, or mortgage records, or marked lumber, we hesitate to say that a house is definitely a Sears house. But, when we see doors and windows and dormers and porches all matching up nicely to the catalog image, we're pretty convinced that there's a great probability that the house is a Sears house. And, this house matches up so nicely to the Sears No. 201 / Hawthorne, that I'm pretty confident. This house is, however, lacking a chimney, and it is, as well, the reverse floor plan of what is shown in the catalog (I flipped the catalog image above, so that it would match the house), but both of those are common issues.

Sears No. 201, in the 1914 Sears Modern Homes catalog
NOTE: This earliest version of this model, has no soffit connecting the porch columns to the porch roof,
but later versions do.

1917 catalog image of the Hawthorne, before it had a name
(Thanks to Daily Bungalow / AntiqueHome.org )

Sears Hawthorne, in my 1918 catalog, its last year in the catalogs
We see it here, as well as in the 1917 catalog,
with the new addition of a soffit connecting the porch columns to the roof of the porch.

Floor plan of the Sears No. 201 / Sears Hawthorne 

I don't have anything to tell you about this house -- no interior photos, no history of who lived there, no newspaper stories. I'm just excited to have run across it!

Here's a full-on view of the dining room side of the house. The windows are consistent with the floor plan in the catalog.

The back porch was enclosed.

Here we see the front bay window (on the left), that brightens the front bedroom of the house.

Our fabulous Hawthorne bungalow, straight on from the front.

Other Sears Hawthornes Around the U.S.

Since I don't have any interior photos of the Hawthorne in Berwick, PA, I turned to our private National Database of Sears Homes, because I thought we had one or two with interior views there. Well, one is this wonderful testimonial home, in McHenry, Illinois (Hi, Tami!) that I wrote about in a previous blog post. It was still in renovation mode at that point, so that one won't help much for finished interior views.

But, then I discovered another one, added by a researcher that I don't know, "E. Swegle". Well, E., I hope you don't mind my showing the Hawthorne you found, but it's got great interior views... even if it is a bit of a wreck inside, it really shows off the layout and the original features of a Hawthorne. It was used as a two-family residence, so it has an enlarged dormer in front, and the upstairs...well... you don't want to see the upstairs. But let's see the outside, and some of the first floor, where we find some elements straight out of the Sears catalogs. Images are from this real estate listing.

700 Elk Street, Beatrice, Nebraska • probable Sears Hawthorne

This house follows the standard layout shown in the catalog, with the side bay window of the dining room, on the left side.

The window layout, dormer, and fireplace chimney are correct for the Sears Hawthorne / No. 201

Here's the dining room, and that big, beautiful built-in china cabinet is right out of the Sears building materials catalog.

The dining room, looking at it as it shows the beautiful bay windows.

And, here is the Sears Craftsman China Closet and Buffet, from my 1918 Sears Building Materials catalog.

This stained-glass window is one of two that flank the fireplace.
Here it is, shown in my 1915 Sears Building Materials catalog.

Check out the Sears design brick fireplace... and the lighting fixture is surely from Sears, but I didn't find it in the catalogs.

Et... voilà! 

A little better view
(Plus, if you look closely, you see the lines of the stained-glass windows on each side of the fireplace.)

The front door is the Sears Craftsman R model, with Stratford door hardware, including a round door-bell in the center of the door, that you ring from a little turn-y thing on the exterior side of the door.

This front door hardware may not be Stratford, but the bell fixture is the same concept. Stratford is found all over the inside.

Stratford door hardware

more Stratford door hardware

And, in Michigan...

Our two Michigan researchers, Nigel Tate and Andrew Mutch, have found a couple of very likely Hawthornes, in Michigan.

 In Highland Park:

Probable Sears Hawthorne, 118 Moss Street, Highland Park, Michigan (thanks, Nigel R. Tate!)

...and a little glimpse of the front-bay-window side

In Detroit:

Probable Sears Hawthorne, 4817 Springwells Street, Detroit, Michigan

4817 Springwells, from the other side... we couldn't see this side, originally, but, since Andrew found this one, the house next door has been demolished, and some front shrubbery removed... excellent views, now!

There are also a couple of great looking Sears Hawthornes in this blog post at SearsHomes.org, found by researcher Rebecca L. Hunter, one in Piper City, Illinois, and one in Mattoon, Illinois.

And, Sadly...

We are always saddened to see a historic house demolished. There used to be a house at 16770 Rockdale St, Detroit, Michigan (thanks, realtor and researcher, Nigel R. Tate!) that looks like it was a Sears Hawthorne. It's there in 2013 Google maps streetview, but gone in 2018. 

As a realtor, Nigel has access to old MLS photos, we have a few (albeit blurry) interior photos:

The Hawthorne was the sister model to the Sears Avondale, which was a one-story version of the Hawthorne (or, the Hawthorne was the one-and-1/2-story version of the Avondale, actually). We've found some Avondales that have upstairs rooms, but that do not have the height of the Hawthorne, so we list those as Avondales. When we've been able to see the interiors of these two models, we see that the Hawthorne is a little more straightforward, with beautiful elements, but more traditional lines... but the Avondale... well, it's just stunning inside. Check back for a possible future blog post: Avondales I Have Loved. Ha!