Sears Gladstone-B Model In Pittsburgh, Pennsylania

Sears Gladstone, Floorplan B, circa 1930 • 1026 Homer Avenue, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Ross Township

Sears Gladstone, new 1930 Floorplan 

Though we have literally hundreds of Sears Gladstones and Sears Langstons on our national database of Sears houses in the U.S., we have only some Gladstones with the B floor plan-- the new option beginning in 1930. And, until this Pittsburgh Gladstone-B went up for sale, I don't think that we had really seen the interior of a home with that B floorplan. So, this is a real treat! And, it will help us identify other homes that we suspect may be Gladstones... especially when they have had their front porch enclosed, like this one.

The current owners got in touch with us on our Sears Modern Homes FaceBook page, after seeing a great 2017 newspaper article by Stephanie Ritenbaugh, in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. It featured our friend and fellow researcher, Karen DeJeet, who lives in a Sears Hamilton in Pittsburgh. Lots of people commented on the newspaper's FaceBook listing of the article, and I, in my role as admin of the Sears Modern Homes FB page, had been commenting back and forth with the folks who were telling us about Sears houses that they knew.

Daniel Luttner then contacted us on our FB page, to tell us about his house. They had learned, from  neighbors, about the history of the original owners offloading the building supplies for the kit, after having picked up their shipments at the train depot, and hauling them back to their lot on Homer Avenue. Because the front porch had, since then, been half enclosed, Daniel and his wife had had some trouble figuring out for certain what model their house might be. And, of course, there's always the possibility that a suspected kit house is from a different company... but, in our discussions, Daniel Luttner and I came to realize that their house was a reverse-floorplan Gladstone with the plan B layout.

One of the key details that helped us know for sure that this was a Sears kit, was the discovery that the door handle hardware on all of the interior doors, is the Sears La Tosca door handle... we've never seen that door hardware offered by any other company.

Here's La Tosca as shown in my 1930 Sears Building Supplies catalog, which is not available online. But, you can see La Tosca on this page of the 1929 Sears Building Supplies catalog.

Sears La Tosca in the Luttners' Gladstone-B at 126 Homer Avenue, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

When we find La Tosca in a house, we know that the building supplies were from Sears... and, if the house itself also matches the look and layout of one of the houses in the Sears Modern Homes catalogs (which is usually the case), then we know that the house was a kit from Sears. Ideally, we'd like to also find blueprints, or a record of a mortgage through Sears, or stamped lumber showing that the house was a kit, but we usually don't find those things, and we don't have that with the Luttners' Gladstone. Still, we're confident it is a Sears kit house!

Finding Marked Lumber In A Sears Kit House
One of the most likely spots to find marked lumber, is on exposed joists visible in the basement, but this house has a nicely finished basement, so the lumber is no longer exposed (and, even when the lumber is not covered over, sometimes the markings have simply faded over time). Sometimes, during renovations, folks find marks on the back of staircases, or on the ends of wood pieces long hidden by plaster or plasterboard walls. In this 2017 blog post of mine, about a Sears Winona in Affton, Missouri, I discussed how and why Sears marked the lumber in their kits, and showed where I found just two marked pieces in that house... very faded. Here's one of the photos I showed, followed by two nice, dark stamps found in a Sears Hamilton in Novi, Michigan (that home, owned by researchers Andrew and Wendy Mutch, was the subject of this great little NBC Nightly News segment in 2017!)

Basement lumber, marked, but nearly faded away, in that authenticated Sears Winona in the St. Louis area.

Here's Andrew holding a piece of marked lumber that he and Wendy discovered, during bathroom renovations in their Novi, Michigan Sears Hamilton. (From this interview with Kevin Tibbles, on NBC Nightly News ).

Thanks to having been enclosed behind walls for many, many decades, these end-of-board markings from Sears were still nicely visible (again, from Andrew and Wendy's house-- learn more about Andrew's research here, on his blog, Kit House Hunters .)

The Layout Of The Gladstone-B
Getting back to the Luttners' Gladstone in Pittsburgh, let's first look at the floorplans for this model.

Here's what the 1932 Sears Modern Homes catalog shows-- I've indicated the Plan-B floorplan:

You can see this for yourself, here on Archive.org.

What's interesting, though, is that, when this new floorplan was introduced, in the 1930 catalog, Sears referred to it as the B floorplan, in the text of the catalog page for this model. However, when labeling the floorplan images, they mistakenly labeled the new B floorplan as the A floorplan!:

Oops! Sears mis-labeled the images in the 1930 catalog.
 I wonder if this was corrected in other 1930 catalogs (Sears usually had a few different versions of their Modern Homes catalog each year... released in different months, and sometimes edited differently for different areas of the country).

Back in 2015, I did an extensive blog post about the Sears Langston vs the Sears Gladstone. The Langston was the original name of this model, when it was introduced in 1916. In 1925, the name was changed to Gladstone, and in 1930, the Gladstone was offered with the optional B floorplan. The model was modified again in the late years of the Sears Modern Homes era, with a re-working of the look, in the 1938 catalog. Here's a quick synopsis, but the blog post explains more and shows images:

You can read all about this model in this 2015 blog post of mine, that begins with the presentation of a testimonial Sears Langston I tracked down in McKeesport, Pennsylvania.

The Gladstone-B At 1026 Homer Avenue, has the reverse floorplan from what is shown in the catalog. This was something that Sears advertised that they were happy to do for their customers, and we see this quite often, for all models.

Reversed floorplan for the Gladstone-B Sears model

Let's start by looking at the entry vestibule and staircase location on this floorplan. Take a look at the floorplan above... this is the area in the front of the house, over to the right. The floorplan shows that there is a window at the base of the stairs, on the side, and that that there is a closet at that first landing of the staircase. And, you can just see the vestibule, to the right, in the photo below:

In a bit, I'll show you this Sears staircase newel, and these spindles from Sears, and the interior door from Sears.

There's the La Tosca door hardware, on both the closet door, and the entry door. Here's our entry vestibule, which is not present on the earlier, Plan-A floorplan. I'll show you this entry door, too -- it's from the Sears catalog, of course!

The floorplan shows how the living room is off to the side of the little hallway that you walk into, from the entry vestibule.
In the Homer Avenue house, the original front porch was enclosed. Normally, in this large entry to the now-enclosed front porch area that we see here, to the right of the TV, you would have seen a bank of three big windows, on the plan-B layout.

Here's one of the only other Gladstone-B examples that we have on our national database list. This house in White Plains, New York, shows what the original porch looks like for this model, with those Gladstone-era porch columns (they were different in the Langston era), and we can see the set of three windows:

This Gladstone-B model, on Doyer Avenue in White Plains, New York, was located by Andrew Mutch.
It has a teeny little triangular vent added to the roof. The Gladstone wasn't shown in the catalogs with a dormer, but many of them have a full dormer, like the house on Homer Avenue. This White Plains Gladstone-B also has an additional upstairs side window, not shown on the catalog image, nor on the Homer Avenue house in Pittsburgh.

Here's the Gladstone-B, shown in the 1932 catalog -- no dormer. The B floorplan also has an additional side entry, which the original floorplan did not have. 

The original Gladstone-A / Langston floorplan does not have that additional side entry. Here's that side of the house on an authenticated 1925 Gladstone-A that I located through mortgage records:

This Gladstone-A has a reverse floorplan, but we see the side, here, where the side entry is located on the B floorplan.
This house is in Hatboro, Pennsylvania.

On the original layout (floorplan-A), the staircase is accessed from a wall in the back of the living room, with a closet next to it, as you see in these examples:

Here's that staircase, in the back of the living room, with a mirrored closet door next to it. Sears offered a variety of door style and wood trim styles in this era. This authenticated 1926 Sears Gladstone-A is located in Hamilton, Ohio, and was located through mortgage research by researcher Cindy Catanzaro, who writes the blog, Sears Houses In Ohio.

This Gladstone-A image shows how the dining room comes off of the living room, in the original, A-plan layout.
This authenticated Gladstone was located through mortgage records, by Andrew Mutch, and is located in Croton-On-Hudson, New York state.

This Gladstone has Sears Stratford design door handle hardware, and trademark Sears hinges (called the ornamental half-butt hinge in this 1912 building supplies catalog) on that closet door. It's located in Kirkersville, Ohio, and was found by Andrew Mutch.

Even with a very modernized facelift, we can see that this looks like another example of an original A-plan layout Gladstone. However, the lack of closet next to the staircase, tells us that we can date this house to the earliest floorplan of this model, the earliest years of the Langston (which had no closet here). This house is located in Ellwood City, Pennsylvania, and was located by Andrew Mutch. It has non-standard porch columns, so they don't match either the Gladstone or the Langston.

As you can see with the original layout of the Langston and Gladstone, the front porch shows not a triple bank of windows, but a single window, and then a pair of windows. Here is how that looks, as seen on the Gladstone-A in Croton-On-Hudson, NY:

Gladstone-A front facade on the house in Croton-On-Hudson, NY

Let's look at the rest of the real estate listing's beautiful photos for our Gladstone-B model on Homer Avenue:

The kitchen cabinets and counters are not original, but that's no-doubt a good thin. This is a beautiful, well-equipped kitchen, with far more counter space and storage than would have been found in the original Sears kitchen.

This is a great view of how the hallway of the B floorplan leads straight from the the entry vestibule back to the kitchen.

From The Catalogs
I always love to be able to show where the various elements of our houses are shown in the original catalogs--either the Sears Modern Homes Honor Bilt catalogs, showing mostly the models, or in the Sears Building Supplies catalogs. Here are a few aspects of the Homer Avenue Gladstone, as shown in the catalogs. These catalog images are all from my own 1930 Sears Building supplies catalog, but should all be visible in this online 1930 Building Supplies catalog (a different version than I have), or in others that I have links for here on this page of my blog.

Sears La Tosca door handle hardware

One of the more attractive Sears entry doors, available in different sizes, thicknesses, and from different woods.

The Sears "regular two-panel design" interior door, which buyers could also opt for in the "Inverted" version (upside down)
You can click on the image, or pull out, to see these catalog images in larger format.

Here's one of the Craftsman style stair newels offered by Sears.

Yup, those are Sears staircase balusters!

Sears offered several options of Craftsman-style door and window trim.
The Homer Avenue house has what was called "Back Band Trim" .

I have thoroughly enjoyed learning more about the layout of the Gladstone plan-B model. What a great house this is, in fantastic condition. I know that the Luttners have enjoyed it, and now it's time for a new family to settle in. I hope they'll be as excited as we are about the piece of Americana that they are buying, and will respect and love the history of this home.

Sears Elsmore, "House That Thrift Built", In Kirkwood, Missouri

Authenticated Sears Elsmore • circa 1917 • 1350 Forest Avenue, St. Louis, Missouri (Kirkwood area)

Sears Elsmore in the 1918 Sears Modern Homes catalog

I have wanted to write about this authenticated Sears Elsmore in Kirkwood, Missouri, for several years. I first heard about it from fellow researcher Cindy Catanzaro, who found a newspaper mention of the house, and shared it with me, since this is where I live. However, when I went to take my own photos, I wasn't happy with the quality of photo that I was able to get-- the photos just didn't do justice to the house. 

Now, however, I am delighted to see that there is a real estate listing for this beautiful Sears house, and the photos, by St. Louis photographer John Flack, are wonderful! Time to show them off!

Sears Model No. 208 Becomes The Sears Elsmore

The Elsmore was first offered in 1913, as model No. 208. In 1916, Sears began marketing the models with names, rather than simply numbers, and this model became the Elsmore. Here it is, in the 1914 catalog:

This snippet is from an earlier blog post of mine, about a beautiful, authenticated, 1924 Sears Elsmore in Overland, Missouri, also in St. Louis County. That earlier blog post discusses a bit on the evolution of the design of this model.

The 1918 catalog really gives the Elsmore its due, with a full-color rendition:

Sears Elsmore in the 1918 Sears Modern Homes catalog

The House That Thrift Built

The newspaper snippet that Cindy sent me, was a 1921 piece that was shared nationally, in newspapers across the U.S. (I've found it in Montana, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Ohio, Delaware, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, and Pennsylvania). The author was Hazel Blair, and the byline mentions that the story was "Written For the international News Service". Hazel Blair was a woman ahead of her times, working for St. Louis area newspapers in the early 1920s, and later for the New York Times and The Washington Post, with at least one article sold to the Saturday Evening Post magazine. This 1923 mention of her, appeared on page 38 of the November 14th issue of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, in a large article about women successful in writing, entitled, "Have Won Recognition in Literary Pursuits":

Link to article

source

Hazel Blair hailed from a family of successful women, apparently, as this 1924 St. Louis Post-Dispatch story, about her aunt, Mrs. Emily Newell Blair, mentions that Hazel is accompanying her aunt back to Missouri to vote in the presidential election, and explains that Mrs. Emily Newell Blair was the vice chairman of the Democratic National Committee, and slotted to hold a cabinet position if the democratic candidate, Johnson W. Davis, won the election (remember, too, that this was only the second US presidential election that saw women able to vote in this country!):

That election, however, saw Republican Calvin Coolidge take the white house (Calvin Coolidge had earlier been mayor of the town where I was born, Northampton, Massachusetts, and where our family's 1911 Sears No. 110 still stands)

Source: Wikipedia, accessed October 4, 2019

But, getting back to Hazel Blair, and the Sears Elsmore she wrote about: In 1921, Hazel Blair wrote a little article about two St. Louis sisters, Hazel and Mildred Evans, who worked for the telephone company, and who decided that they wanted to have their own home. According to the story, they dreamt of having a little bungalow with a fireplace, and a "nifty lawn", and through thrift, they saved their pennies, and finally ended up building this very house on Forest Avenue, in Kirkwood, Missouri. They began by building a garage on their land, and lived there, while saving up for their house. They invited friends to help them with a "basement digging party", and then enlisted a local contractor to build their home, which they named, "Hazelen"(this surely is derived from a blending of the sisters' two names, which the 1930 census shows to be Hazel and Helen, not Hazel and Mildred, as the newspaper story says).

Here's the start of Hazel Blair's December, 1921 newspaper article about the Evans sisters and their Sears Elsmore in Kirkwood, Missouri.... "Written for the International News Service". Snipped from The Morning News, Wilmington Delaware, page 2 of the December 20, 1921 issue.

Many of the articles posted the story along with an image of an Elsmore... or maybe even the Elsmore that the Evans sisters built:

I believe that this is the original article that Cindy sent me, from page 6 of the December 20, 1921 issue of the Minneapolis Star (Minneapolis, Minnesota).

Here is the full text of the article-- some include Hazel Blair's name and the International News Service part of the byline, but this one does not:

From page 1 of The Evening News (Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania), December 15, 1921

I don't know if the current owners know of the full history of the house, but they do know that it is a Sears house. I also don't know for how long the Evans sisters lived in the house, but they are listed here in both the 1930 and 1940 U.S. Census lists, and also are shown in a cute 1952 newspaper story. Here they are in the 1930 census:

1930 U.S. Census, showing Hazel Evans and Helen Evans on Forest Avenue (no street numbers are given that year).
Click the image to enlarge.

In the 1952 newspaper photo, Hazel and Helen are shown tending to goats on their property on Forest Avenue in Kirkwood. The title of the selection of photos, is, "They Like Retirement", and the photos illustrate the retired lives of several St. Louisans who through "developing old hobbies and new interests... combine activities with leisure". Hazel and Helen retired in 1945 and 1942, respectively, and then enjoyed raising goats, to sell their milk, and their (goat) kids, while also keeping up with raising vegetables and chickens, and remaining active in politics and civic affairs:

From page 134 of the May 18th, 1952 issue of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Interestingly, later that decade a line drawing of the Elsmore, with the line, "The House That Thrift Built", was used in a 1928 newspaper ad for Ithaca Savings and Loan Association, shown on page 6 of the January 20, 1928 issue of the The Ithaca Journal (Ithaca, New York):

source

The Current Version Of the House

Over the years, the house has had substantial additions, including an awesome greenhouse-style sun room. The yard is luscious, and full of seasonal plantings in the front, on the sides, and in the back. It's really a beautiful place. Let's take a look... starting with the current property sketch (from the St. Louis County assessor's website). Only the grey area is the original Elsmore... all of the rest are tasteful additions added to the proprty.

The house is a new listing, by the Kirk Holton Team of the Janet McAfee agency here in St. Louis. Here is their listing, and here is the house on Zillow and on Realtor.com (I include those last two, because listing photos usually disappear after a house is sold, on most real estate agency websites, but will remain on Zillow and Realtor.com much longer). The photos are the work of talented St. Louis photographer John Flack, who kindly reached out to me to share his high resolution versions of these photos, which you can see here. They're stunning.

The house still has many original details. For example, the Elsmore is one of the Sears models that has the trademark Sears porch columns and 5-piece eave brackets. You can see them on the catalog image, where you can also see that the front porch railings are also the original design from the original Sears kit:

Original Sears five-piece eave brackets, Sears porch columns, and Sears front porch railings, from the original Sears kit!

The gorgeous front door is the Sears Craftsman-M model oak door, shown here in the 1918 Sears Building Materials catalog, along with what we call, "the Sears hinge" (because Sears is the only company we've seen including this particular hinge on their houses), and the Chicago design door hardware:

Sears hinge from my 1918 Sears Building Supplies catalog.

And, here it is! On the front door.

We also see this hinge, in a smaller size, on the little square windows above and to the sides of the fireplace in the living room:

Sears hinge, again... living room fireplace windows.

Beautiful patina on the front door handle hardware, which is the Sears Chicago Design style

Sears Chicago Design door hardware, in my 1918 Sears Building Materials catalog. Other companies offered a similar design, though sometimes the hole pattern for where the screws would go, is different for the design offered by other companies. It looks like the Forest Avenue Elsmore uses the "Old Copper" finish.

Additionally, in the light-blue, first-floor bedroom that now has the piano in it, with beautiful wood floors, we see the Sears five-panel interior door, with another hinge that was offered by Sears in the early years (though this design, unlike the first hinge shown, above, was also used by other companies):

Sears five-panel door with Sears hinge, with Sears Chicago Design door hardware

More Sears Chicago Design door hardware

To give you an idea of the lush setting of this house, take a look at this 2015 Google maps Streetview image:

You really should click to enlarge, or go directly to the Google map to see this lush lot, yourself.

If you're interested in seeing another Sears Elsmore in the St. Louis area, I've written previously about this authenticated Elsmore in Overland, Missouri (St. Louis County). 

I'm sure that this house won't last long on the market. I just hope it doesn't fall the way of so many historic Kirkwood homes that go up for sale lately... particularly if they are on a large lot, as this one is... they are bought by a developer, scraped, and some unsightly, huge, vinyl-clad McMansion goes up in its place. Heaven forbid that this happens to the wonderful House That Thrift Built!