Sears N° 126 In Danville, Kentucky

Probable Sears N° 126 • 202 S Alta Avenue, Danville, Kentucky

Who doesn't love the Sears model N° 126, eh? This is a very early model from Sears, and we're never 100% sure it's the Sears model, when we see one, because there are similar "lookalikes" from other companies.  Here's what it looked like in the catalogs:

The N° 126, as shown in the catalogs, did not have front porch columns. But, that's a huge porch roof, to have no column support, so most examples that we see do have columns. The original design calls for these porch eave supports, and we sometimes still see those, but not always.

The Aladdin Homes company had a very similar model, named The Carmen:

Aladdin Homes Carmen model in their 1916 catalog.

On first glance, these two look almost exactly alike, except for the obvious porch columns and rails on the Carmen. But, there are a few differences in interior layout, windows, and rear view, as well as the existence of windows in the chamfered corners in the back, on the Sears 126, that are not present on the Aladdin Carmen model. Take a look:

Up close, we see those window differences, as well as a window on the front of the Sears model, that is not on the Aladdin model. Additionally, the obvious difference of a full-depth living room, spanning the front to the back of the house, on the Sears model, vs the Carmen's partial wall dividing that space into a dining room in the back, and living room in the front. Also, the kitchen on the Sears model is a bit wider...so, in fact, the Sears N° 126 is wider than the Aladdin Carmen by about 2 feet. In addition, the the Sears model shows a back porch, next to a Bilco style cellar access door on the ground, whereas the Aladdin model just shows some steps off of the back door. The Sears model doesn't show a window in the exterior walls of those left-side bedrooms, or the bathroom...but, would that really be the case? Sears also shows small corner closets, absent in the Aladdin model. Finally, the Sears model has a fireplace right in the center of the long living room wall, and the Carmen has no fireplace shown.  :

The Sears N° 126 was never a pre-cut model, so it would never have had marked framing lumber. We have no Sears mortgages related to any of the N° 126 models we have on the list, and we have only two on our list that we feel certain about, because they are testimonial houses (the buyer wrote in to Sears, sending a photo, after construction, to say how happy they were with the house). And, one of the very convincing examples of this model (here, in Webster Groves, Missouri), as all of the Sears elements, except that the long living room space is separated into two rooms, like the Aladdin model.

The house in Danville, Kentucky, does seem to have all of the elements of the Sears N° 126, so we've added it to our list as such. Still... I don't find an exact match for the beautiful fireplace surround, in the Sears catalogs, nor do I find an exact match for the colonnades separating the reception hall from the living room. Maybe they were just shown in a catalog in a year that I don't have? Who knows. Let's just take a look at the beautiful interior of this probable Sears N° 126 (thanks to this listing on Realtor.com), and hope that it is one (note that there was a small addition put on where the back porch is, to enlarge the kitchen):