Snowy Crescent and Friends: December Delights!

 

Sears Crescent • 25 Miller Avenue, Troy, New York

Happy December! 

Is there snow where you are? Well, in Troy, New York, there has been a lovely dusting, it seems, and this pretty Sears Crescent is up for sale just at the right time to get some pretty wintry photos. This is the smaller of the two sizes of the Crescent, which, from the front, we can tell by the number of columns (2 on each side for the smaller version Crescent, 3 on each side for the larger Crescent). 

Sears Crescent in the 1921 Sears Modern Homes catalog (see it here, on Archive.org)

Inside, we see the staircase to the side of the living room, which is also an indicator of the smaller floor plan:

Sears Crescent smaller floor plan, which has the staircase at one side of the living room.

Here is the the floor plan as shown in the 1921 Sears Modern Homes catalog:

Sears Crescent, smaller floor plan, which has the staircase to the side of the living room.
1921 Sears Modern Homes catalog image.

The Crescent has a front bedroom on the other side of the living room, also having the big, beautiful three-part window that we see in the living room. And...look what we can see from the front window of the front bedroom! Yup, another Sears house, right across the street, also in its glory, in the snow, and with a Christmas tree on the front porch:

Front bedroom of the Crescent, with a Sears Uriel (or Conway) visible across the street

The Sears Uriel was later marketed as the Conway. Without seeing the inside, or knowing for certain what year this house was built, we're not sure which it is, but here is the Uriel in the 1921 Sears Modern Homes catalog:

Sears Uriel in the 1921 Sears Modern Homes catalog

This Crescent is new in the real estate listings, and you can see all of the photos in this realtor.com listing.

Sears Alhambra in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Do you happen to follow @endless_hacienda on Instagram? Well... Daena and her husband bought a Sears Alhambra just a few years ago, and Daena regularly shares beautiful interior photos of how she has decorated the house. She is one talented decorator! Her holiday displays are just gorgeous. I remember talking to Daena when she was just about to buy this house... she was very excited that it looked to be a Sears Alhambra, and we were thrilled to let her know that it appeared to be one. I post on Instagram as @SearsHouseSeeker, of course, but I usually only post when I have a new blog post up. Still, my account allows me to follow a number of folks who have beautiful Sears houses, and I reached out to Daena in November, to ask if I could post a photo or two of her Alhambra, when she had it ready for Christmas. Lucky for us, she was happy to share!

Daena's Sears Alhambra in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Did you notice the decorations in the doorway? Take a closer look:

Charming! Sears Alhambra entry way, all decorated for the Christmas season

And... what about this living room? I grabbed this one off of Daena's Instagram account:

Sears Alhambra living room and staircase, gorgeously decorated for Christmas by its owner, Daena.

Daena has lots of images up on Instagram, showing her beautiful displays:

Visit Daena's Alhambra Instagram page, @endless_hacienda to see more

And... if you find this image, and click on it on her Instagram page, you'll be treated to a lovely little video of all of the decorations around the house!

I think you can click here to go to the video on Daena's Instagram (if you follow her)

Thanks, Daena!

... and friends!

As promised, here are some Christmas decorations on lovely old homes in my part of the world. None of them are Sears houses, but they sure are nice. Merry Christmas! 

One More Crescent At Christmas

I'll close with one more Sears house... another in Pittsburgh! Thanks, Sherie, for allowing me to show off your Sears Crescent :

Sherie's Sears Crescent in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Sears Silverdale in Old Monroe, Missouri

Sears Silverdale, 111 Cuivre Street, Old Monroe, Missouri • circa 1917

Holy cow, I never thought that I'd come across a Sears Silverdale in Missouri! But, lo and behold, up popped this listing for a Sears house in Old Monroe, and there it was, a Silverdale in all its glory. This one has some big additions, but the basic plan is the Silverdale's. Like my mom's family's Silverdale, the living room was pushed out to the right side (though on my mom's house, the porch followed along the whole width of the living room).

Sears Silverdale in my 1918 Sears Modern Homes catalog

This house has the entry into the living room, from the entry vestibule, which is sometimes present on the Silverdales we've found, and sometimes not. The floor plan shows access to the living room and to the dining room, from that entry vestibule, but this one has access only to the living room (as did the last one I showed, one in Paris, Kentucky).

Sears Silverdale floor plan, first floor

View from the (extended) living room, to the entry vestibule and dining room, on the Silverdale in Old Monroe.

That same view, in the Paris, Kentucky Silverdale

Here's the view from the dining room, up to the entry vestibule and the living room, first in the Old Monroe Silverdale, then in the Paris, Kentucky Silverdale:

Old Monroe Silverdale, view into the living room, from the dining room... no access to the entry vestibule

Here's the same view, in the Paris, Kentucky Silverdale.

The first floor plan of the Silverdale, shows two doors on the interior side wall. One goes into the side bedroom, and one goes to the staircase:

The Sears Silverdale, 1918 Sears Modern Homes catalog

We can just make out those two doors on the Silverdale, looking into the dining room from the living room of the Old Monroe Silverdale:

You can also tell that the living room-- which should stop about in the middle of where this large buffet/armoire piece of furniture is -- has been enlarged, extended out to the right.

Here's a view showing the full size of the enlarged living room:

This is pretty much just what the layout is on my mom's family's Silverdale, with its enlarged living room.

Most of the rest of the photos of the Old Monroe Silverdale, are of the big family room addition, and the (very brown) modernized kitchen, so they're not of much interest to me, in terms of seeing the original design of the house. But, I'm glad that it's in such nice condition, and mostly still has the nice, large Craftsman style trim around the windows. Personally, I prefer area rugs, so that you can see at least some of the hardwood flooring, so this wall-to-wall carpeting all over the first floor of this house, is not to my liking... but, I suppose that if one were trying to entice younger buyers, who are used to looking at modern subdivision houses with wall-to-wall carpeting, this might be the look to go with. I probably wouldn't mind it, if I didn't know that there were original hardwood floors under there... but, I know that there are, and I wish that I could see them! I hope that the new buyers pull up the carpeting, refinish the hardwood, and put down some nice area rugs that allow the original floors to show. 

The bedrooms have carpeting, as well, but they also have original Sears doors and... original trademark Sears hinges and Sears Stratford door hardware, so... new buyers... don't replace those! Please!

Because of the closet next to the entry door, I'm thinking that this must be the upstairs front bedroom

You can't really see it, but those are trademark Sears hinges, and that looks like Sears Stratford door handle hardware. If it's not Stratford, then it's Sears Chicago design.

Here's a closeup view, but it's much too blurry for you to see the details... but, those of us with experience picking out these Sears features, will recognize them here:

Let's close out with a few more views of the exterior of the house. Here, you can see the window to the entry vestibule, then the double windows of the dining room, and then the 1940 addition (mentioned in the real estate listing) with its fireplace:

Here's the chamfered lines of the wraparound porch, which distinguish the Sears Silverdale from the "lookalike" models by other companies (read about them here).

To see more images of the interior of the Old Monroe, Missouri, Silverdale, you can visit the real estate listing, which has 73 photos (this takes you to the Realtor.com listing... they usually keep their images up for years, but if they are no longer there, try Googling the address and "Redfin" or "Trulia").

I hope that this house goes to a new family who will appreciate its unique history... and polish up those hardwood floors :) It sits on a spacious lot, and, though in a small (tiny!) town, it is not far from the original state capital, St. Charles, with its historic Main Street, nor too far from St. Louis County and City.

Sears Kilbourne In Glenshaw, Pennsylvania

Sears Kilbourne, 201 Iola Street, Glenshaw, Pennsylvania

Sears Kilbourne in the 1923 Sears Modern Homes catalog

Here's another Sears model that we really love running across: The Sears Kilbourne. This one in Glenshaw (a lovely suburb of Pittsburgh), was originally located by Karen DeJeet. She spotted this listing recently, too, and shared it with our group. I don't think that I've ever highlighted a Kilbourne here, so I thought I'd pop the real estate photos into a little blog post, to show off  this one's spacious and attractive interior. You can see the full listing here, on Realtor.com.

The Kilbourne was offered from 1920-1931 (Houses By Mail says 1921-1929, but I always double check through catalogs). Oddly, in my 1922 catalog, it does not appear -- sometimes, catalogs in some areas of the country, omitted some models, in favor of another... at least, that's what we've noticed. It doesn't appear that the floor plan changed at all over the years, but one thing that did change, was the support of the roof. The early years (1920-1924) show chunky angle brackets, with a bit of a curved scroll to them. Beginning in 1925, however, straight purlins are shown supporting the roof. This house in Glenshaw has the angle brackets, but they are a bit thinner and straighter than what they look like in the early catalogs... I think that they are the original brackets, but that the catalog drawing just exaggerated the thickness a bit.

Here's the very Swiss cottage looking depiction of the Kilbourne, in 1923. Note the style of the brackets. In real life, the Kilbournes that we've found of this era look to have a slightly thinner bracket than what it looks like here.

The 1925 catalog shows a change to straight purlins.

This house snagged a Historic Landmark plaque! We can't quite read what it says, though, unfortunately.

If you look closely at the porch, you'll notice another change: The earlier catalog image shows straight, stone porch piers (or maybe they are formed concrete block with a stone texture), and a wide lattice look to the porch rail. In 1925, though, we see slightly tapered porch piers, covered with wood siding, and a straight-up-and-down porch railing. Again, our house in Glenshaw differs in that it has brick porch piers (we very often see brick used on houses in the Pittsburgh area), and the porch railing is the simplest up-and-down railing with no other detailing... not really matching either year's catalog image, but still a porch railing design offered by Sears.

A friend of ours, who owns a beautiful, authenticated Sears Walton on Hilliard Road, in the McCandless area of Pittsburgh, stopped by the open house for this Kilbourne in Glenshaw, and was able to snap a photo for me, of the historic landmark plaque:

We're thrilled to see this plaque be available! As it turns out, the Kilbourne was actually in the catalogs from 1920-1931, but Houses By Mail (our favorite Sears book!) does say 1921-29.

Here's a Kilbourne in Warrensville Heights, Ohio, that has a fully-brick porch:

This photo of the side of the Warrensville Heights Kilbourne, shows the expected 3 windows on this side.

Ha! Completely covered by a shrub though, in my two pictures (I took these two photos when I was visiting the Cleveland area with some of my Sears house friends -- here's a blog post about that meet up, on Sears Houses In Ohio). Fortunately, there is a real estate listing for this house, and the shrub has been removed, so we can see the brick wall of the porch-- and all photos show the early style brackets:

Sears Kilbourne at 20009 Gladstone Rd, Warrensville Heights, Ohio

Inside The Kilbourne On Iola Street 

Let's take a look at the floor plans, upstairs and down, and then some of the really nice interior photos of our Kilbourne on Iola Street, in Glenshaw (note that this is not the only Kilbourne in Glenshaw! There is one at 2508 Hamilton Avenue, too, but it's pretty hidden by foliage. Thanks to Sara Fortnam for spotting that one).

Here are the floor plans as shown in the 1925 Sears Modern Homes catalog, which you can see here. The Kilbourne is on page 69.

2nd floor layout, Sears Kilbourne, 1925 catalog

Other Kilbournes

Here are a few other Kilbournes we've found:

This is one of the most beautiful Kilbournes that I've ever seen (though the one in Glenshaw is equally gorgeous inside). It's at 4219 Nicholson Street, Hyattsville, Maryland. The real estate listing has a great 3-D walkthrough -- definitely worth a click to visit this listing. 

Sears Kilbourne at 4219 Nicholson Street, Hyattsville, Maryland

Here we can see that early look of the Kilbourne, in the style of the brackets, and the porch piers.

I love what they've done with the kitchen!

This Kilbourne (authenticated by researcher Rebecca L. Hunter) in Elgin, Illinois, has had an addition put on, but it still has many lovely qualities inside:

Authenticated Sears Kilbourne at 409 Wing Park Blvd, Elgin, Illinois (owners have the blueprints!)

Here's a perfect example of the post-1924 version of the Kilbourne, with straight purlins and with the porch style that I described, above (note the tapered, wood-siding-covered porch piers and the style of the porch railing... exactly like the later look in the catalogs):

Sears Kilbourne all decorated for Halloween, 504 Jackson Avenue, St. Charles, Illinois. This home was also located by researcher Rebecca L. Hunter. 

So, that's the story on the Sears Kilbourne! I hope you can see why we are partial to it.