Sears Ellison In State College Pennsylvania

Authenticated Sears Ellison model • 704 W Fairmount Avenue, State College, Pennsylvania

Sears Ellison in the 1932 Sears Modern Homes catalog

We rarely see examples of the Sears Ellison model, but here is one that we were aware of, in State College, Pennsylvania, where we have found (through various resources), about 28 Sears houses. This Ellison has a plaque near its front door, saying that it was built in 1933 for Genevieve and Joseph Fosa. 

Genevieve was the former Genevieve C Rau. She and Joseph married on September 9, 1920. Genevieve was from Pittsburgh, and Joseph was from Middletown, Connecticut, but was born in Spadafora, Italy, a small coastal town on the Tyrrhenian Sea. He was a teacher of Italian and Spanish at Pennsylvania State College (my heart just did a flip flop of excitement at seeing this... I am a teacher of French and Spanish). 

Marriage announcement of Genevieve C Rau and Joseph Fosa, From the Saturday, September 11, 1920 edition of the Pittsburgh Daily Post, online page 4 on Newspapers.com, here.

According to the 1950 U.S. Census, Joseph and Genevieve had two daughters living with them, at that time: 28-year-old Elizabeth Joan Camacho, and 19-year-old Joyce Ann Fosa. Elizabeth was a Spanish teacher, also at the University, and had her 2-year-old daughter living with her, as well (Genoteva [sp?] Camacho). 

Joseph Fosa's 1942 WWII registration card (here, on Ancestry.com)

1950 U.S. Census listings for the Joseph Fosa family (here, on Ancestry.com)

Joseph's Naturalization papers state that he was, in 1918, a soldier, doing language instruction for the army, and had been born on July 6, 1892, in Spadafora:

Naturalization records for Joseph William Fosa (here, on Ancestry.com)

Unfortunately, on December 23, at the end of that year of the 1950 U.S. Census, Joseph died, at the age of 58:

Source: Find-a-Grave

Genevieve died in 1986, and was living in Bucks County, Pennsylvania at the time (State College is in Centre County), so I don't know when the family finally left their beautiful Sears Ellison on Fairmount Avenue. 

Source: Find-a-Grave

There is an image of the plaque, in one of the photos in the real estate listing, but it's a bit blurry:

This is a beautiful plaque. Fortunately, it is accurate, and well researched. That is not always the case for plaques on homes, that declare them to be Sears houses, as they are not always fully researched. We have seen plaques declaring a home to be a Sears home, when it does not match any Sears model, and there is no substantiation for calling the house a Sears house. In fact, we question several of the homes in State College that are thought to be Sears houses (for example, 313 S Burrowes Street is thought to be a Sears Westly, yet it differs greatly in design, from that Sears model).

Inside the Ellison at 704 W Fairmount Avenue

Here is the Sears Ellison in the 1932 Sears Modern Homes catalog:

Source: 1932 Sears Modern Homes catalog

I'll let you follow the somewhat complicated floor plan, and navigate the lovely addition, as you peruse the online images that I grabbed from this real estate listing. There are 56 images, showing every angle of every room, so I'll post quite a few, but not all.

To begin with, this gorgeous front door appears to be a custom door, just for this house. I don't believe that we have ever seen this door design offered in the catalogs. But, we have seen the door handle hardware that is here, on the front door, and throughout the house. It's Sears LaTosca hardware.

Sears La Tosca door hardware, from the 1930 Sears Building Supplies catalog

There is the plaque, on the wall by the front door.

The fireplace is in a different spot, on this Ellison, than the wall where it is shown, on the floor plan.

The standard floor plan for the Ellison actually shows the fireplace to be on that back wall, behind where the blue love seat is.

The kitchen has been really tastefully modernized, in my opinion.

That's another example of La Tosca door handle hardware, and a Sears door

Sears had a number of styles of interior doors, available in a few different wood options.
For doors (and other trim pieces) that would be painted, a soft wood like Fir, would be the wood that was shipped, intended to be painted. (Source)

More Sears La Tosca hardware on the hall bath.
(There is a very large, new bath, for the master bedroom, as well.)

Source: 1932 Sears Modern Homes catalog

More La Tosca hardware, and another original Sears door.

Here is the huge, added bathroom.. though, that is an original door, with La Tosca hardware.

Another original bathroom, judging by the size

The inside of the front door, again.

It's fortunate whenever we can get a view of the back of one of our Sears models.

All of this creamy white part is an addition.

This is the interior of that lovely sun room addition.

Thanks to the granddaughter of the original builder of the Fosa's Ellison, we have a photo from when the Ellison was first completed, in 1933:

William A. Rothwell was the original builder of the State College Sears houses.
Thanks so much to his granddaughters, Marguerite Quinn and Amy Rothwell Worster, and Amy's father, Bill Rothwell II, for sharing this photo. Bill Rothwell II remembers living in State College when his father was building these houses!

More Sears Houses In State College, Pennsylvania

Much of our information on the locations of the Sears houses in State College, Pennsylvania, comes from this online document. The document also points out that there were kits from other companies, such as this example of an Aladdin Homes Plaza, at 441 W Fairmount Avenue,  and this example of a Gordon-Van Tine No 536, at 501 W Fairmount Ave (at the corner of S Barnard Street, facing that street). 

Additionally, there is another example of a Sears Ellison, here, at 444 W Fairmount Avenue (images are available in this real estate listing... gorgeous house):

This is a standard option front door from Sears, and what we would normally expect to see on the Sears Ellison.

Here is that door, available in the 1930 building supplies catalog.
The iron strapping was optional, and the glass insert style had a few options available.

This Sears Ellison has the fireplace in the location where it is shown on the catalog floor plan.

For a long time, there was not very good coverage of the neighborhoods of State College, PA, on Google Streetview, but Andrew Mutch (Kit House Hunters) did quite a bit of more scouting around the streets, once Streetview coverage was improved. Up to this point, here is the list of Sears houses that we have, on our National Database of Sears Houses, for State College, Pennsylvania:

Alhambra	118 S Barnard St	State College	PA
Attleboro	747 Holmes St	State College	PA
Belmont (Brick Lynnhaven)	532 E Foster Ave	State College	PA
Brookwood	602 E Foster Ave	State College	PA
Claremont	714 N Allen St	State College	PA
Clifton	219 E Irvin Ave	State College	PA
Clifton	443 E Fairmount Ave	State College	PA
Clyde	734 McKee St	State College	PA
Colchester	526 E Foster Ave	State College	PA
Colchester	750 Holmes St	State College	PA
Colebrook	219 Adams Ave	State College	PA
Custom	433 Mitchell Ave	State College	PA
Ellison	444 W Fairmount Ave	State College	PA
Ellison	704 W Fairmount Ave	State College	PA
Fullerton	200 S Corl St	State College	PA
Gainsboro	500 E Fairmount Ave	State College	PA
Gordon	510 E Fairmount	State College	PA
Hammond	216 High St	State College	PA
Hillsboro	447 E Fairmount Ave	State College	PA
Lynnhaven	363 Ridge Ave	State College	PA
Lynnhaven	505 E Prospect Ave	State College	PA
Maplewood	713 S Allen St	State College	PA
Mitchell	241 Hillcrest Ave	State College	PA
New Haven	432 W Fairmount Ave	State College	PA
Stratford	437 E Fairmount Ave	State College	PA
Vallonia	151 Hartswick Ave	State College	PA
Westly	137 Hartswick Ave	State College	PA
Wilmore	511 E Hamilton Ave	State College	PA
Wilmore	608 E Foster Ave	State College	PA

If you happen to have authenticating information about any of these houses, we would love to see it. Although there is some good information from the online article I cited above, we really need to see primary sources to label these houses as authenticated. I understand that there is an album of sorts, from the original builder of many of these homes, and we would love to see that, if anyone knows the woman who has that (we saw her comment on a blog about Craftsman homes). There is mention of a custom Sears house at 500 E Hamilton Avenue, for example, but we can't see the house very well from Google Streetview, so a photo of that, and anything documenting it definitely as a Sears houses, would be greatly appreciated. (UPDATE: We are in touch with the granddaughters of the builder!)

Please feel free to reach out at SearsHouses@gmail.com, if you have information for us!

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For more information on who we are, and what we do, visit our website: SearsHouses.com