It's a Winter Wonderland!

Lisa Ubel's beautiful Sears Crescent, Upper Black Eddy, Pennsylvania

What to do when a winter storm hits, school is cancelled, and you've got your house all ready for the upcoming Christmas festivities? Write this year's Christmastime blog post! This year, I've got a few Sears houses to share, and, as usual, a number of just nice old houses with Christmas lights.

In the St. Louis (Missouri) area, we have quite a few Sears houses, but they're not always all decorated for Christmas, and, you know, you have to be out at just the right time of the very early evening, to get the best photos (although... I don't know, but my iPhone these days takes some tremendously good night time photos). So, I don't always get December photos. But, I have a few this year!

Here's one that I've never shown on the blog before: a customized Sears Jewell, in Kirkwood, Missouri. This model goes by three names, all depending on the year: Jewell (1930), Jewel (1931, 1932), and Wilmore (1933-1940). Though we had heard about this house before, because its owners a while back had spoken about it to Rose Thornton, I found its original 1930 mortgage during my research, so that makes it a Jewell. As you can see, though, it was all turned around and re-organized when it was built. The original owner was widow Georgia E. Webster, who bought it from Sears with a $4300 mortgage (sadly, I see in later newspaper ads for the house, that it was lost to foreclosure). We took a drive around Kirkwood and Webster Groves (two lovely old towns) last night, to see the lights on lots of houses... it's my new Christmas tradition, and the only thing I request for Christmas from my husband... his happy company, pretty houses with lights, and pretty Christmas music on in the car. It was a real treat, and I was sure to drive by a few streets with Sears houses, so I found that this one had lights this year, and here it is:

A turned-around, re-designed 1930 Sears Jewell, in Kirkwood, Missouri

Here's the Jewell in the 1930 catalog:

In Webster Groves, we have a street with a very early Elmwood model... I did the best that I could with taking the photo from my car :)

Sears Elmwood model on S Old Orchard, in Webster Groves, Missouri

Back in Kirkwood:

I believe that this is a Sears Hazelton, with a peak-roof dormer (blog post, here)

There are lookalikes for this model, and I've never seen the interior... this may be an Elmwood or Sunbeam, but the roof style on the sleeping porch is not what we expect, and I'm not sure if the porch soffit is right. 

The rest of the houses are just ones that I particularly liked... not Sears houses, but from the era. However, let me start with a kit house from the Bennett Homes company... it's not here in St. Louis, but in Buffalo, New York, shared by its owner, through our researcher Sarah Mullane. It's a Bennett Birmingham model, and it's one of our very favorites:

Many thanks to Paul McDonnell for sharing this photo of his beautiful home.

Thanks to our friend at Daily Bungalow, for the scan of the Bennett Birmingham, from their 1925 catalog.

Back to Missouri: these lovelies are all in Webster Groves or Kirkwood. Enjoy! 

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