A Trip To See Chicagoland Sears Houses

Some Sears houses in Glen Ellyn, Villa Park, Lombard, Elmhurst, Bensenville, and Oak Park 

I just got back from a little 3-day trip to see Sears houses and Frank Lloyd Wright houses in some of the suburban area outside of Chicago, which, locally, is referred to as Chicagoland. It was kind of a spur of the moment idea I had a few weeks ago, and I invited my architect sister, Betsy, to meet me there (our dear sister Lynne was needed for Father's Day festivities in her world, so we had to make do with only two sisters!). What a fun, house-filled visit we had!

If you follow the blogs of the Sears houses world, you've undoubtedly seen  Sears Homes of Chicagoland, which is written by a member of our research team, Lara Solonickne. Lara is responsible for locating a huge number of the houses that we have on our list in northern Illinois (not forgetting the amount of research done by Rebecca L. Hunter, identifying over 200 Sears houses in Elgin, Illinois, and many more in many other Illinois towns).   I've learned that the term Chicagoland refers to the suburbs falling in a pretty wide swath around Chicago... did you know that? I have to say that I had never heard the term until I started reading Lara's blog. I didn't realize it was a wide-spread colloquial term for the area, but it is!

We have a boat load of houses on our national list of Sears houses, in Illinois... at last count, it was just shy of 2600. The definite majority of those is concentrated in Chicagoland, and, as you can see from a section of our map of houses, the area that I visited was only a tiny portion of what has been found in total, up to this point:

The Chicagoland area Sears houses

I was up for a good amount of touring around, but I had to do some work to decide where to stay, and where to focus my travels. Despite the huge selection of fabulous hotels in downtown Chicago, for the purposes of this trip, we needed to stay in the suburbs somewhere, so I eventually settled upon the Hyatt Regency O'Hare, in Rosemont, not far from the airport, and it turned out to be a really nice choice. The location allowed us to easily get to the hotel from the airport (direct shuttle, for my sister to use), easily get to the hotel from the car rental pickup location (for me to use), easily get into downtown Chicago via the Rosemont station of the CTA Blue Line train (since we intended to spend one of the days at the art museum and doing a boat tour), and easily access some prime Chicagoland towns to tour around. (NOTE: Obviously, if you're just here for the Sears houses, you'll want to just scroll on down past everything about where we stayed, and Frank Lloyd Wright, and what we ate, and the Architecture cruise, and what I enjoyed at the art museum. This is my fond remembrance of this excellent 3-day stay in Chicago, with my sister, but you can skip it all and just look at the houses... I won't know ;) ).

Hyatt Regency O'Hare, Rosemont 

This Hyatt in Rosemont is big and beautiful and colorful, and full of interesting architectural and design elements, everywhere you look... glass, ceramic, chrome, pottery, colorful carpets of different styles, colorful furnitures of different styles and shapes and sizes, marble floors, and concrete of different textures, all mixed together... lots of different textures and shapes and decorative elements that I enjoyed, and my sister, Betsy, was really in her element, noticing all kinds of clever design choices, with an architect's discerning eye. She was kind of sad to leave, because it was an enjoyable feast for the eyes every morning and evening, when we were walking around in the various areas of the hotel. Even I noticed things like that the design in the carpeting in some areas, incorporated designs that were a nod to the iron work and terra cotta designs by Louis Sullivan. I grabbed these photos from the set available on Trip Advisor, for the Hyatt Regency O'Hare, in Rosemont.

Breakfast, anyone?

En route to our rooms, the Louis Sullivan-inspired carpet designs.

I love the size of these planters with (something like) fountain grass.

The bottom panel of the glass elevator, has green and red lights that we see when it is in service... sleek glass and chrome and a curved shape, juxtaposed with concrete. 

The Hyatt says that this is a "real deal" Chihuly glass sculpture. 

#HyattOhare 

There's the elevator again, with the bottom panel lighted. There are lots of different seating areas around the huge lobby, all with a different feel.

We opted for the grey/blue/white Premier Tower rooms (despite the vinyl plank flooring), because they have been newly renovated. The room felt fresh and clean and more inviting than these images show.

Which towns to explore?

After a good amount of looking through our list to see what houses we had, in what condition, in what easily-accessible, attractive suburbs, I settled on touring around Glen Ellyn, Villa Park, Lombard, and Elmhurst, with a quick pop up to Bensenville, and a quick drive past one house in Oak Park. I looked up every Sears house on our list, in those towns, on Google Maps Streetview, because I really preferred seeing houses with original exterior finishes (as much as possible), located in nice neighborhoods. I narrowed it down to 98 houses... and then I just chuckled, and realized that I had some more narrowing down to do. I finally pared it down to 66 houses. But, I just had them in an alphabetized list, and I really needed to be able to see them plotted out on a map, so that I could do an organized tour from one house to the next, without wasting time. Andrew Mutch (Kit House Hunters) has made our group a nifty Google map of all of the 16, 500+ houses on our list, so that served as a great start, but I needed a smaller version, so, I got some pointers from Andrew, and made a map by importing the spreadsheet that I made, of the 66 houses that I hoped to drive by. But, I wasn't sure how well I would be able to use that map as a GPS resource, getting driving directions from one house to another, so I also created just a printed-out document of all of the houses, with model name and address, in the order that I expected to drive by them, in case we needed to manually input the address of each house, each time... and, in the end, we did end up needing to do that... at first, the Google map opened on my iPad and we were able to just click on a house as the starting point, and click on another, and get the directions... but, then that stopped working, so I'm glad that we had the list. 

When Cindy (Sears Houses in Ohio), Andrew, Marie and I all met up in Cleveland a few summers ago, we spent one full day... 8 hours... driving by houses in a large section of the Cleveland area. Cindy wrote about that in three blog posts, with this one showing a map of where we went. I needed the Chicagoland tour to be less involved than that, but I really didn't have a feel for how long 66 houses would take. As it turned out, most of the time, the houses were not far from each other, so I split it up to doing the three in Bensenville, and my chosen houses in Villa Park, Lombard, and Glen Ellyn, all on Saturday afternoon. I think we spent three to four hours driving around, to see them all. We finished up with dinner at a great little restaurant in Glen Ellyn, called Fire & Wine... we highly recommend, and it's very vegetarian friendly. After dinner, we just drove the roughly 35 minutes back to our hotel in Rosemont, and we expected to then focus on my chosen houses in Elmhurst--the suburb closest to the hotel -- on Sunday. 

My entree at Fire & Wine: Vegetables and chicken and Gnocchis, with white wine butter sauce. Outstanding. Betsy had the Zucchini Agli e Olio (zucchini spirals with olive oil and garlic), and we both had salads... Heirloom Beet salad for me, and a tomato and mozzarella Caprese salad, for Betsy.
#fireandwinege

Fire & Wine • 433 North Main Street (at Duane Street), Glen Ellyn, Illinois

Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio in Oak Park

But, we arranged our day on Sunday, to first visit the incredible Frank Lloyd Wright home and studio in Oak Park, along with doing the self-guided walking tour of the FLW houses on and off of nearby Forest Avenue. Betsy had visited the home and studio many moons ago, so she was absolutely up for going again and I had never been. So, we headed there after breakfast. Driving through the streets in these neighborhoods of Oak Park, near the FLW home and studio, was a real treat (I mean it... just beautiful houses of the 1900-1920s era, all different kinds, with beautifully landscaped yards, lots of shady trees, and a real feel of beautiful residential urban living... even though it's actually the suburbs, but it's not today's modern suburban subdivision feel, thank heavens).

Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio, 951 Chicago Avenue, Oak Park, Illinois. This is a delightful tour of a wonderful place. #flwtrust

One of Betsy's photos of inside the FLW home and studio. This was lighting in the children's play room.

Another of Betsy's photos: the inglenook inside the FLW home in Oak Park.

Betsy's photo of the front door entry area of the FLW home in Oak Park... those urns! We learned that Wright liked to place the front door discreetly, where it wasn't really obvious, or easy to find, and this was to throw off door-to-door salesmen. Wright built the home in 1890, when the surrounding area was prairie land (hence the name Prairie Style) and it is described as the first opportunity for him to have full autonomy in the design of a building. Every element has a reason it was included.

When you take the tour of the home and studio, you have the option of also paying for the self-guided walking tour down a nearby street, to see ten houses designed by Wright. The Wright Trust says that the historic district surrounding the home and studio here, has the "greatest number of Wright-designed residences world wide". There are more Wright residences in the larger area of this historic district, than just the ten that are accessed in the self-guided walking tour, and you can see where some of the others are, using Google maps (Frank Lloyd Wright-- Prairie School of Architecture Historic District).  

We had a gorgeous June day to do this (70s F, bright, clear, sunny) and this was definitely what we wanted to do... and, oh.my.heavens... the landscaping, the gardens, the flowers... every yard was stunning, every house was a gem. I can't say enough for how much we enjoyed walking along this street and seeing the FLW houses, and the rest of the residences along the way. I'll just show you the first house we came to, which was the Arthur Heurtley house, built in 1902 for Arthur and Grace Heurtley. The FLW Trust webpage for this house (which includes a link to the house's own website, where you can see historic photos of the house) says that it is one of the earliest examples of the Prairie style. You can also see more photos by going to this Google maps link, and clicking on the photo of the house, which brings you to photos of the house, that people have uploaded to Google maps... so, I snagged a few to show here... but, the first two are photos taken by my sister, Betsy. Click any, to get an enlarged view and really see the house with high resolution photos.

Betsy's photo of the Arthur Heurtley house, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, at 318 Forest Avenue, Oak Park, Illinois. 

Betsy's photo close up of the Heurtley house urns, brickwork, and windows.

FLW Arthur Heurtley house, photo here, uploaded to Google maps by Kevin. 

FLW Arthur Heurtley house, photo here, uploaded to Google maps by Saly. The horizontal, linear lines of the brickwork are the focus, here.

FLW Arthur Heurtley house, photo here, uploaded to Google maps by Coop Rides. Click to enlarge!

Houses in Elmhurst were on the agenda for the rest of the day, Sunday, to be finished off with dinner at Citrine Café, in Oak Park, and it did not disappoint, either. Like Fire & Wine, it was located on a main street in town (actually, directly across the street from the Oak Park station of the CTA Green Line) in a brick storefront with a cool looking interior, and with an outside patio, which is where we sat. The menu was Mediterranean / Italian inspired, with some good vegetarian friendly options. Betsy and I started with their hummus appetizer and their lepinja bread with ajvar and goat cheese, and I had Caesar salad and white sauce mushroom pizza, while Betsy's entree was mushroom and ricotta ravioli. It was a ton of food, and we left half of our entrees. Word to the wise: the Croatian Pomalo, "Pet Nat" Rose they serve is actually a naturally sparkling wine, and that was not explained or mentioned to us when my sister ordered it, and it was not what she would have wanted... so that was a bit of a disappointment, and should have been clarified by our waiter (who simply hinted that he'd "let her discover the surprise" when it got there... nope, should have clarified that it was sparkling).

Our starters, at Citrine Café

Our patio setting at Citrine Café

The interior of Citrine Café (from a user upload on Google maps)

The patio of Citrine Café (from a user upload on Google maps)

Citrine Café (courtesy Google maps), 100 Oak Park Avenue, Oak Park, Illinois

Chicago Architecture Center River Cruise & The Art Institute of Chicago & Millennium Park

After pretty much two full days of driving around our chosen suburban neighborhoods with interesting Sears and Frank Lloyd Wright architecture to delight us, we devoted Monday to a couple of adventures in downtown Chicago, that I had been wanting to do for ages, starting with the Chicago Architecture Center's Architecture River Cruise (there are other companies who offer this, but those in the know, in the world of architecture, know this one to be the best). There's no way for the photos you find online, or even take, yourself, to give you the amazing feeling of riding along the Chicago River, looking up at the variety of really different, beautiful skyscrapers that you see lining the route. On a glorious, sunny, June day, at 11:00 in the morning, it was a glistening water, glistening buildings adventure like I've never had before. The docent giving the tour had interesting historic and architectural and anecdotal tidbits for us about most all of the buildings we were seeing. The tour lasts 90 minutes. Consider paying a little bit extra for Priority Boarding, to get the seat that you want (we were glad that we did).

My photo of our view when we arrived at the river, looking down on the wharf where the cruise boats are moored. It's an attractive setting, really.

I grabbed a few photos that folks have posted, online, to give you a feeling for what you're seeing as you cruise along in the boat.

The Art Institute of Chicago

I have been wanting to go back to this art museum for decades... literally. I can't believe that, for someone who loves what big, metropolitan cities have to offer, and who lives so close to Chicago (really, I mean... St. Louis is just not that far away), I don't know why I have not been back to Chicago since... honestly... the early 1980s, I think. It was a delight, as I knew it would be! 

(Image from this woman's blog.)

Of course, the building itself is magnificent, including the new, modern wing, and there are art treasures from all eras and all parts of the world. There are famous works that you learn about in your Western Art History class in freshman year of college... like American Gothic (Grant Wood), Mary Cassatt's The Child's Bath, George Seurat's A Sunday On La Grande Jatte, Gustave Caillebotte's Paris Street; Rainy Day, one of Van Gogh's Self Portrait paintings, Edward Hopper's Nighthawks, Toulouse Lautrec's At the Moulin Rouge, and lots of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings you've heard about and seen in books, as well as other 20th century artists to see ... Cézanne, Picasso, John Singer Sargent, Degas, Pierre Bonnard, Monet, Manet... the list goes on. 

American Gothic, by Grant Wood.
There is a great little 2-minute video about this painting, here.

One of the paintings that I really stood in front of for a good while, was this one from 1919, by Canadian artist Lawren Stewart Harris, called, Red Sleigh House, Winter. Click on it to open it larger, and see if you can get the same view that I got, of the thick snow, and the colors popping out from it. I've never heard of this painter, nor seen this painting before, but it's one I loved during our visit that day.

Red Sleigh House, Winter • Lawren Stewart Harris, Canadian artist • 1919

This small Gourd Vase, made circa 1902 by French potter Taxile Doat, while he was living in Sèvres, France (and working at the famous Porcelain factory there). We have a few of his works in the St. Louis Art Museum, and he was one of the professors hired to work in the Art Academy and Porcelain Works in University City (a St. Louis suburb), which was founded in 1909. You can read more about Taxile Doat here, and see the Art Institute's page about this vase, here.

I am very interested in French medieval art, and art of the Renaissance, usually as it relates to French churches during the Romanesque and Gothic periods, so I had to run around to find the room with the medieval art, before we left the museum. There's actually not all that much in this big museum, from this period, but one of the pieces that Betsy and I marveled at, was this 15th century walnut piece: Reliquary Bust of Saint Margaret of Antioch, done by Niclaus Gerhaert von Leyden and workshop (Netherlandish, and active in Germany in this era). The treatment of the braids, and the intricacy of the carvings for the crown, were what wowed us, especially.

My photo of the Bust of Saint Margaret of Antioch. Since this is a reliquary, it would have been made to house a relic... something tangible from the life of the saint it is for... and that relic was, I bet, her heart... I bet that's why the opening for the relic, is made where it is.

Click on it to zoom in even closer, but I just am always wowed by the treatment of thick braids of hair in sculptures and carvings. This is my photo, but you can read more about the piece, here.

Finally... oh my heavens... there is the huge Tiffany studios stained-glass window that the museum only acquired in 2017... it was, until then, in a church in Rhode Island... just in the wall in a Baptist church in Rhode Island. You just can't believe how magnificent this is, displayed on this wall where you can see it as you approach the great staircase. This is the Hartwell Memorial Window,  designed by Agnes Northrop, a major artist for the Tiffany studios, who was with Tiffany for 50 years. 

These are both snippets from the very informative and interesting 5-minute video about the Hartwell Memorial Window, available here, directly on YouTube, or on a page of the museum's website, here. 

Across from the entrance to the new wing of the Art Institute (on E Monroe), is the side entrance to Millennium Park, where you get to walk through the lovely plantings lining the walkway of Lurie Garden. During our visit, that meant lots of purple cone flowers and other delights, with the view of downtown skyscrapers above... very nice.

Lurie Garden, in Millennium Park, access from E. Monroe Street, across from the entrance to the new wing of the Art Institute.

The Sears Houses

And, here we go! I'll just post a selection of the 60-or-so houses that we got to see. We thoroughly enjoyed every one of these, and Betsy kept remarking on how well kept the neighborhoods were ... nicely tended lawns and gardens, attractive landscaping, and most of these neighborhoods still largely had the original homes of the era.

Sears Elsmore • 143 S Addison Street, Bensenville, Illinois

Sears Elsmore in the 1923 Sears Modern Homes catalog
See the full page, with floor plans, here.

Sears Argyle • 17W476 Hill Street, Villa Park, Illinois
This one was really beautiful in person... it's in fantastic shape, and the yard was impeccable.

Sears Argyle in the 1923 Sears Modern Homes catalog
See the full page, with floor plans, here.

Sears Brookwood • 435 N Yale Avenue, Villa Park, Illinois
See Lara Solonickne's blog post about this house... it appears to have been built by Montgomery Ward!

Sears Brookwood in the 1932 Sears Modern Homes catalog
See the full page, with floor plans, here.

Sears Osborn • 332 E Highland Avenue, Villa Park, Illinois
We couldn't stop to get photos of this one, so these are from Google maps Streetview. We think this one is a Sears Osborn, but it is not authenticated, and there are differences to the lines of the house.

Sears Osborn in the 1918 Sears Modern Homes catalog. 
See the two pages showing the house, with floor plan, in the catalog, here.

This authenticated Crescent is so pretty in person... and so many of the Crescents on our list, in these towns, were now sadly modified, with enclosed porches or enclosed porch roof, or covered in vinyl, or with replacement columns... this one was a beauty. Our records say that this house was ordered in 1921, through a mortgage with Sears, by Al Staite. (UPDATE July 2024: Lovely interior photos in this real estate listing.)

Sears Crescent • 245 E Park Boulevard, Villa Park, Illinois
We couldn't stop to get photos of this one, so these are from Google maps Streetview.

Sears Crescent in the 1921 Sears Modern Homes catalog
See the full page, with floor plans, here. This house has the smaller floor plan (#3086)

Sears Wilmore (or Jewel) • 1301 S Meyers Road, Lombard, Illinois
This one was on a busy road, so we couldn't stop for a photo, so this is from Google maps Streetview.
You can see a real estate listing for this house, here. There are many "looakalikes" to this model, and this one isn't authenticated, but we are confident it is from Sears, because the iron strapping on the front door has the curlicue design we've only seen from Sears.

Sears Jewel in the 1932 Sears Modern Homes catalog. This model went by the names Wilmore, Jewel, or Jewell, depending on the year. Since we don't have a firm build year on this actual house, we don't know which name it went by in the catalog from which it was chosen.
See the full page, with floor plans, in the 1932 catalog, here.

We also saw this Conway in Bensenville, shown here in a Sears Homes of Chicagoland blog post about the Conway model.

Sears Mitchell • 1123 E Woodrow Avenue, Lombard, Illinois
We saw several Sears Mitchell examples. This photo is from Google maps Streetview.

Sears Mitchell in the 1932 Sears Modern Homes catalog.
See the full page, with floor plan, here.
See my 2018 blog post about this model, and its many lookalikes, here.

Authenticated Sears Del Rey • 219 W Park Boulevard, Villa Park, Illinois
Our records show that this was ordered in 1922, with a mortgage through Sears, by Stewart W. Haswell.
Photo from Google maps Streetview .

Sears Del Rey in the 1921 Sears Modern Homes catalog
See the full page, with floor plan, here.

These three photos are from Google maps Streetview, 102 N Highland Avenue, Lombard, Illinois

Authenticated Sears Grant • 102 N Highland Avenue, Lombard, Illinois
I was really glad to get to see this sweet little, nicely painted, Sears Grant. It's just a nice example of this model that we don't see nearly as often as its very popular "fraternal twin", the Sears Hampton (see my 2018 blog post about the Hampton, Grant, Crafton, and lookalikes, to see the floor plan and catalog images).

Sears Sunbeam • 314 South Stewart Avenue, Lombard, Illinois (Streetview image)
Without a definite build year, we sometimes don't know whether a model like this, is the Sears Elmwood, or the later Sears Sunbeam (or a lookalike). This one's porch soffit doesn't have the chunky look of the Elmwood's soffit, but it also is missing the keystone we expect to see in the slimmer porch soffit of the Sunbeam. I think it's a Sunbeam.

Sears Sunbeam in the 1925 Sears Modern Homes catalog.
See the full page, with floor plan, here.
See this 2017 blog post of mine, for a good explanation of the evolution of the Elmwood and Sunbeam models over the years.

Authenticated Sears Martha Washington • 329 W Grove Street, Lombard, Illinois
Our records show the original owner to have been Arthur W. Marshall, who bought the kit from Sears in 1925, with a mortgage through Sears for $8100 (that no doubt would have also covered construction costs). This was a really sweet house to see in person. It looked really elegant in its shady setting in this leafy neighborhood. 

Sears Martha Washington in the 1925 Sears Modern Homes catalog.
See the full page, with floor plans, here.

Right next door, a bit turned, is a Sears Verona that Lara Solonickne wrote about in this 2018 blog post.
Streetview image, here.

Authenticated Sears Vallonia • 408 Phillips Avenue, Glen Ellyn, Illinois (Streetview)
This house has an addition in the back... there is not normally a peak gable sticking up from the peak of the roof, behind the dormer. Isn't that a lovely Vallonia!? I'm really glad we got to see it.

Sears Vallonia in the 1925 Sears Modern Homes catalog.
See full page, with floor plan, here.

Authenticated Sears Americus, 188 N Park Boulevard, Glen Ellyn, Illinois, built in 1923
We were able to get a quick look at this lovely Americus that Lara wrote about in this 2019 blog post.

Sears Americus in the 1921 Sears Modern Homes catalog.
See the full page, with floor plans, here.

Authenticated Sears Walton • 754 Euclid Avenue, Glen Ellyn, Illinois
Betsy and I were both wowed by how lovely this pretty, pale yellow Walton is, in its lovely setting, with its beautiful landscaping. This is Betsy's photo.

A side view of this sweet house, from Google maps Streetview.

Sears Walton in the 1925 Sears Modern Homes catalog.
See full page, with floor plan, here.

Sears Puritan (with addition over the side sun porch) • 619 Pleasant Avenue, Glen Ellyn, Illinois (Streetview photo)

Sears Puritan in the 1925 Sears Modern Homes catalog
See the full page, with floor plans, here.

I finally got to see the lovely "3 window Lexington" (the first version of the Sears Lexington) in Glen Ellyn, that Lara blogged about in this post, in 2014. 627 Euclid Avenue, Glen Ellyn, Illinois

These photos don't show the impressive look of the Ardara, the same way that being in front of it, does. When we turned the corner and saw this house, we both let out a, "Oh, wow, look at that!" It's bigger than I realized an Ardara would be, too (I had never seen one in person).

Our photos of the authenticated Sears Ardara, at 266 Clinton Avenue, Elmhurst, Illinois
You can see better photos, and learn a bit about the history, in this blog post at Sears Homes of Chicagoland.

Sears Ardara in the 1921 Sears Modern Homes catalog.
See the full catalog page, with floor plan, here.

Authenticated Sears Kilbourne • 510 Berkley Avenue, Elmhurst, Illinois
Our records show that this home was built in 1926, mortgaged through Sears by its first owner, William E. Bruesch. Lara Solonickne shows it, and several other Kilbournes in the area, in this 2020 blog post.

Sears Kilbourne in the 1925 Sears Modern Homes catalog.
See the full page, with floor plan, here.

Sears Preston • 900 Fair Oaks Avenue (facing Division Street), Oak Park, Illinois
I finally got to see the impressive Sears Preston that Lara Solonickne showed in this blog post, followed by this blog post, showing the Sears Verona, below. These houses were owned by brothers, both surgeons.

Sears Verona, 906 Fair Oaks Avenue, Oak Park, Illinois

Sears Verona in the 1923 Sears Modern Homes catalog
See the full, 2-page listing, showing the floor plan, here.

Sears Preston in the 1923 Sears Modern Homes catalog
See the full, 2-page listing, showing the floor plan, here.

Sears Hathaway, 432 S Hill Street, Elmhurst, Illinois (Streetview image)
Our records show that this house was ordered in 1922 by Earl R. Lamb, for $4.600 (which probably included construction, and the mortgage was through Sears).
This home was located by researcher Rebecca L. Hunter.

Sears Hathaway in the 1923 Sears Modern Homes catalog
See the full listing, including floor plans, here.

Harris Homes (not a Sears house... a kit by the Harris Brothers Company), Model No. 1033
250 Pick Avenue, Elmhurst, Illinois (Streetview image)

Harris Home No. 1033 (the N indicates the catalog issue) in the 1923 Harris Homes catalog
See full page, with floor plan, here.

Authenticated Sears Elmhurst, 246 Chandler Avenue, Elmhurst, Illinois
We saw the owner outside, watering her lovely hydrangeas! There was a car behind us, so we couldn't stop to get a photo, so this is the Streetview image. Lara Solonickne showed this house in a 2015 blog post, with interior photos from the real estate listing.

Sears Elmhurst in the 1929 Brick Veneer special catalog of Sears Modern Homes
See the full page, showing floor plan, provided here by Daily Bungalow

Believe it or not, that's not quite half of the houses we saw, as we made it by about 60 of the original 66 houses I hoped to see on this trip. Each one was a little thrill to see! 

You can access the map of these 66 houses in Elmhurst, Oak Park, Villa Park, Lombard, Bensenville, and Glen Ellyn, here. This is only a partial set of the Sears houses that have been located in these towns.

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