Two old ones: Sears No 113 & Sears No C2001

Sears No. 113 in the 1914 catalog • Sears No. C2001 in the 1917 catalog

Matthew and I have both recently come across examples of two of the big, old models that Sears offered early on, that weren't in the catalogs once the 1918 switch was made to naming the models, instead of just marketing them by number. Matthew's was an especially exciting find-- the No. C2001-- because it is the first and only example that our group has found (or that we know of anyone having ever found) of this model. Let's take a look!

Sears Modern Home No. 113

I was Google "driving" around Catskill, New York one day, recently-- for what reason I was in this town, particularly, I can't even remember. And I stumbled across this really nice example of the Sears No. 113. Its front view is a bit obscured by foliage, but we get some really great side and rear views. We only have 8 examples of this old model, on our national list, so I was excited to add another (and really excited to just come across it, just like that). I don't have any interior views, nor do I have any information on who may have lived here and built this, originally, but I'll show you the Google maps Streetview photos that I snagged. 

Sears Modern Home No. 113 • 164 Spring Street, Catskill, New York
You can just barely see the left side upper gambrel style large dormer, and we see the upper front bay window, and then the front porch with its centered front door, flanked by a good size window on each side of it. In the catalog, we see these porch columns... rounded columns, with a kind of curled Ionic capital.

Sears Modern Home No. 113 • 164 Spring Street, Catskill, New York
This is the angle of the catalog image-- too covered by foliage here, though.

Sears Modern Home No. 113 • 164 Spring Street, Catskill, New York
Here is the side porch, side entry door, and side bay window into the dining room.

Sears Modern Home No. 113 • 164 Spring Street, Catskill, New York
This is a rare view of the rear of a Sears No 113. The large back window on the first floor, looks into the dining room; the small window is at the pantry; and the back door goes into a small entry mud room area leading into the kitchen.

Sears called these porch columns Colonial, I think because of their smooth, rounded style, but the capitals are of the Ionic design, that I believe we see in both Roman and Greek capitals.

Here's a little visual primer from Encyclopedia Britannica, showing some of the historic capital designs.
(source)

The No 113 was only in the catalogs for a few years, from the first catalogs in 1908, through 1914. It was never offered as a pre-cut/ cut-and-fitted model... it came as a bundled kit, but with standard length framing lumber (so, you wouldn't find any ink-stamped letter/number combos on any of the boards in the house, but you would maybe find paper shipping labels from Sears, affixed to the back of trim pieces around doors and windows, or crown or floor moulding, for example... like you see on this page of our research group's website).

Sears Modern Home No. 113 in the 1914 Sears Modern Homes catalog.

Floor plan of the Sears Modern Home No. 113 in the 1914 Sears Modern Homes catalog.

Specifics on the catalog page for the Sears Modern Home No. 113, in the 1914 Sears Modern Homes catalog.

Let me show you a few of the other examples of the No 113, that we have on our national list of Sears Houses in the U.S.:

This Modern Home No 113 is in the village of Vienna, part of Dubach, Louisiana. We learned of it through comments from the Louisiana Trust for Historic Preservation (and they refer to it as being located in the Lincoln Parish village of Vienna, just north of Ruston). Apparently, the original owner worked for the railroad, and could walk to his job through his back yard. Though we can't see the right side, the assessor's sketch for the house shows a space for the side portico.

In West Springfield, Massachusetts, we found a No. 113 for sale several years ago. This house was a testimonial house, meaning that the original owner wrote in to Sears, sending a photo of the house, after building it, to say how pleased he was with the house. That original owner's name was Frederick G. Phinney, according to Rebecca L. Hunter's book, Putting Sears Homes on the Map, A Compilation of Testimonials Included In Sears Modern Homes Catalogs (Sears mistakenly listed his name as Phimery, however). According to the 1920 U.S. Census, Phinney was the manager of a cigar store, and lived here with his wife, Maude, and their son, Clarence, and daugher, Madaline. The city directory shows Phinney at this address beginning in 1916, but he is listed as early as 1911 at 8 Boulevard, so it's possible that house numbers changed, and he was actually in this house as early as that.

The house has since been bought, re-sided with vinyl (sadly), and fixed up inside for re-sale. Fortunately, they kept much of the beautiful original wood flooring and most all of the original woodwork inside, though they have done the modern grey and white look for the modernized kitchen and bath. Still... we're glad it's still standing! You can see real estate photos here. 

Sears Modern Home No 113 • 20 North Boulevard, West Springfield, Massachusetts

Before the house was bought and re-sided, you could see that it had the Sears Colonial porch columns, though with a simpler capital attaching them to the porch roof soffit.

Dining room area of the Sears Modern Home No 113 • 20 North Boulevard, West Springfield, Massachusetts

Parlor area of the Sears Modern Home No 113 • 20 North Boulevard, West Springfield, Massachusetts

Staircase in entry reception area of the Sears Modern Home No 113 • 20 North Boulevard, West Springfield, Massachusetts

In Dunkirk, New York, architectural historian Rebecca L. Hunter (KitHouse.org ; Mail Order Homes- Sears Homes and Other Kit Houses ; Putting Sears Homes on the Map, A Compilation of Testimonials Included In Sears Modern Homes Catalogs) located a Sears No. 113 a number of years ago. In 2018, our researcher, Sarah Mullane (foremost specialist in the country on Bennett kit Homes), traveled from her home in the Buffalo area of New York, to see this house, and photograph it for a blog post that she did on a number of Sears houses in this neighborhood. You can see the blog post and photos here, on her August 2018 post on her blog, Catalog Homes of Western New York.

Sears Modern Home No 113 at 19 Taft Place, Dunkirk, New York

Finally, a few months ago, Matthew found this really beautiful Modern Home No. 113 in Wheeling, West Virginia. The left side view shows an addition where the side portico is, normally, but Matthew consulted an old Sanborn map of the street, and it showed the outline of the footprint of the house, having a bumped out section for that expected portico. We do see the expected bank of triple windows on that side, still.

Sears Modern Home No. 113, 62 Heiskell Avenue, Wheeling, West Virginia. Happy to see the original siding and the original rounded colonial porch columns!

Sears Modern Home No. 113, 62 Heiskell Avenue, Wheeling, West Virginia

Sears Modern Home No. C2001

Matthew posted this find just today, in our research group... just nonchalantly, as if it were just another Sears house find :) But, it's not! It's one of the "missing models", meaning one of the models Sears sold, that no one has yet found a standing example of. And, this model was only in the 1916 and 1917 catalogs, so it's a really rare one. It's not a super cute, really lovely old model, but it's a good size farmhouse style house, and we're happy to have it added to our list! 

Sears Modern Home No. C2001 • 640 6th Avenue, Coraopolis, Pennsylvania

Sears Modern Home No. C2001 • 640 6th Avenue, Coraopolis, Pennsylvania

Sears Modern Home No. C2001 • 640 6th Avenue, Coraopolis, Pennsylvania

Side view, Sears Modern Home No. C2001 • 640 6th Avenue, Coraopolis, Pennsylvania

Side and rear view, Sears Modern Home No. C2001 • 640 6th Avenue, Coraopolis, Pennsylvania

Close up of the porch soffit... you can see the keystones that are shown in the catalog image.

The C2001 was never given any other name, and was only briefly in the catalogs. The only time we see the houses marketed with a C before the numbers, was in certain editions of the 1916 and 1917 catalogs. This was when the pre-cut/cut-to-fit system began being offered by Sears, and some of those catalogs showed a table of the houses that were offered only as Standard-length framing lumber kits, and those offered with pre-cut/cut-to-fit framing lumber. The C2001 was offered only as a pre-cut/already-cut-and-fitted model. Here it is in the 1917 catalog:

Sears Modern Home No. C2001, 1917 Sears Modern Homes Catalog

Sears Modern Home No. C2001, 1917 Sears Modern Homes Catalog

Sears Modern Home No. C2001, 1917 Sears Modern Homes Catalog

Floor plan, Sears Modern Home No. C2001, 1917 Sears Modern Homes Catalog

That's it for these fun finds of Sears Modern Homes that are over 100 years old! 

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