We all know about the grand mansions on Youngstown's north side. But, did you know that some of the city's more modest older homes have their own interesting origins?
In the first half of the last century, you could buy an entire house out of a Sears Roebuck and Co. Catalogue. In this post, I'm attaching an image of one of the more distinctive "models" available from Sears. In the next post, I will attach a picture of an abandoned house on S. Lakeview that I believe is a surviving example of the same model.
Sure, there are differences; a lot can happen in 70-90 years.
Did Sears also make a one story house with square metal panels on the outside walls? I've been told that this style of house was also purchased from a catalogue. One of these homes still exists within the city of Youngstown.
I'm not sure if Sears offered that particular house.
The source I've found isn't comprehensive, and focuses on the Bungalow. But they offered many other popular styles.
http://www.arts-crafts.com/archive/sears.shtml <--Small article
http://64.66.180.31/archive/sears/index.shtml <--link to abridged index of home models found at bottom of article
Checked out that site http://64.66.180.31/archive/sears/index.shtml and unless I'm mistaken, it is complete. Sears didn't sell large homes. "This Old House" (PBS) in one of it's series featured one of these homes that they were using as a project and they said that these were small homes that the buyers could build themselves.
Here is a link to a detailed article on Sears homes http://www.oldhouseweb.com/stories/Detailed/10423.shtml
Here's another link to Sears' own website and an article about their houses.
http://www.searsarchives.com/homes/
At the left are year ranges that link to various styles available during that time.
I didn't have time to read the article. But it seems they did offer a wide range of styles and sizes.
Here is the link to the HISTORY DETECTIVES (PBS) that did a segment on Sears houses that you might be interested in.
http://www.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives/pdf/102_sears.pdf
The house at 1927 Pointview is a Sears catalogue house.