Our Kit House Of the Week feature (in which we regularly present historic catalog houses that come on the market for sale in the Washington DC area) has been a little neglected in recent weeks, but rest assured, the whole reason for that are–kit houses. I’ve started a great project to lose sleep over! More about that soon.
Now let’s get to the good stuff! How about a game of Where Is Waldo The Sears Kit House?
The “Tudor” door as it appeared in the 1930 Sears catalog
Take a look at the house above, currently on the market in McLean, VA, a lovely suburb of Washington DC, for $965,000. The house is advertised by its Realtor, Leslie Hutchison of Fall Properties, as “Orig 1931 Sears Home expanded & set high on a hill.”
Huh? Original 1931 Sears home? When you look at the virtual tour, you see a large-ish 6-bedroom house from, say, the late 20th century. Newer, but not contemporary. Traditional, but not with an actual style. And certainly not a Sears kit house I’ve ever encountered.
But then I saw the recessed wall on one half of the porch, and the front door with its half round/half straight Tudor-style top, and it clicked. This was a period Sears door I had seen before! The “original” house must be hidden on the first floor! I pulled out the old catalogs and could quickly determine that this was indeed a Sears “Wheaton”before it got encased in this new structure. Peek-a-boo!
Suddenly, it all looked right in the core part
The floor plan of the “Wheaton” as it appeared in the 1932 Sears catalog of “Honor Bilt” homes
of the house: the kitchen for instance, with its unusual floor plan and original built-in cabinet–exactly in the place the catalog’s floor plan shows. Living room and dining room as well–they look just like they did 80 years ago.
And what’s not to like about having a big yard with a pool, and a rec center with six tennis courts right behind it?
As always, if you’re interested in owning (or seeing) this piece of American history–just let me know!
(Images of the McLean house courtesy of MRIS)
