Group leads tour of Sears houses built in Aurora

Many can remember flipping through the Sears Wishbook as a child and circling the toys they hoped Santa would bring.

In the early 20th century, however, thousands of Americans and hundreds of Aurora residents flipped through a different Sears catalog, the "Book of Modern Homes and Building Plans," to purchase their homes.

From 1908 through 1940, Sears Roebuck and Co. ordered, manufactured and sold homes through the popular catalog. The houses ranged in price from a few hundred dollars to upward of $5,000 and many were mortgaged directly through Sears with five-year loans.

The 136 known variations of nine different models will be the feature of a Saturday morning trolley tour sponsored by the Aurora Preservation Commission.

Saturday's tour will begin at the Aurora Regional Fire Museum at 53 N. Broadway Ave. with a 20-minute presentation on the Sears homes and the research conducted to document them. That will be followed by an hour-long trolley tour of some of the best examples of the homes in Aurora.

Planning Specialist Jennifer Grobe gave the Daily Herald a sneak preview of the sold-out tour earlier this week. It's too late to sign up for this outing, Grobe said, but the commission plans to play host to a bicycle version of the trip next summer.

Grobe said much of the city's information about its catalog homes was researched by architectural historian Stephanie Johnson-Katauskas, who interned with the city's preservation commission from 2005-2006.

"Stephanie found many of our local Sears homes by tracing deeds, mortgaged through Sears, back to Aurora," Grobe said. "She was also able to identify more of the homes by matching homes to plans on file at the city."

It would be difficult, she said, to identify a Sears home by architectural design alone because many look so different.

"As popular as they are now with owners and collectors, we've learned that owners weren't always proud of them," Grobe said. "People didn't talk about it because it wasn't the most affluent thing to have.

"Now, years later, we look back and see these homes are really high quality, have great craftsmanship and customization."

While the homes were available throughout the country via catalog order, Grobe said Northeast and Midwest cities located near major rail lines, such as Aurora, were ideal locations for carpenters and tradesmen to build.

"We know that the home-building kits were shipped in large crates and dropped at the rail yards," Grobe said. "Many of the yards would allow the builders to leave the materials in the yard to be picked up as they were needed."

While the Sears homes are scattered throughout the community, a majority of them are on the city's west side along Charles and New York streets.

In one of the more unique family stories tied to the Sears homes, resident George Barnes is believed to have owned the most Sears homes in the city. Barnes, who lived in the Sears home at 803 W. New York, built the home at 807 W. New York for his son and another around the corner at 108 N. Lancaster for his daughter.

"All three lots connect in the backyard and they were always able to stay in touch," Grobe said. "It was a neat little situation they had there."

Aurora's collection of Sears homes is documented in the brochure, "Building Aurora: Sears Houses in Aurora, Illinois." This brochure is available for download from www.aurora-il.org/historicpreservation and hard copies are available at the Aurora Public Libraries, city hall, and from the Aurora Preservation Commission.

FYI

Here are four ways to determine if you have a Sears house:

• Look in the catalog to find a picture or plan that matches your house.

• Look for stamped lumber in the basement or attic.

• Look for Sears stamps on hardware or fixtures and under plaster or carpet.

• Check your attic for blueprints or plans.