They are called Sears, Roebuck and Co. homes, simple wood-frame structures that could be ordered from the department store’s catalog.
Many of these charming homes have endured the years with surprising resiliency.
Sears homes are also a passion for Rebecca Hunter, an Elgin woman who has spent years mapping the locations of many of these houses in her community.
These days, she’s leading the charge to save a Sears home from the wrecking ball. According to preservationists, the home is one of the rare farmhouse-style Sears houses built in the Chicago area.
“I think we need to always keep a sense of our past,” Hunter said, standing in front of the home, 1577 E. Chicago St. “One way to do that is to keep our historic homes and preserve them.”
She first learned of the home’s impending demise while driving along Chicago Street in January when she noticed large oak trees in front of the house were cut down. Earth-moving equipment was parked in the backyard.
Itasca-based U.S. Shelter Inc., a developer, wants to clear the land to build 333 town homes.
Seeking to save the structure, Hunter went to the developer, who offered to make her a deal. She could have the home, provided she paid to have it relocated.
Now, she’s trying to raise $100,000 to move the house to a vacant lot a few blocks away. The developer, which has given her a year to come up with the money, is now using the home as a field office.
Hunter has asked the Elgin City Council to pledge $20,000 to her cause.
The home, called the Americus Model, features narrow yellow pine floorboards upstairs and oak floors on the first level. The original fixtures in the bathroom remain and the second-floor woodwork has never been painted.
Hunter, who wants to move the house to a vacant lot at 660 E. Chicago St., began documenting Elgin’s Sears homes in February 1997. The city’s Heritage Commission gave her $1,000 to research and photograph the homes, authenticate their history and make photocopies of any blueprints she could uncover.
She has identified 202 of the kit homes in Elgin, although she has been able to authenticate only about 70. She also compiled a database listing the year the homes were built, names of the original owners and the owners’ occupations.
From 1908 to 1940, Sears sold about 100,000 home kits for between $1,000 and $5,000. A kit contained two railroad boxcars of materials, about 30,000 parts (not including screws and nails). The homeowner was responsible for assembling the numbered lumber and doing detail work.
Because Sears shipped the parts by rail from its factory in Ohio, researchers are finding many of these homes built in railroad towns across the Midwest and along the East Coast. The American foursquare home Hunter hopes to relocate is one of Sears’ rarest models.
Once the home is moved, Hunter plans to sell it and use the money to repay donors who help her cover the $100,000 moving tab.
Sarosh Saher, Elgin’s historic preservation specialist, said this is the first time someone has taken so much time and effort to preserve a Sears home.
“It’s an example of a one-of-a-kind Sears home in Elgin,” Saher said. “It would be a shame to lose it.”
