February 22, 2008
Do you have a Sears (or other) “kit” home?
Sears Kit Home author and architectural historian Rosemary Thornton will lecture on Sears and other kit homes at the Colonial Heights Middle School auditorium (500 Conduit Rd.), Feb 26, 6:30pm. The FREE lecture will feature photos of possible Sears and other kit homes found in the City of Colonial Heights along with information on how to identify a kit home. Ms. Thornton has expertise not only in Sears, but also Aladdin Kit Homes, Gordon Van Tine, Montgomery Ward Homes, Lewis Homes, Harris Brothers and Sterling.
The lecture will last approximately 90 minutes and will be followed with a Q&A session and a book signing.
For more info on this event, check the flyer.
From Sears’ website: archives
[...] or similar kit houses — on that note, we may be able to learn more about that question at this week’s lecture)? For example, through a deed search I found that McKesson Land Corp. built a bunch of houses in [...]
While this lecture focused on kit homes in general and kit homes in Colonial Heights in particular, Ms. Thornton IDd a house on Monticello in Petersburg as an example of Sears’ Osborn (scroll down til you get to this model). Also, she noted that in CH at least, most of the homes she IDd were Aladdin or Gordon Van Tine models, not Sears models.
BTW - If you want to know if your house is a Sears or other kit house, Ms. Thornton does accept emails (and she admits to doing happy dances at positive IDs). Her email is provided on the back page of her books.
Rosemary Thornton IDd 40 kit homes for the City of Colonial Heights. The breakdown is: 17 Sears; 14 Aladdin; 6 Gordon-Van Tyne & 3 Lewis Manufacturing. Once the homeowner’s are contacted etc., we hope to map the list with photos and descriptions on the City’s website.
By the way, the Osborne in Petersburg looks even better in the flesh than it photographs! I think she saw a GVT on Chuckatuck Av. too …
That’s great! — please keep us apprised of the resulting info that is ultimately made available on CH’s website.