Carlinville, Illinois and its Sears Homes
If you’re a frequent visitor to my site, you’ll notice that I have not posted much about Carlinville, IL. This small city in central Illinois (population 5,400) has 152 Sears Homes in a 12-block area. It is NOT the largest collection of Sears Homes in this country (as is often reported). That honor falls to Elgin, Illinois which has more than 210 Sears Homes within the city borders. (Thanks to Rebecca Hunter for this information!)
However, Carlinville does have the largest contiguous collection of Sears Homes. Those 152 Sears Homes are all in one neighborhood - Standard Addition.
Every time I visit the Midwest (which is once a year or more), I visit Carlinville and Standard Addition. After all, it was this community of Sears Homes that launched my career and inspired me to start writing books on this topic! In 1999, I wrote an article for my editor (at Old House Web) about Sears Homes and that one article turned into a career, and what a blessing that career has been in my life.
When I visit Standard Addition, I’m saddened to see that too many of these homes are in poor condition.
A picture is worth a thousand words.
Judge for yourself.
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To buy Rose’s book (and get it inscribed!), click here.
This little Roseberry has had many modifications.
When originally built in 1919, this Sears Warrenton looked very different.
Another Sears Warrenton with 1960s permastone, 1980s vinyl and 1990s aluminum columns.
More permastone dons the front of this Roseberry
Sears Gladstone with a closed-in front porch and a new porch added on. To their credit, the garage addition has been done thoughtfully with a hip roof that matches the original structure.
The front porch on this Sears Windsor has been completely closed in.
Vintage Carlinville. This photo was taken in the late 1910s when the houses in Carlinville were under construction. These houses were originally built by Standard Oil of Indiana for their coal miners in Carlinville.
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See more photos of the St. Louis area Sears Homes by clicking here.
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To read another article on Sears Homes, click here.
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To buy Rose’s book, click here.
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To contact Rose, send an email to thorntonrose@hotmail.com.
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I think there are at least 400 docuumented Sears homes in Carlinville.
Hi Robyn,
“Documented” means that the homes have been discovered, positively identified and inventoried. I’ve been through Carlinville many, many times, driving up and down all those city streets looking for kit homes, and I can say with absolute conviction and authority that there are not more than another dozen Sears Homes outside of Standard Addition. If there are a dozen (and I’m saying there are no more than a dozen), this would bring the total count of Sears Homes in Carlinville up to maybe 164 (152 in Standard Addition and 12 elsewhere).
Elgin has more than 210!
There may be one or two Sears Homes in Carlinville that I’ve missed but I’d be willing to bet you 50 cents that there aren’t many more than that! I’m pretty good at this.
Interestingly, there is a Gordon Van Tine home in Carlinville, too!
Rose
author, The Houses That Sears Built
author, The Sears Homes of Illinois
author, Finding The Houses That Sears Built
co-author, The Mail-Order Homes of Montgomery Ward
co-author, California’s Kit Homes